New technology is introduced for New Zealand partner visa applications
New Zealand has been planning for some time to make the visa application service totally digital by 2015 and in the next step to reach that target deadline, INZ (Immigration New Zealand) has recently unveiled plans to start using a new technology, Immigration Online. Also known as the Immigration Global Management System, or IGMS, Immigration Online was approved by the New Zealand government in November 2011 and has an $80 million budget.
The aim of this innovation is to make all visa applications independent of actual offices involving paper applications and thus speed up the process by making information sharing both simpler and faster. The aim of INZ is that all applications and the decision-making process will be completed online for all visas by 2014. Included in this will be New Zealand partner and spousal visa applications made under the family spouse migration category and de facto partner policy.
The technology will soon be in place to upload scans of all documents necessary to support an application for a visa. These include photographs, driving licence and passport and INZ believe that this will speed up the process considerably. The Immigration Online platform will be accessible by other government agencies, meaning that personal information which previously had to be laboriously collected from different sources will be able to be quickly shared online. This means that institutions such as schools and colleges, migration agents, potential employers and law enforcement bodies will be able to share information although there is a very necessary rule built in to the use of the Immigration Online platform to make sure that the applicant’s personal privacy is treated with due respect. The information will not be shared with any agency no directly involved with the application or the decision-making process which follows.
IGMS has a wide role to play in the prevention of criminal behaviour and immigration fraud as it will be used to share biometric information, which is a very precise set of parameters used by law enforcement agencies and others to tell one person from another. This will virtually wipe out the practice of a different person trying to enter the country from the one whose details were used to process the visa application. For most people who apply honestly, however, the main advantage of the introduction of Immigration Online is that it will speed up visa decisions, meaning that families will be reunited with New Zealand citizens much more quickly.
