Immigration New Zealand Looking to Expand Overseas Staff

Well, isn’t this just typical? According to the latest immigration news, Immigration New Zealand (INZ) has finally realised what many could’ve told them years ago – that closing offshore offices might not have been the brightest idea after all. Remember when they shut down almost every office outside of New Zealand and the Pacific, all in the name of a more "streamlined" operation? Beijing, Mumbai, Pretoria, Manila – all gone during the pandemic, which was their excuse for doing so, but let's be honest, it was more about penny-pinching than anything else.

Now, less than three years later, they’re scratching their heads and thinking, "Maybe we should have kept a bit of that local knowledge, eh?" The staff who warned about losing vital expertise – the kind you only get from being on the ground – were right, weren’t they? The concern wasn’t just about understanding the local lingo or culture; it was about the ability to accurately verify documents and gather intelligence. You don’t get that from a handbook.

So here we are, with INZ toying with the idea of expanding their overseas footprint again. No decisions yet, they say, but we all know what that means – the wheels are already in motion. They’re realising that having boots on the ground is crucial for managing risks, verifying the truth behind visa applications, and maintaining good relationships with key countries. It’s about time, really.

And let’s not forget the numbers – nearly $8 million in redundancy payouts when they initially shut down those offices, and a $2.89 million bill for a Beijing lease they couldn’t break. All that supposed savings from workforce cuts? It shrank to a measly four percent, from a forecasted 25 percent. Brilliant financial planning, wasn’t it? Now, with visa fees and levies on the rise, it’s the poor applicants who’ll end up footing the bill for this bureaucratic mess.

So, after all the fanfare about closing those offices and centralising operations, INZ might just be heading back to square one. If they had listened to their own staff and thought a bit more about the long-term, maybe they wouldn’t be in this position of having to backtrack and rebuild. But hey, better late than never, right?