The technical glitch that the Immigration online system has been facing since Wednesday is still not fully resolved. The issue arose due to the overload because of the commencing of Phase 1 of the One-Off Resident visa on Wednesday morning.
Immigration New Zealand expected about 15,000 applications in Phase 1.
It may be noted that Phase 1 opened only for those applicants who have already applied for residence under the Skilled Migrant or Residence from Work categories on or before September 29, 2021, or have submitted a Skilled Migrant Category Expression of Interest, and have included their dependent child in the Expression of Interest aged 17 years or older on September 29' 2021. All other eligible applicants can apply in Phase 2, which opens on March 1, 2022.
Now, Immigration New Zealand has provided an alternative application form provided that the applicants can use if they cannot use the primary one to get their application through.
Geoff Scott, General Manager, Immigration New Zealand, told the Indian Weekender, "We are seeing continued improvements in the Immigration Online system today and are continuing to monitor activity on the site. In addition, we have provided a second online form that applicants can use if they continue to experience difficulty with the primary form. It does not matter which form is used; once submitted, INZ will process all applications in the same way."
According to Immigration New Zealand, despite the technical difficulties faced by the system, around 6000 applications have so far been received by immigration. "
"As of 2.30 pm today (December 3, 2021), approximately 6,000 applications have successfully come through the system in just two days. It is more than one-third of the expected number of applications," revealed Geoff.
Interestingly, while many applicants are still facing challenges to lodge their One-Off residence visa, 70 applications have even got approved in less than 60 hours of the beginning of the process. "We have approved in principle 70 applications for the 2021 Resident Visa since applications opened on Wednesday," Geoff concluded.