Long wait at NZ gates

By ALAN PERROTT

It's cold, wet and 5am as a group of people hoping to stay in New Zealand grimace outside the Queen St branch of the Immigration Service.

The doors won't open for three hours, but they know that if you don't arrive before 7am your chances of getting inside are slim at best.

A Weekend Herald investigation has found a system struggling to deal with the numbers turning up at Immigration Service offices in Auckland.

The service admitted yesterday that it was struggling to cope with the number of people coming into its two Auckland branches.

"There has been a big increase in demand in the past 12 months," said chief operating officer Andrew Lockhart.

He said the service was going to open a new branch and encourage people to use phone, internet and mail for queries and applications.

Korean Christina Yoo is an old hand at queuing. "Everything is very slow and I have to wait a long time. We are foreigners so we can't complain, but I think you should be more concerned about visitors who come into the country."

Many prospective immigrants enter the country through the Queen St office, yet it has limited cover from the rain and only one toilet - and that is guarded by a coded keypad.

An immigration officer arrives about 7am. He rearranges the growing queue so most get out of the rain and begins assigning numbers from front to back.

The 5am shift get the first 30 or so and begin to wait again.

Peter Krsicka, 21, stands out in his suit. It is the Czech's third attempt to discuss his work permit application.

Yesterday he arrived to find the queue running out of the building, across the small courtyard, down the steps and along the road.

"I was told I was number 200, but by the time I got to the front I was 250. Then they wouldn't give me a number because they wouldn't get to me before they closed."

A Malaysian woman is angry that there is no public toilet. She said that the day before one person was so desperate he soiled his trousers before leaving his place in line.

Joseph Tupa, a 40-year-old Fijian, is also unhappy. He thought arriving at 7.40am would mean plain sailing. Instead, he has to stand on tiptoes to even see the entrance.

His comments about the behaviour of the students clogging the line are greeted with nodding heads.

In the hierarchy of queuers for a visa, overseas students are bottom.

They are accused of queue jumping and brattiness. Most in line see them as the children of well-off parents who don't care whom they offend when they are overseas.

"They should have their own queue, then they would only [anger] other students," says Mr Tupa.

While the Queen St office can deal with about 250 people a day, the smaller Manukau City branch will struggle to get through 75.

The office is on the third floor of the Westfield Shopping Centre, so the queue forms outside the doors of the locked mall entrance.

By 8am, 20 people, including several small children, are standing in the small hallway between the lift and office door. By 8.25am, there are 40 and the corridor is getting stuffy.

Each chime of the approaching lift promises more people, but also a welcome blast of cool air.

Several are here for the second day running. The office was short staffed because of sickness and managed only 45 cases.

Alison is almost in tears. She has been trying to see someone for three weeks, but the newly separated parent has not been able to get to the office before they stop giving out appointment numbers.

She came from England on her mother's passport 32 years ago and needs to prove her residency before she can enrol in a business course.

"I was told I had to get here before 7am, but I have to get my children off to school and then catch a bus. It's very upsetting. I was going to write to my MP if I didn't get in today."

Feature: Immigration