Visa approvals for Indian students rise slightly after two years of high rejection rates. Photo: 123rf
Visa approvals for Indian nationals are on the rise after two years of steep declines, with new figures showing a drop in rejection rates for student visa applications.
From 1 January to 22 June, Immigration New Zealand received 6548 applications for student visas from Indian nationals.
Of those, 4780 were approved and 1501 declined, giving Indian applicants a 75.4 percent approval rate and a 23.7 percent rejection rate.
That's a notable improvement from 2024, when Immigration New Zealand approved 8,997, or 58.9 percent, of the 14,313 applications it received from Indian students.
At the same time, the agency rejected 39.5 percent of the applications.
In 2023, Immigration New Zealand approved 6523 applications, or 62.7 percent, of the 11,537 applications it received. The rejection rate for the year was 34.9 percent.
"Increased engagement with the education sector and agents, and Immigration New Zealand detailing the type of information needed to assess the application, has contributed to the improvement," said Celia Coombes, director of visa at Immigration New Zealand.
"As per the current 2025 year-to-date figures, the approval rate for both China and India is higher than in 2024 and 2023," Coombes said.
Applications from Chinese students have also seen a decline in rejection rates, falling to just 1.6 percent so far in 2025, down from 2.9 percent in 2024 and 3 percent in 2023.
"This is due to increased engagement with the education sector and agents, and Immigration New Zealand detailing the type of information needed to assess the application," Coombes added.
From 1 January to 22 June, Immigration New Zealand received 6548 applications for student visas from Indian nationals. Photo: RNZ / Yiting Lin
The rebound in visa approvals comes amid a broader push to revive New Zealand's international education sector.
More than half of the country's universities are now offering dedicated packages for Indian applicants, including scholarships and fee discounts.
Five institutions currently have such offers in place.
In April 2024, Education New Zealand - the government agency promoting the country to foreign students - partnered with the High Commission of India in Wellington to mark India as the "country of honour" at the 2024 New Zealand International Education Conference.
Education New Zealand is also working on a three-year growth plan to expand the international education sector.
The agency had previously said international students contributed $3.7 billion to the economy in 2019 - a figure that dropped sharply during the Covid-19 pandemic, prompting job cuts and emergency funding for universities.
However, the international education sector has shown signs of stabilisation, with April 2025 enrolments matching pre-pandemic figures.
Universities New Zealand said the country's eight universities had about 20,000 full-time equivalent international students in April this year.
Arunima Dhingra Photo: Supplied
"This improvement is both welcome and timely," said Arunima Dhingra, CEO of Aims Global Immigration and Education.
However, she said the problem of incorrectly declined student visa applications had been "persistent and frustrating" for months.
"It has been raised repeatedly - by industry bodies, education providers and licensed immigration professionals - to senior INZ leadership and government officials alike," she said.
While INZ had attributed past rejections to issues around financial documentation, Dhingra said confusion still lingered.
"Another issue that continues to cause confusion is the mismatch between INZ's public-facing checklists and the reality of how applications are assessed," she said.
Dhingra said applicants who had followed Immigration New Zealand's existing online checklist to the letter were being declined, and the agency had yet to release an updated version.
"If INZ truly wants to support better approval outcomes, especially from high-volume markets like India, [it] must improve transparency around ... expectations - particularly around financial evidence," she said.
"While we understand they can't provide an exhaustive list, clarity around how things like nationalised education loans or payment plans are actually assessed would make a huge difference."
