27 Jun 2022

Just over 1000 people with working holiday visas arrive in New Zealand

7:51 pm on 27 June 2022

Only 10 percent of the recently approved Working Holiday Visa holders had arrived in Aotearoa by the middle of this month.

The first fights from across the Tasman landed in New Zealand after the border reopened on 13 April 2022.

Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi

People have been able to apply for a Working Holiday Visa and travel to New Zealand from 14 March.

At the time, businesses hoped for enough people to come through to help ease the pressures caused by widespread staffing shortages.

Since then, Immigration New Zealand had received 15,695 applications up to 14 June.

Of those, 10,146 had been approved and 1054 visa holders had since arrived.

Border and Visa Operations general manager Nicola Hogg said the visas were being processed as quickly as possible, with the vast majority being completed within 14 calendar days.

"We process Working Holiday Scheme applications in date order of applications being submitted, therefore, no applications are fast tracked through the system.

"However, where an application does not require further information and doesn't have any character or health risks, they are processed faster."

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