20 January 2016 at 9:00 am
Immigration reminder: Pathway Visa Pilot
Are you one of the over 500 primary, secondary and tertiary institutions that have been invited to participate in the Pathway Student Visa Pilot? If so, remember to complete the participant declaration sent to you and return it as a scanned copy to pathwayvisasfeedback@mbie.govt.nz.
Invitations to take part in the pilot were issued to those institutions that have a student visa application approval rate of 90 percent or higher for the 2014/15 financial year.
More detailed information about the pathway visa and the list of providers who have, as at 22 December 2015, signed up to take part, can be found on the Immigration New Zealand website here. The list will be updated on 1 February.
Pathway student visas will allow international students to undertake a progression of up to three consecutive programmes of study with qualifying education providers on a single visa. For example, this may involve three consecutive years at secondary school or an English language course followed by foundation study and then a degree programme.
The 18 month pilot period, which began on 7 December, will enable INZ to evaluate pilot outcomes, such as student transition rates from the first to the second programme of study and how well the arrangements between education providers are working.
