I forgot to include a story in the news roundup this morning about long immigration processing times. The Immigration Minister, Jonathan Coleman, is pretty grumpy that he only just found out from the export education sector (rather than his department) about the long processing times and has sent a “please explain” message to the Immigration NZ head.

It seems that processing times at Palmerston North are stretching out to eight weeks and 2,500 applications have not been assigned to a staff member yet. INZ have blamed a surge in Feb/March applications, but the story doesn’t provide any previous year comparisons.

Now I can understand why INZ might make conservative decisions in India or in some other market where risk is perceived to be high. They deserve to be challenged on such decisions, but they have a risk management role to play. But I can’t understand how processing times could get so far behind when that is largely a matter of getting the staff and systems right – it’s not even a matter of money, as application fees cover the costs. This issue needs to be fixed promptly as it impacts upon both new students and those wanting to renew their courses.