Visa application system goes online
‘‘We have got to keep our eyes on the ball as a country and keep on innovating, but there is a very positive focus on the sector from everyone involved and the Government.’’
Photo: Donna Walsh/Fairfax NZ
processes are being constantly refined to make it easier for international students to get through the gate.’’
Education New Zealand says there’s more than 67,000 foreign students in New Zealand and that international education was the country’s fifth-largest export.
The ability to apply for student and working-holiday visas online is the first fruit of a $105 million revamp of Immigration New Zealand’s (INZ) information technology systems that has been in the wings for at least seven years.
Next year foreigners will be able to apply for tourist and work visas online.
The department’s goal is to have 70 per cent of visa applications received electronically by 2017.
An Italian PhD student was the first to successfully apply online for a visa to study in New Zealand, a Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment spokesman said. Although students could apply for visas, pay fees and upload visa documents online, they would still need to send in their passports to be stamped until next year, when INZ planned to begin issuing paperless, electronic visas, he said. Applications for working-holiday visas now had to be submitted online.
INZ’s technology overhaul was first proposed in 2007 after an auditor-general’s inquiry found flaws in the department’s ability to prevent and detect identity fraud.
A Thai national working for the agency in Bangkok had been caught swindling thousands of dollars from Cambodian visa applicants in 2003.
Rabel said the international education market was very competitive, with countries such as Singapore and Malaysia joining traditional destinations such as the United States, Britain and Australia in seeking a slice of the pie.
‘‘We have got to keep our eyes on the ball as a country and keep on innovating, but there is a very positive focus on the sector from everyone involved and the Government,’’ he said.