Hundreds of would-be skilled migrants, approved under a scheme aimed at bringing young and highly skilled people to New Zealand, are being told their applications were accepted in error.
The Silver Fern Visa scheme is limited to 300 places annually, but a computer glitch at Immigration New Zealand on Friday saw a further 330 accepted after the quota had been filled.
Immigration Minister Nathan Guy said he was disappointed that the fault occurred, and was demanding a report on how it happened.
Rob Stevens, Immigration's service support general manager, said: "A technical fault occurred shortly after the Silver Fern opened which enabled people to submit applications after all the places had been filled.''
Mr Stevens said 4000 people were logged on to the website to apply for the visa, and all the places were filled less than half an hour after it opened.
An email was sent to all 630 applicants informing them that they had "successfully submitted'' their applications and that their payment had been accepted.
But within hours, a second email was sent out to hundreds that said: "We regret to advise you of a technical fault ... and that your application was accepted in error.''
Rejected applicants were told in that email to apply again "when the quota reopens about this time next year''.
Mr Stevens said the first 300 applications received would be processed, but the rest would be cancelled and the money refunded.
"We have obtained the exact time that each payment was confirmed from the payment system, and used this to determine the first 300 applicants,'' Mr Stevens said.
"We are resolving the problem with our IT vendors to identify why it occurred and to prevent it from happening again.''
New Zealand Association for Migration and Investment director Katy Armstrong said the "mess-up'' was not a good look for New Zealand. "Here we are trying to encourage more to use Immigration's online services, but what we have is an agency with an archaic computer system that cannot support it,'' Ms Armstrong said.
"It doesn't help our efforts in trying to get skilled migrants to come in.''
Immigration adviser Maricel Weischede, who had seven of her 16 client applications from the Philippines accepted in error, is asking the agency to process them all "as a matter of principle''.
Mrs Weischede, who runs NZ Immigration Help Service, said the Silver Fern policy was a "brilliant way'' to give young, skilled people a chance to establish themselves here, but errors such as these would damage the reputation of the scheme.
Since its launch in 2010, the scheme has had its quota filled within 30 minutes when it became available every year.
Another adviser is writing to the agency asking for the rejected applicants to be given a chance to find skilled jobs in Christchurch.
Declined Malaysian applicant Andy Chew, an IT professional, said the computer error showed all the more why New Zealand needed migrants like him to lift the technology and skill levels in New Zealand.
- Lincoln Tan of the NZ Herald
