IMMIGRATION NEWS

DELAYS IN SMC CASE ALLOCATION

The annual quota for SMC has been reached. INZ appears to be slowing down the case allocation on purpose to reduce the number of residence visas granted for the year. It takes around 6 weeks for the INZ fee payment to be deducted after the SMC submission.
The clients keep asking about their case allocation but since around 2 months, INZ responds that they are allocating submissions from December 2018. The queue is not moving. Some applicants whose SMC application is made after December 2018, their cases have been allocated. INZ appears to be picking the cases, which is not fair. I am happy for those clients. However, I do find this unfair to the clients whose applications are delayed on purpose by INZ