By December 21, Immigration New Zealand (INZ) had received applications covering 27,529 people, but so far only 881 had been approved and issued residency visas. The reason is that the father allegedly performed additional tasks for his employer outside of his role as an ICT worker-the skill for which he was granted a work visa. Meanwhile, thousands of New Zealand work and student visa holders outside the country have been barred from returning since the border closed in March 2020. The government has refused to extend the temporary visas of migrants stuck offshore, including many with long-standing ties to New Zealand. While thousands of migrants remain in limbo, just before Christmas the Labour-Greens government resumed a policy offering residency visas to multi-millionaire investors.

Source: Stuff December 30, 2021 07:25 UTC