Immigration NZ defends its visa processing times for international aviation students

Aviation NZ estimates the flight training market was worth at least $200 million before the pandemic. Photo / 123rf

Immigration New Zealand (INZ) says its visa processing time is not as bad as Aviation New Zealand painted it to be when comparing it with Australia.

Simon Wallace, Aviation NZ’s chief executive, had criticised INZ’s long visa-processing times for putting the flight training industry in jeopardy.

He said INZ was taking up to 30 days and in some cases 60 working days or more to process visas, while Australia’s much faster timeframe in some cases approved visas within three days.

A spokeswoman for INZ points out that Australia’s processing timeframe is listed on their website as a 16-day average.

“This would be more fairly balanced to represent processing timeframes against our average of 30 days than the quoted three days, or at least a clarification that New Zealand also has applications that are approved within three days as well,” she said.

Timeline of visa applications completed. Photo /Supplied

She said the claim made by Aviation NZ as reported by the Herald made sound “as though Australia is processing these visas within three days compared to New Zealand taking 30 days before a decision is made”.

The spokeswoman said the agency processed visas throughout the 30 days, which therefore made the assumption inaccurate.

Wallace had said that INZ’s delays in visa processing were driving students elsewhere and last year, fewer than 100 international students came to New Zealand compared with 600 before the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Australia can process visas in a much faster timeframe, sometimes in three working days with the same timeframe applying for visiting parents,” Wallace said yesterday.

“Our timeframes are simply not competitive. It’s jeopardising our industry.”

Aviation NZ, the peak body for the commercial aviation sector, has taken up the matter with INZ and has written to new Immigration and Education Minister Erica Stanford seeking urgent action.

Aviation NZ estimates the flight training market was worth at least $200 million before the pandemic, with each student generating further economic activity of nearly $500,000 if their families and friends visited.

INZ deputy chief operating officer Jeannie Melville said it had engaged extensively with Aviation NZ and was continuing to do so.

Melville said INZ received 81 student visa applications for aviation students from outside New Zealand in the past year and 79 per cent were processed within INZ’s standard processing timeframe of 30 working days.

“Applications missing key information take longer to process.”