‘Never seen anything like this’: INZ asks applicant for ‘mandatory’ information of extended family members for third-party agencies

Immigration lawyer Harris Gu. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

A Resident Visa applicant from China has been asked by Immigration NZ to provide information about his and his wife’s extended family members - and warned that their visa is unlikely to be approved if the information was not supplied.

When queried by the applicant’s immigration lawyer Harris Gu, the agency said the information was being sought on behalf of “third-party agencies”.

“I have never seen anything like this and I have practiced in this field since early 2015. My colleagues who have practiced in this field for more than 10 years, also have never seen anything like this,” said Gu, a lawyer with Queen City Law.

A formal complaint against the agency over possible privacy breaches has been filed by Gu with the Office of the Ombudsman.

INZ general manager Richard Owen said that during the assessment phase of visa applications, some may be sent off for third-party checks, which included the NZ Police and NZ Security Intelligence Service.

“Some of those third-party checks include National Security Checks (NSC) that are carried out by the NZSIS. NSCs may be required for a range of reasons and the time it takes to complete a NSC varies depending on the applicant and their circumstances,” Owen said.

Gu’s client made the application under the 2021 Resident Visa scheme which gave a one-off residency pathway to work visa holders and critical visitor visa holders who were here during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“My concern is that INZ has taken another step further to encroach on the privacy of the individuals not even included in the application and thinks they can get away with it by hiding behind the curtains of National Security Checks,” Gu said.

After INZ confirmed receipt of the application on May 12, a senior officer at the agency requested the applicant to provide his and his wife’s extended family details.

They were told: “If the requested information is not received...processing of your application is likely to be delayed and it is unlikely that it can be approved.”

Gu emailed INZ the following Monday seeking clarification and received an email response stating that the information was requested by “third party agency for their checks” and that the applicants are to provide “as much details as they can”.

The officer said the NSC check was a “mandatary requirement”, which Gu disagreed with, and escalated the matter to INZ’s operations manager.

“Having received no response from the manager and given the significance of the issue, I decided to write to the Office of the Ombudsman to file a formal complaint,” Gu added.

Gu said the applicant has provided the family details of their cousins, and he was still waiting for INZ to provide a response.