INZ recently announced a new app suspension extension for people outside of New Zealand
Recall that as of August 10, 2020, applications for most temporary visas for people outside of New Zealand were temporarily suspended.
The following temporary entry class visa applications were not affected:
Relationship-based visas for partners and dependent children of New Zealand citizens and residents
Visas for diplomatic, consular and official personnel and their accompanying dependents
Antarctic Traveler Visitor Visas and Antarctic Work Visas
Limited Recognized Seasonal Employer (RSE) Visas.
Since the border closure, no applicant visas have been processed from abroad unless they meet strict border exception criteria. This is because legally INZ cannot grant visas to people who probably do not meet the entry requirements. However, people have continued to submit visa applications waiting for them to be processed.
Temporarily suspending means for INZ to be better prepared when it is time to re-process applications and that applicants do not advance processes that cannot be analyzed at the time.
This suspension does not apply to residency class visa applications as these applications take longer to process and may be less affected by border restrictions.
The extension that was originally for February 2021 was again extended until May 2021.
Source: INZ
