IMMIGRATION SERVICES
BEIJING BRANCH NEWSLETTER – September 2004
Welcome to our second Newsletter for 2004
Our last newsletter was sent in February 2004, so the branch is overdue for another update to agents,
education providers and other interested parties!
The past six months have seen a number of changes and a range of activities, but only minor policy
changes.
Contents
Page 1
Temporary Entry News
Page 3
Student News
Page 5
Residence News, including Business Investor update
Page 6
Fee Update
Page 6
Assisting us with the Application Process
Page 8
Appendix 1: Current Staff List for NZIS Beijing Visa and Permit Teams
Temporary Entry
Volumes and timeliness
In the last newsletter we discussed increases in visitor volumes. We can report that for the year ending
June 2004 the Beijing branch processed, in comparison with the 2003/04 year:
 26% more Group visitor visas, (3653 groups).
 1% more individual visas (6938 individuals)
Despite these heavy volumes, we are pleased to advise that for the 12 months up to June 2004, 71%
of all visitor visa applications were processed in 5 days, 92% in 15 days and 98% in one month.
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Currently the branch is busy with the pre Chinese National holiday peak as visitors want to take
advantage of the holiday break to go overseas.
The Temporary Entry Team has recently made minor changes to the way it is structured, with the
team being split into two sub-teams – one to handle medium to high risk applications and the other to
process low risk applications. Currently we categorise low risk applications as: all tourist groups, all
official delegation groups, people with good travel history, people with Australian or Canadian visas,
people who have been to NZ previously and complied with their visa requirements, people going for
business who are invitees of members of AusCham, people in employment with a big multinational or
Chinese companies, e.g. IBM, HP, Haier, Lenovo, management within Bank of China etc., adult
Children of New Zealand citizens/residents, parents of New Zealand citizens/residents (for dependent
children only) , Business Investor (BIC) work visas, BIC dependent visitors visas, Visiting scholar work
visas, Tour Guide work visas, applications submitted via AusCham.
We process within the following timeframes:
ADS Tour groups – 3 days, if all documentation is provided
Non-ADS Tour groups – 5 days, if all documentation is provided
Delegation groups – 5 days, if all documentation is provided
Other individual low risk applications -10 days
Medium to high risk applications – 30 days
ADS Travel Agents (Chinese Approved Destination Travel Agents)
Training continues with Travel agents. In July, Travel Agents from provinces in and around Beijing
attended a training seminar jointly hosted by NZ Tourism and NZIS. We renewed valuable contacts
and had a useful Question and Answer session as part of the Seminar.
Further expansion of the ADS group is planned. In October agents from Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei will
be invited to attend another training seminar. If all wish to be a part of the ADS group, this will take the
number of ADS agents up to 72 for the China mainland (24 of them based in the Beijing area), who can
submit applications to the China branches and receive an express visa service of 3 days.
An important notice for all ADS Travel Agents and Foreign Affairs Offices who facilitate groups to NZ
Be sure to get your applications in well ahead of time and please ensure that all the required
documentation and information is attached. We are still finding applications where important
information has been omitted from the application, such as non-declaration of immediate family in NZ
or non-declaration of previous decline history or inconsistent information provided when compared to
previous applications. It is the responsibility of Travel Agents to ensure that the applications they
submit are true, correct and complete in every way. Missing documentation or information will only
delay the application, as the visa officer will need to investigate.
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General News
The branch is currently looking for ways to improve visa processing for genuine business visitor
applicants. With this aim in mind we have signed an agreement with the Beijing AusCham (Australian
Chamber of Commerce) to facilitate visas within 3 working days for business visitors who wish to travel
to Australia and NZ. The agreement is similar to the model used with ADS Travel agents.
Discussions have also begun with the NZ-China Trade Association (based in NZ) to set up an
agreement along similar lines.
Student
Student Agent Seminars
Two seminars co-hosted by the Christchurch Group lead by the Mayor, NZ Trade & Enterprise and
NZIS, were conducted in June 2004. The seminars were held in Wuhan and Chongqing. Provinces
neighbouring these two cities were also invited to attend. The aim of the Seminars was to update
agents and NZ education providers regarding current visa processing procedures and reinforce
awareness of NZ as a fantastic place to send children for study – that it is safe, provides quality
education facilities, and has robust government systems in place. The overall feedback was that
people appreciated hearing first hand what was going on in NZ and made the most of these
opportunities to ask lots of questions about visa processing.
We also delivered a presentation at the Beijing Education Expo recently held in August on Student visa
policy. Approximately 100 people voluntarily attended this presentation, which was a hopeful sign. A
Chinese website, sohu.com relayed the speech live and there was extensive coverage in the media.
These presentations provide an opportunity for two way communication with students and parents in
Mandarin, and gives the public the opportunity to ask questions.
Staffing levels and turn-around times
Many of you will know Tin So Lim, who used to be the Service Leader of the Student Team.
Unfortunately she left the Beijing Branch in July 2004 and took a new position of Service Leader in
Auckland Central Branch. She is missed by the branch. However we will soon have a replacement
Service Leader in place. Gillian Liu, an experienced and competent visa officer within the team has
been acting as Service Leader.
You may note that there is a significant reduction in the staffing in the team compared to the same time
last year. The current “downsizing” is the result of a continuing drop in incoming applications and is
primarily due to natural attrition. Currently 4 staff process student visas.
Despite the much higher level of activity by NZ government and providers within NZ, our student visa
numbers remain low. The Student Visa statistics for our three China Branches for the last financial year
is attached in this email as a separate attachment. You will note an unusually high decline rate for July
and August of this year – approximately 40%, when compared to the decline rate for last year. This is
primarily due to false documentation being found in applications. The September decline rate so far is
averaging 20% - back to more ‘normal’ levels.
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Fore timeliness we are aiming to decide 30% applications within 15 days and 90% applications within
45 days. Currently the team has less then 10 applications on hand over 30 days old. Again, the
Management Team will closely monitor resourcing to align with work volume.
Policy Change
From June 2004, Tuberculosis (Tb) screening is required for Chinese students, as well as others from
high risk countries. This means that students must provide an X-ray certificate if they intend to remain
in New Zealand for more than six months. Please refer to the New Zealand Immigration Service
(NZIS) website to download the form for this new requirement - www.immigration.govt.nz .
Please note the medical reports or X-rays are not required until the approval-in-principle stage.
General News
The branch is near agreement (on behalf of the three China branches) with two large China banks
regarding Student Bank Loans. This will allow parents to apply for student loans and if successful, can
use this as evidence of their ability to fund the intended years of study in NZ. This will provide relief for
parents who have difficulty providing other forms of genuine documentation to show their financial
abilities. It is hoped that at least one of the banks will have signed up to this arrangement by the end of
September. We will advise the market once finalised.
The new Guide for Living and Studying in New Zealand for International Students in Mandarin has
been delivered to every approved applicant since 16 August 2004.
Important requests for all Student Agents to help speed up processing
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Please make sure you include all the required pages of the application form when submitting
applications to this office. Many of the applications we receive require us to request the additional
pages – especially pages 9 to 13 – this slows down the processing considerably. We have
attached an updated Student Visa Application Form used here in Beijing for your information.
Please make sure you include the necessary documents for Qinghua Qualification Verification.
They are the Verification Form, two clear copies of the applicant’s ID card and bachelor certificate
and verification fee of RMB 200. Many of the applications we receive require us to request missing
documents – again this slows down the processing. We have attached a bilingual Verification
Form and Qualification Verification Student Letters both in English and Chinese.
Please provide valid contact details including e-mail and fax, then check them regularly – this
keeps the processing smooth and fast.
Please provide additional documents, explanation letter or feedback to requests or concerns
within the set timeframe. Please notify the case officer at first sight of our request or concern if you
or the applicant can not provide the required document or explanation within the timeframe. In this
case, please also explain the sound reason for wanting an extension to the timeframe.
Please be advised that we only guarantee return of your Birth Certificate, Relationship Certificate
and Police Certificate for all applications. For other notarized certificates, we will keep them on file
unless the applicant has a special request for returning them. So please provide copies of those
notarized certificates that the applicant wants returned.
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Important Requests for NZ education providers:
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Offers of place: For NZ education providers, who have more than one campus in New Zealand,
please indicate clearly in your offers of place, the correct campus so that visa officers can put
accurate information on the students’ visa labels.
Receipts: Some NZ schools provide unclear receipts to NZIS Beijing. Visa officers are confused
by some of the receipts they receive as they may have the wrong course start and finish dates, or
no breakdown of payments regarding tuition and home stay fees, or incorrect campus, etc.
Please double check information included in your receipts, especially the course dates and
payment details before sending to NZIS Beijing.
Joint programmes: For NZ education providers, who have joint programme agreements with
Chinese parties, please advise us before the applications are submitted. This enables us to
provide a customised service for the group. Send us a copy of your agreement, the group name
list and their dates of birth. This way we can be prepared to process these applications efficiently.
Residence
Overview of Work on hand
Currently the residence team has a total of 993 residence applications on hand:
Skilled Business (General Skills and Investor):
Family Sponsored:
Humanitarian/International:
TOTAL:
467
521
5
993
Quota on residence applications
Every year the government decides how many people are allowed to migrate to New Zealand under
the various categories for permanent residence, i.e. the Skilled Migrant/Business, Family and
International/Humanitarian categories. Currently the government is focussed on encouraging
skilled/business migrants to New Zealand, so this category is allocated a larger portion of the overall
immigration programme for the year.
Unfortunately demand for some of these areas is greater then the approved immigration programme
allows. This results in some applications taking longer to be decided. This is the situation in Beijing the demand from China from Family category applicants has exceeded the allocated programme for
the China branches. However the good news is that allocation for China applicants has increased for
2004-05 year. Currently this branch is entitled to make an average of 33 decisions per month on family
category residence visa applications.
Processing timeframes
Currently expected processing timeframes for new family category residence applications are taking
up to 12-18 months from the date of lodgement. However Dependent Child applications are prioritised,
with Partnership applications next on the priority list. All other applications are then decided according
to date lodged.
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Skilled Migration Category
While three Invitations to Apply under the Skilled Migration Category have been issued, no formal
applications under the Skilled Migration Category have been received by NZIS-Beijing to date. The
numbers of Expressions of Interest (“EOI”) on hand have increased from 15 to 52 as of 07 September.
We are assessing all EOIs as quickly as we are able and expect to be able to advise all persons
concerned of the outcome of their EOI shortly.
Business Investor applications
Just a reminder that the expected processing time is six months from allocation date (from queue to
case officer) to decision date.
As applications are decided new applications are allocated to Business Immigration Specialists for
assessment and verification, from the queue. Allocation to case officers of applications lodged prior to
20 November 2002, will be made strictly according to date of lodgement.
It is expected that all business investor applications on hand will be decided by February 2005.
Changes to the residence team
Two “sub-teams” have been established within the residence team. The goal is to enable a clearer
focus to be maintained on processing “older” applications currently on hand (i.e. those in excess of 12
months old), while ensuring that newer applications are able to be attended to in a timely manner.
General News
The Immigration Service is developing webpages for each of its branches on its main internet site.
While our webpage is not yet complete, please take the time to check out information specific to our
branch, at: http://www.immigration.govt.nz/Branch/BeijingBranchHome/
Fee Changes came into effect during July 2004. The visa application fees in China have changed.
The new fee list (in Chinese and English) is available at:
http://www.immigration.govt.nz/Branch/BeijingBranchHome/Fees/
For those of you who visit the branch you will have noticed major renovations taking place to enhance
security. We are pleased to advise that the work is almost complete and we can all look forward to a
more peaceful, orderly environment again. Thank you to all our agents and visitors who have patiently
endured the inconvenience during the renovations.
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Assisting us with the Application Process
We need your assistance to keep processing times short and smooth.
For all customers:
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We continue to encourage you to communicate with the visa officers directly by using email and to
quote the application or client number. This is quick and convenient for everyone. Our target is to
have an email reply to you within a 3 working day period. This is a much better option than trying
to get through to us by telephone as we have a limited number of telephone lines. If you do call
the visa officers please remember that they will be using their voicemail facilities, if you leave a
message they will return your call within 2 days.
Please do not send us queries about the progress of an application during the processing period
that is listed in the acknowledgement letter. The more time the team spends on answering
queries; the less time they have each day to actually make decisions on the applications.
A general reminder that all applications lodged at NZIS Beijing will be given details of the
application number, the processing officer, the approximate processing time, and contact details
on the fees receipt printout within 14 days of lodgement.
Submit fully documented applications. Sending items later just means we spend more of our time
adding new papers to applications. This slows us down and also means we may have to send
letters asking for missing information etc.
Do not send us multiple queries about the same application. We have seen situations where
emails, faxes, telephone calls and letters have been sent to us on the same day by the applicant,
the agent, a friend. These people are all making the same application query. Doing this only
wastes the case officers’ time. Encourage your customers to make application queries through
their agents.
Please send us the original copy of any Chinese bank certificate you wish us to consider.
Photocopies of these certificates are not useful to us – we need the original documents.
Visit our website or contact the Service Leaders (listed in Appendix 1) for current accurate information.
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APPENDIX 1
Current Visa and Permit Staff in NZIS Beijing
Student Team:
Temporary Entry Team:
Gillian Liu – Acting Service Leader
Celia Gao
Edison Sun
Slenda Jia
Tina Zhang
Vivian Wang (new)
Patrick Huang – Service Leader
Daniel Prain
Elsie Chen
Helen Wang
Isis Xu
Isabel Zhang
Mavis Li
Nikkie Lai
Richard Su
Sonia Zhang
Vanessa Liu
William Li
Residence Team:
Business Investor Team:
Andrew Johns – Service Leader
Frank Fu
Isabella Cai
Susan Geng
Johnson Xu
Andrew Johns – Service Leader
Doris Fan
Elizabeth Gong
Michael Liu
Nancy Wu
Trina Kuo
We encourage agents and customers to correspond with staff by email wherever possible: The email
address is always in the following format - firstname.secondname@dol.govt.nz. NOTE THE CHANGE
IN FORMAT
For example:
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daniel.prain@dol.govt.nz;
 gillian.liu@dol.govt.nz
For further information please access our Internet site at www.immigration.govt.nz or
telephone NZIS Beijing on 0086-10-6532 6688 or email nzisbeijing@dol.govt.nz
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