New Zealand to close immigration offices in South Africa
New Zealand will close its immigration office in South Africa this month, the decision comes as the country plans to move to an exclusively electronic application system in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic.
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New Zealand’s immigration office in South Africa, located in Pretoria, is set to close this month. Their immigration offices in Mumbai and Manila will also be closing.
New Zealand has the fourth highest number of South African emigrants. But despite this, travel restrictions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic have meant that visa application have reduced dramatically over the past year.
The changing landscape of international travel as meant that the country has announced closure of several overseas immigration offices as they look to move their offshore visa processing system online.
Announcing the closure, Deputy Head of Immigration New Zealand (INZ), Catriona Robinson, said:
“This is not a decision that we have made lightly, our staff in these offices have made a significant contribution to INZ and New Zealand. However, these offices have been closed since March 2020 and with no certainty about when visa volumes may return to normal, INZ has had to make some tough decisions.”
New Zealand’s immigration office in Pretoria has been processing in person visa applications, as well as applications sent by courier. Now, these services will move to an entirely online system.
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New Zealand will be moving their visa application process to an online system [Image credit: Unsplash]
