The popularity of the Government’s one-off residency visa scheme has led to some migrants repeatedly waiting from dusk until dawn to get specialised medical checks.
An estimated 165,000 migrants currently in New Zealand were believed to be eligible for the simplified residence pathway. It's available to most work-related visa holders if they met certain criteria.
To fulfil the scheme's health-related requirements, visa holders must provide immigration authorities with a medical certificate if they hadn’t done so in the past 36 months.
One Auckland clinic in Upper Queen Street had a line snaking around it and across the road.
Some in the queue told 1News they’d been there since 1am. Others said it was their second day lining up.
Applications to get the 2021 Resident Visa opened in two phases - on December 1, 2021, and on March 1, 2022. The latter phase would close in July.
A person chasing the March opening date said other clinics “all over Auckland” were “full house” for the next few months.
“This is the only walk-in medical [centre] here, so we’re here since 5.30am and the other people came here around 3 o’clock.”
Mikee Santos, the chairperson of Filipino migrant advocate group Migrante Aotearoa, said he wanted the Government to extend the application process to deal with the demand.
“I feel really bad about the migrants who’ve been in the queue since early morning, but this is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
“It’s happening everywhere across communities because of this pandemic.”
As for migrants who had left families behind, they were also facing admin delays back home as well.
Immigration New Zealand told 1News it had received 12,700 applications involving 30,500 people since the one-off residency scheme started in December.
Of those, 7387 people had been granted residence from 3627 applications.
Stephanie Greathead, acting general manager of border and visa operations, said the agency was prioritising these applications.
“We are committed to deciding the vast majority of these residence applications within 12 months, with some being much faster,” she said.
“We would like to remind applicants that they should check whether they need to provide a medical certificate.
“Anyone who has provided a medical certificate within the last 36 months and were assessed as having an acceptable standard of health do not need to provide a further medical certificate as we already have this information.
“If an applicant’s health has changed, or was previously assessed as not having an acceptable standard of health, they need to provide a new limited medical certificate.”
There was still “plenty of time” for applicants to submit their medical certificate before applications closed at the end of July, Greathead said.
She said 140 medical clinics around the country were providing immigration medical examinations, with 39 of those in Auckland.
Greathead acknowledged it could be frustrating for people who found themselves waiting at clinics.
“Clinics should advise INZ if they are having capacity issues.”
Last year, Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi said an estimated 5000 health and aged care workers, about 9000 primary industry workers, and more than 800 teachers are thought to be eligible.
The visa was announced in September after mounting criticism against the Government for its backlog of expressions of interest for the Skilled Migrant Category visa. The list had been frozen since April 2020.
After the announcement, many migrants said they were "over the moon".
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