New Zealand Visa Processing Time Monitor

What does New Zealand Visa Processing Time Monitor do?

Tracking a client through New Zealand's immigration system and can't tell them how much longer to expect? This Actor looks up Immigration New Zealand's own official, published visa processing times (50th and 80th percentile working days to a decision) for any of the 130+ visa types INZ publishes a figure for, straight from its own "Check visa application processing times" tool. Look up one visa by name for a quick check, a list for bulk checks across a whole caseload, turn on Monitor mode to get flagged only when INZ actually updates its figures, or feed in your own client list with application dates to get the same estimated decision window INZ's own tool would show for that date.

Data comes straight from the same JSON API that powers Immigration New Zealand's own processing time checker, no scraping, no HTML parsing, no anti-bot fight. Run it via the Apify Console, the API, or on a schedule, and export results as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

Why use this Actor?

• Migration agents tracking clients across dozens of visa categories, who need to answer "how long will mine take?" without manually re-checking a government tool for every visa, every client, every month. Client tracking mode turns your own caseload into a quick-glance table, each row showing the estimated decision window for that client's actual application date.
• Immigration lawyers and consultancies who want a standing alert the moment a visa type they've quoted a client on gets faster or slower.
• Applicants and sponsors who want to watch their own visa type's processing time without repeatedly using the government tool by hand.
• HR and mobility teams at companies sponsoring overseas hires into New Zealand, tracking Accredited Employer Work Visa and residence timelines across multiple candidates at once.

How to use New Zealand Visa Processing Time Monitor

1. Click Try for free or Run on the Actor page.
2. Don't know the exact visa name? Turn on listAvailableVisas and run once, free, to get the full current reference list (130+ visas with their exact name and numeric ID).
3. Enter a visaName (matched case-insensitively, exact match first, then a unique substring) or a numeric visaId for a quick lookup, or a list of targets for bulk checks (each either a name or an ID).
4. To track visas over time, turn on monitorMode, keep the same targets and watchlistId, and schedule the Actor monthly (INZ republishes these figures roughly monthly, so daily adds no signal). Each run only charges for what actually changed. For long-term monitoring, prefer numeric visaIds in targets over names, IDs are stable, names occasionally get relabelled.
5. Tracking a whole caseload? Fill in clients, one row per client with their visa and application date. You'll get the current percentiles plus the same estimated decision-date window INZ's own tool computes for that date (see the FAQ on what this is and isn't).
6. View results in the Console table, or pull them via the API/dataset export.

Input

See the Input tab for the full schema. Key fields:

Field	Description
visaName	A single visa's name to look up, e.g. Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa. Matched case-insensitively.
visaId	A single visa's numeric ID, if you already know it. Skips name-matching entirely, takes priority over visaName.
targets	A list for bulk lookup or Monitor mode, one per line, each a visa name or numeric ID.
monitorMode	When true, compares against the last run and only reports what changed.
watchlistId	Keeps separate Monitor mode histories if you run more than one watchlist.
listAvailableVisas	Free reference lookup: returns every visa (name + ID) Immigration NZ currently publishes a processing time for.
clients	Your own caseload: an array of {clientLabel, visaName or visaId, applicationDate} rows. Ignores every other input when used.

Output

Each result includes the visa's identity and its full percentile spread. Example (a single record):

{
    "rawTarget": "Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa",
    "visaId": 61,
    "visaName": "Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa",
    "matchType": "exact",
    "found": true,
    "summary": "You can submit an expression of interest if you have a job or job offer from an accredited employer, and qualify for 6 points for your skills and work in New Zealand.",
    "percentile50Days": 70,
    "percentile80Days": 108,
    "averageWait": "10 weeks",
    "mostWaitTime": "4 months",
    "sourceUrl": "https://www.immigration.govt.nz/process-to-apply/waiting-for-a-visa/processing-a-visa-application/how-long-it-takes-to-process-an-application/check-visa-application-processing-time/",
    "dataRetrievedAt": "2026-08-15T16:43:19.088Z"
}

You can download the dataset in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel.

Client tracking mode adds the estimated decision window on top (a single record, trimmed):

{
    "clientLabel": "Smith, J.",
    "visaId": 61,
    "visaName": "Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa",
    "applicationDate": "2026-06-01",
    "percentile50Days": 70,
    "percentile80Days": 108,
    "expectedDecisionTypical": "2026-09-07",
    "expectedDecisionSlower": "2026-10-29",
    "estimateDisclaimer": "Estimated decision window, calculated the same way Immigration NZ's own tool does..."
}

Data table

Field	What it is
visaId, visaName	The visa's numeric ID and full name, as Immigration NZ labels it.
matchType	How your input resolved: id, exact name match, substring match, ambiguous, or none.
found, notFoundReason	Whether a published figure exists for this visa, and why not if it doesn't.
summary	Immigration NZ's own plain-English description of who this visa is for.
percentile50Days, percentile80Days	Working days to a decision at the 50th and 80th percentile of applications processed.
averageWait, mostWaitTime	The same figures in Immigration NZ's own human-readable form (e.g. "10 weeks", "4 months").
sourceUrl	Link to Immigration NZ's processing time checker tool.
changeDetected, changeSummary	Monitor mode only: whether anything moved since the last check, and what.
expectedDecisionTypical, expectedDecisionSlower	Client tracking only: application date plus the 50th/80th percentile working days.
estimateDisclaimer	Client tracking only: the estimate methodology and its real limitations, always included, never silent.

Pricing / Cost estimation

Pay-per-event pricing, no subscription. A single lookup or bulk check costs $0.01 per visa checked, including a visa with no published figure or a name that didn't match, a confirmed "not found" is still a real, useful result telling you the name or ID is wrong or unpublished. The listAvailableVisas reference lookup is always free. Watching 20 visas monthly in Monitor mode (matching how often Immigration NZ actually updates these figures) costs roughly $0.04 to $1/month depending on how many actually move that month ($0.002 per no-change confirmation, $0.05 per real change caught). Client tracking costs $0.015 per client row checked, including a row with an invalid date or a not-found visa, still a real, useful result.

Tips

• Run once with listAvailableVisas on to get the exact current names and IDs before setting up a bulk lookup or a watchlist.
• A visa name only needs to be a unique substring, e.g. "Skilled Migrant" resolves the same as the full name, as long as it's not ambiguous. An ambiguous or unmatched name comes back as an honest not-found result explaining why, listing candidates where relevant, it's never guessed.
• For Monitor mode, prefer the numeric visaId over a name in targets, IDs are the stable identity, names occasionally get relabelled by Immigration NZ.
• Bulk lookups (targets) are faster than repeated single-visa runs, they're all fetched in one Actor run.
• For ongoing monitoring, schedule the Actor (Apify's built-in Schedules) monthly rather than daily, Immigration NZ republishes these figures roughly monthly, so a tighter schedule mostly just pays for extra no-change confirmations.
• Keep watchlistId consistent across scheduled runs for the same list, changing it starts a fresh watch history.

FAQ

Is this legal? Doesn't this need a login or bypass a CAPTCHA? No login, no CAPTCHA. This Actor calls the same plain JSON endpoint Immigration New Zealand's own public processing-time checker tool uses to populate itself. Immigration NZ's content is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand, with no resale or scraping prohibition found.

Does this track my own personal visa application? No, and this is deliberate. Immigration NZ's real-time application tracking requires your own logged-in RealMe/portal access, this Actor only reports the aggregate, published processing-time figures per visa type, the same numbers everyone applying for that visa can already see on the government's own tool, just structured and monitorable.

What does "not found" mean here? Either the visa name you gave didn't match anything (or matched more than one visa, an ambiguous result is never silently guessed), or the visa ID is wrong, or Immigration NZ currently publishes no figure for that visa at all. Run with listAvailableVisas on to confirm the exact current names and IDs.

How current is the data? Immigration NZ updates these figures roughly monthly. This Actor always reads the live current figures, it never caches or bundles data of its own.

Is the client-tracking "expected decision" window a real case status? No, and this matters: read it carefully before relying on it. Immigration NZ's own processing-time tool never asks its server for your application date at all, the timeline it shows you is worked out entirely in your browser by adding the published working-day percentiles to whatever date you type. This Actor's client tracking mode runs that exact same calculation server-side and repeatably, it is not a new estimate methodology, and it is not a real case status either, Immigration NZ doesn't publish one on any no-login endpoint we could find. One real limitation, stated plainly rather than hidden: the calculation excludes weekends but does not exclude New Zealand public holidays (no confirmed official machine-readable holiday feed), so treat the window as a close estimate, slightly optimistic around Christmas/New Year and other holiday clusters, not exact.

If this Actor saved you a manual check, a review on the Actor page helps a lot and helps decide what to build next. Found a bug or have a request, including support for another country's processing-time data? Use the Issues tab, replies are personal, not automated.

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Data sourced from Immigration New Zealand's official processing time checker tool, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand. This Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by Immigration New Zealand or the New Zealand Government.