New Zealand Student Visa Wait Times

Immigration New Zealand (INZ) has updated its official student visa wait-time dashboard, showing that applications linked to universities are currently taking an average 3.5 weeks, and most are completed within 6 weeks (based on decisions from the last 4 weeks). INZ says student visa processing is busiest October to March, and advises international students to apply 3 months before their intended travel date to avoid delays.

Key Changes Announced

INZ’s weekly table breaks timelines by education provider type. To avoid jargon for Indian readers, here’s what those categories mean and what INZ is currently reporting:

INZ wait times (updated weekly; last 4 weeks of decisions)

*Average wait time = time taken for 50% of applications to be processed.

**Most completed within = time taken for 80% of applications to be processed. INZ calculates both using working days (excluding weekends and public holidays).

INZ’s research-and-statistics page also publishes the same recent performance in working days, which is useful for tighter planning. For university-linked student visas, the latest “last 4 weeks” data shows median 17 work days, with 80% decided within 29 work days and 90% within 38 work days.

Impact on Indian Students

For most Indian UG/PG applicants (especially those holding offers from NZ universities), the key takeaway is that processing is currently tracking at roughly 3–6 weeks for most cases—but INZ cautions that the October–March period is the busiest, which can push timelines out.

The provider category matters mainly for students going for diplomas/applied programmes: your offer letter may be from a public polytechnic group (Te Pūkenga) or a private college (PTE), where the “most completed within” timelines are currently longer than universities.

Next Steps

• Apply early: INZ urges international students to apply 3 months before travel during the peak season (Oct–Mar).
• Plan using the safer buffer: For universities, use “most completed within” (6 weeks) as your baseline for booking flights and accommodation, not just the average.
• Keep your file “decision-ready”: INZ notes complete applications tend to sit closer to the average wait time.
• Watch for INZ system downtime this weekend: INZ has flagged planned upgrades that may prevent some users from starting/continuing/checking some applications on Sunday, 25 January 2026 (08:00–20:00 NZDT) — that is roughly 12:30 AM to 12:30 PM IST on 25 Jan. A 30-minute outage may also occur between 05:00 and 08:00 NZDT on Tuesday, 27 January, which is roughly between 9:30 PM IST (26 Jan) and 12:30 AM IST (27 Jan).