We are all thrilled by the announcement of one-off residence visa. It is a wise decision to confirm the contribution of NZ immigrants who have been working diligently even during the pandemic, and also a cheerful result of the immigrants and MPs from different parties who have been fighting for the rights of immigrants.

While we are excited about this news, and we are also concerned about the possibility of completing the majority of the applications within one year as promised by the Minister. Compared to around 30 000 cases approved each year by INZ, the amount of 165000 seems an huge challenging job for them. On behalf of all the applicants in the EOI pool, we make a petition to prioritize the cases of current EOI applicants, hoping to improve visa processing efficiency.

We would like to call for the priority for people in the EOI pool among all the eligible applicants. we strongly request the immigration department to consider selecting applicants from the current EOI pool, process their cases with the data in the pool rather than asking them to submit another application. We believe that it would be another wise decision for the government. Our reasons are as follows:

1. Applicants in the current EOI pool, have been waiting for months even years. The majority have met the one-off residence requirement, with some registration professions like doctors, nurses, and teachers. They have all the materials ready and uploaded to the immigration website including a health certificate and no-criminal-record proof with payment for the processing. Therefore, it is practical and fair to prioritizing this EOI group in the one-off residence processing queue.

2. Why these skilled workers have to submit another one-off visa application when the immigration can save a lot of time and resources by simply selecting and inviting them directly based on their EOI application data? Therefore, it’s extremely wise and practical to invite applicants directly from the pool, as the EOI applicants only account for about 10% of the total number of one-off visa applicants. The fast-tracked processing of those cases will guarantee productivity, which helps boost the confidence of the public.

3. Grant the registration-occupation applicants like the medical and educational sectors to apply the one-off visa on December 1, 2021. The new residence pass-way is a relief to some of them, however, it is definitely not a fast pain-killer, if they have to wait probably another one year for getting their cases processed. There would be too much pain for the split families. To grant the professionals with process priority would deter the doctors, nurses and teachers from leaving NZ in the coming year and help stable the NZ medical and educational system.

Thank you.