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Immigration New Zealand apologises and refunds over covert residence policy
22 Apr, 2021 11:50 PM
6 minutes to read
Immigration NZ has apologised for unofficially cherry-picking highly-paid residence applications. Photo / 123RF
RNZ
By Gill Bonnett of RNZ
The chief ombudsman has told Immigration New Zealand (INZ) to apologise for an unofficial strategy of cherry-picking highly paid residence applications amid growing delays in visa processing.
Migrants argue the agency only came clean about the criteria once they filed complaints to the government watchdog in early 2020.
For 18 months before that, it had informally prioritised skilled migrant category (SMC) applicants with an annual salary of at least $106,080, government jobs or roles needing occupational registration.