A man holding a ballpoint pen to fill a work visa application form to New Zealand. Photo: 123RF
Immigration New Zealand is confident it can deal with an upcoming peak in people applying for permanent residence.
More than 200,000 migrants were granted fast-track residence in a post-lockdown policy, and two years on all those people are beginning to apply to settle permanently.
More than 3,500 people filled out their permanent resident visa applications after online forms became available a fortnight ago.
An executive assistant in the public sector in Christchurch and her design draughtsman husband moved from South Africa in 2016. They hit error messages each time she applied on the first day of online applications and was just advised to keep trying.
When that failed, she was still trying to apply twice a day a week later, before it was resolved on Friday.
Immigration New Zealand (INZ) said it has received only six requests for "alternative options from customers who had circumstances meaning they were unable to lodge an application online".
"We are confident that the Enhanced Immigration Online platform has capacity to manage much higher volumes of PRV applications than what have been received so far," said INZ's director of online services, Katy MacLeod.
"We are closely monitoring system performance."
Migrants who spoke to RNZ said permanent residence was the next step to citizenship, but also meant they were not bound by travel restrictions.
One resident described feeling trapped in New Zealand, unable to leave for a work trip in case there was a problem which caused him to exceed the 10-day limit.