Priority to Indian student visa processing in New Zealand.

New Zealand immigration department is to introduce faster procession of visa applications of Indian students.

The slow procession of visa has been criticized for risking the market worth $200 million.

The Indian Education Group that works in association with Indian market has said that agents and students from subcontinent were made to wait for five months in case of New Zealand, whereas countries like Britain takes around seven days for student visa and so the students move elsewhere.

Agents from India have reported that thee are many students who are willing to go to
New Zealand, but due to the factor of “five-month wait” they moved to England.

Paul Chalmers, spokesperson from agents has said that New Zealand is actually missing the golden opportunity of alluring immigrants who now decline to move to Australia because of racial violence there.

The sector of international students of Australia occupies third position in export earning worth $1.65 billion. The strength of Indian students is 95,000 and this makes up to 18 percent of total foreign students.

Mr Chalmers has also given the account that total 20,000 students from India applied for Australian visa, which was processed between the time periods of two to six weeks.

Export education industry of New Zealand is a booming sector and is worth $2.3 billion. The sector has better and faster prospects of growth than its current steady growth pattern. Out of 85,000 students, the number of Indian students here is only 6000.

He also pointed out that institutions like Natcoll and Newton College of Business and Technology, Auckland Institute of Studies etc had received approximately 1000 fresh applications of Indians after the attack cases in Australia, but New Zealand has left these applications waiting to be processed.

Immigration department of New Zealand has been made conscious of the ill-effect of such delay in procession of visas of Indian applicants, as it would result into great number of job losses there ( at schools and many other institutions).

The immigration department has started working for fastening the procession and has shifted one centre at New Delhi to cope up the traffic of applications. New Zealand also plans to develop more centers in India for faster procession of visa applications, keeping long-term prospects and benefits in mind.

The immigration department of New Zealand has given assurance to speed up the process of visa procession of Indian students and have welcomed suggestions to give greater boost to it.