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Immigration New Zealand to consider more outsourcing
In spite of recent revelations about fake Chinese student visas and other rumours, INZ is seriously considering increasing its outsourcing or immigration applications.
Last month’s revelations that 279 Chinese migrants had entered the country on fake student visas obtained at INZ’s Beijing office have resulted in several INZ staff being under investigation of fraud. Further rumours suggest INZ’s Palmerston North branch which deals with student visa is notorious as a ‘rubber-stamp factory’.
The New Zealand government was alerted to the rumour via an anonymous letter sent to the Labour Party’s spokesperson for industrial relations, Darien Fenton. A person claiming to be a staffer at INZ wrote that a majority of the Chinese involved have now received new visas from the Palmerston North branch.
To date, the Palmerston North branch is known to have approved no less than 35,000 applications made through its Student Online service. According to Immigration Minister Nathan Guy, the government will look at outsourcing lower-level applications to third parties, and is pleased with the progress of the Palmerston North office.
Fenton, however, views outsourcing as a disaster in the making, stating a number of queries surrounding offshore and onshore processing of visas. An investigation is already being called for into the activities of VFS Global Services, a company in China under contract to INZ to process visas applications.
Last month’s revelations that 279 Chinese migrants had entered the country on fake student visas obtained at INZ’s Beijing office have resulted in several INZ staff being under investigation of fraud. Further rumours suggest INZ’s Palmerston North branch which deals with student visa is notorious as a ‘rubber-stamp factory’.
The New Zealand government was alerted to the rumour via an anonymous letter sent to the Labour Party’s spokesperson for industrial relations, Darien Fenton. A person claiming to be a staffer at INZ wrote that a majority of the Chinese involved have now received new visas from the Palmerston North branch.
To date, the Palmerston North branch is known to have approved no less than 35,000 applications made through its Student Online service. According to Immigration Minister Nathan Guy, the government will look at outsourcing lower-level applications to third parties, and is pleased with the progress of the Palmerston North office.
Fenton, however, views outsourcing as a disaster in the making, stating a number of queries surrounding offshore and onshore processing of visas. An investigation is already being called for into the activities of VFS Global Services, a company in China under contract to INZ to process visas applications.
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