- Immigration New Zealand will disable its online portal for four hours of maintenance on May 13, 2026.
- The outage impacts Skilled Migrant and student forms, alongside several personal information and visa transfer requests.
- An unrelated technical issue is currently preventing applicants from viewing essential letters and documents in the portal.
(NEW ZEALAND) — Immigration New Zealand will take its online portal offline for planned upgrades from 20:00 to 23:59 NZST on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, shutting access to a set of visa applications and request forms during that window.
The agency said the outage runs from 08:00 to 11:59 UTC on May 13, 2026. Applicants using Immigration Online during those hours will not be able to open or submit several services, including NZeTA change requests, student enrolment termination forms, the Active Investor Plus Visa application, and parts of the Skilled Migrant Category system.
Access will also be blocked for requests covering personal information, visa transfers or confirmations, breach reports, and applications tied to changes in conditions for some work and student visa holders. Parent Resident Visa expressions of interest and Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa expressions of interest and applications are on the affected list.
The outage is limited to specified applications and forms, while other portal functions remain available unless they are caught by a separate technical problem that Immigration New Zealand said is unrelated to the upgrade work.
That separate issue has disrupted the ability to view letters and documents in a range of applications. The affected areas include Phase 2, 2021 Resident Visas, Accredited Employer Work Visa accreditations, Accredited Employer Work Visa job checks, Accredited Employer Work Visas, Permanent Resident Visa cases, and Second or Subsequent Resident Visa files.
Transit Visa, International Student Visa, variation of travel conditions on a resident visa, and most visitor visa applications are also affected by the document-viewing problem. Immigration New Zealand said it is working to fix that issue and directed people who need documents or response guidance to its Customer Service Centre.
The contact line for callers on New Zealand landlines is 0508 558 855. The Auckland number is +64 9 914 4100, the Wellington number is +64 4 910 9915, and callers in the rest of the world are directed to +64 9 914 4100.
A priority line tied to the document-viewing issue operates Monday to Friday. Callers can use 0508 558 855, which is toll-free from New Zealand landlines, or +64 9 914 4100, then press option 7.
Most visa categories now have to be lodged online, a point that gives the maintenance window more weight than a routine website interruption. Immigration New Zealand lists online filing as the standard route for the Accredited Employer Work Visa, Permanent Resident Visa except where an exception applies, Second or Subsequent Resident Visa, Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa, Straight to Residence Resident Visa, and Visitor Visa applications from Pacific Islands Forum countries excluding Australia.
Paper applications remain limited to specific refugee categories, including Refugee Emergency and UNHCR Family Reunification. That leaves most applicants dependent on the online system for filing, checking progress, and reviewing next steps.
The list of unavailable services during the upgrade reaches well beyond one visa stream. It includes the form titled “How to request a change to your NZeTA,” “Request my information,” “Request personal information for someone else,” the “Student enrolment termination form,” the “Active Investor Plus Visa application form,” and the “Application for a Job Change or a variation of conditions for work visa holders.”
It also includes the “Application for a variation of conditions for student visa holders,” the “Parent Resident Visa Expression of Interest form,” the “Application for transfer or confirmation of a visa,” the “Report a breach form,” and two forms tied to interim status for the skilled residence track: the “Application for a variation of conditions for a Skilled Migrant Category Interim Visa” and the “Application for a transfer of a visa for Skilled Migrant Category Interim Visa holders.”
Applicants who are not directly affected by the temporary shutdown still rely on the same portal to track cases and check estimated processing times. Immigration New Zealand said status checks and processing estimates are available through the portal tool, which uses the visa type and application date and notes that the estimates are guides that may change.
Another system change is already scheduled for the start of next month. From June 1, 2026, family of temporary visa holder applications, including the Partner of Student Work Visa, will move to the enhanced Immigration Online system; new submissions will go there automatically, while older draft applications can still be completed.
Student visa processing rules already carry their own triage instructions. Under the 2025 updates, second or subsequent student visa applications, including those involving a new provider or course, are prioritized, especially when they are filed from within New Zealand, and Immigration New Zealand said applicants should include a tuition fee receipt or risk decline.
Other student visa applications are processed in receipt order. That sequence leaves some applicants dealing with two separate pressures at once this week: a short, planned outage that blocks filing and an unrelated technical issue that can stop them from seeing the documents they need to answer Immigration New Zealand.
Once the maintenance window ends, applicants can log back into Immigration Online to monitor progress. Urgent cases that run into trouble outside the outage period are being directed to the Customer Service Centre numbers already in use, with the priority line available on weekdays for the document-viewing fault.
