31 January 2018 at 9:00 am

Student visa approval rates

Immigration New Zealand (INZ) shares important updates regarding country approval rates for student visas, as well as instructions for education providers.

Updated student visa decision data

The 2017 student visa decision data is now available on the INZ website.

Education providers must use this list when enrolling international students, to confirm if the students come from a country with a high visa decline rate for the purposes of Rule 18.2 of the NZQF Programme Approval and Accreditation Rules 2013. This Rule specifies the English language proficiency testing requirements for international students from countries with a student visa decline rate of more than 20 percent.

The list is updated annually and comes into force for Rule 18 purposes one month after publication.

Education providers that enrol international students have until 25 February 2018 to adjust their enrolment policies. From that date, education organisations must use the published 2017 decline rates when enrolling international students, to determine which Rule 18 requirements apply.

Agent approval data for Viet Nam and the Philippines

Since 2016, INZ has published student visa approval rates of education agents in India on its website. INZ has now extended this to include the 2017 student visa approval rate data for education agents assisting student visa applicants in Viet Nam and the Philippines.

The data includes all education agent and adviser types, including offshore exempt agents and licensed immigration advisers.

The Viet Nam report is limited to education agents with five or more student visa applications completed in the stated time period, while the Philippines and India reports are limited to education agents with 10 or more student visa applications completed.

Please contact IEengagement@mbie.govt.nz if you have any questions. 

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