Facilitated Visa conditions for Pacific officials and Businessmen by Immigration New Zealand
New Zealand Immigration minister Michael Wood has announced the Facilitated visa conditions for the Officials, business visitors and diplomats from Pacific island countries and Kiribati.
Business visitors will be facilitated when travelling to New Zealand. These new changes are to streamline the immigration process for these business visitors whose visits are frequent as compared to others.
However during the time of the covid-19 pandemic, these were disturbed. Now immigration New Zealand is taking measures to return the conditions back to pre pandemic status.
According to New Zealand Immigration minister Michael Wood, these changes will provide consistency to Pacific Island Forum Country and Kiribati counterparts. This will help with assurance of New Zealand’s efficient process and visa validity conditions.
Before this the business visa individuals from Pacific Island and Kiribati obtained the visa on different conditions which usually depend on the purpose for their visit each time. So there were variations in the visa conditions.
After many requests from Pacific nations, Immigration New Zealand decided to sound the need for consistent visa conditions for Business Travellers from these countries who have frequent travel in New Zealand.
Also other reasons for Facilitated visa conditions to Pacific countries was to strengthen diplomatic relations with these countries. Travelling of official passport holders will be multiple times on a single visa.
The INZ has also established the revised approach for these travellers as the business travellers who are travelling to New Zealand from Pacific countries frequently will be considered to have a multi entry two to three year visa.
This new decision will be applicable to new visitor visa holders as per statement by the immigration minister.
While the new government is facilitating the visa conditions, the Green Party is calling the New Zealand government for visa waiver for all the countries in the Pacific region.
According to the Green party spokesperson, the changes in visas for business personnel and diplomats has not facilitated the pacific country people who were waiting to see their families.
The government's announcement on visa facilitation doesn’t help the Pacific Islanders whose families are in New Zealand and who want to visit their families. These changes were simply a privilege for people with good jobs. This is racism against the families.
