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23 January 2025
3 minute read
Our dedicated kaimahi (employees) worked tirelessly to support improvements to our existing visa products and improve our processing times for our customers.
Work done by our kaimahi, particularly in the last quarter of 2024, has strengthened existing processes to allow INZ to get on top of most visa processing queues.
This was a result of targeted initiatives to improve productivity and increase visa decisions, and we were able to achieve this despite a larger number of visas decisions.
The following list highlights our main achievements for 2024:
- Over 1.1 million visa decisions were made.
- There were more than 12.8 million movements at the New Zealand border.
- Nearly 538,000 visitor visa applications were decided and 88% were approved.
- More than 1.6 million NZeTA (New Zealand Electronic Travel Authorities) were received and approved.
- Over 17,000 employers either renewed accreditation, or became newly accredited employers, under the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) policy. This brought the total number of current accredited employers to more than 27,000.
- Over 2,800 AEWV post-accreditation checks of employers were completed.
- More than 40,000 AEWV applications were decided and 86% were approved.
- The MBIE Immigration Compliance and Investigations team achieved prosecutions on 10 investigations.
- Nearly 50,000 working holiday applications were decided and 97% approved. There were also 5,697 working holiday extensions applications approved.
- More than 97,000 student visas were decided — 85% of these were approved.
- More than 14,300 Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) applications were approved.
- 1,522 Quota refugees were resettled in New Zealand.
- 436 people were resettled under the Refugee Family Support Category and 91 refugees under the Community Organisation Refugee Sponsorship pilot.
- 43 amendment circulars have been distributed.
On top of these achievements, we moved the Permanent Resident Visa and Transit Visa applications to our immigration online system, significantly boosting usability and customer satisfaction.
We also moved secondary teachers to the Green List Straight to residence category, as well as introduced new seasonal visa pathways to support employers to fill skill gaps. These changes ensured more migrants were able to secure their footing in New Zealand and build a future here.
We are feeling confident and assured as we reflect on 2024, that the following year will continue to see great enhancements to our immigration system.
None of this would have been possible without the hard work and dedication of all our kaimahi across the entire immigration system, and our partners and stakeholders.
For more immigration common topics, media releases, stories about our staff and general announcements visit our news centre.
