Immigration New Zealand (INZ) announced it will close its offices in Pretoria in South Africa, as well as Mumbai in India and Manila in the Philippines by March 2021.
The organisation said it made the decision as the offices have been closed for a year now, with no certainty about when visa volumes will return to normal. All immigration services will move online.
‘With border restrictions remaining in place for almost 12 months, incoming visa volumes from people who are offshore have decreased significantly across a number of visa categories, including visitor and student visa applications which are primarily processed offshore,’ INZ said in a statement.
Deputy Head of INZ Catriona Robinson said the decision was not made lightly. ‘Our staff in these offices have made a significant contribution to INZ and New Zealand,’ she said. A total of 329 staff members will be affected in those three cities.
New Zealand’s borders are currently closed except for critical travel which can be applied for and the country might not reopen its borders to international leisure travellers at all this year.
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