Much to our dismay, Immigration New Zealand has made the decision to defer EOI selections for SMC and Parent Category residence for a FURTHER 6 months. Immigration New Zealand has issued the following notice:
"Kia ora,
Thank you for your continued engagement with Immigration New Zealand (INZ) and your interest in the status of the selection of Expressions of Interest (EOI).
The Government first deferred EOI selections for the Skilled Migrant Category and Parent Category in April 2020.
The Government will continue to defer the Expression of Interest selection process for the Skilled Migrant Category and Parent Resident Category for a further 6 months. This decision will be reviewed in 2021.
All those who have previously submitted expressions of interest in these categories will be notified of the continued deferral.
The continued deferral of these Expressions of Interest selections allows INZ to focus on processing applications from people who are in New Zealand or those eligible to travel here while border restrictions are in place."
Unfortunately, what this means is that anyone who has started the process of applying for residence under one of these categories will not receive an update on their Expression of Interest until next year, hence drawing out the already extremely long residence process even further. This will undoubtedly come as a big disappointment to thousands of migrants who were hoping that EOI selections would resume by the end of 2020.
Any Expressions of Interest submitted will remain in the pool of EOIs until selections resume.