Immigration New Zealand says an increasing numbers of migrants are being duped into believing they are legally allowed to travel to New Zealand, as third-party agents use fake information to obtain electronic travel documents on their behalf.
Since October 2019, it has been mandatory for some visitors to obtain an New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority (NZeTA) — a measure the agency put in place to strengthen border security.
Many of New Zealand's migrants come from South Asia, including India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
However, officials inside its Delhi-based risk and verification office, which assessed applications from South Asia, noted a "trend" where an "unscrupulous" person applies on behalf of an applicant using fraudulent information.
Speaking to 1News from the New Zealand High Commission in New Delhi, team manager Michelle Frankham gave a rare interview on the issue.
"An unscrupulous person would apply on behalf of the applicant, would apply using fraudulent information and obtain an NZeTA. The unsuspecting migrant doesn't know," said Frankham.
Examples of false information include fake visa or employment letters, that when uncovered see the migrant unable to travel as planned.
She said many of those granted travel authority were unaware they had been defrauded and would attempt to travel whilst believing they had a valid job offer and visa for New Zealand.
"Often people are being scammed," she said.
"This is a market that people believe they have to go to an agent."
She warned aspiring migrants that was not the case, saying, "Please know what a scam looks like... You don't have to pay exorbitant fees to get a job, you don't have to pay huge fees.”
Frankham said South Asia is a highly valuable but complex market and one of the larger markets where migrants and visitors to New Zealand were sourced from.
"South Asia is an exciting dynamic market for New Zealand, and in fact it provides the largest volume of visitors and workers.
"Historically we've had a large number of Indian nurses, IT specialists, at the moment migrants are coming from everywhere all over India."
Each year, the team processes thousands of documents submitted as part of the travel application – from February 2023 to the end of April 2024 it completed 10,564 verification requests.
The requests are made by immigration officers in New Zealand, and are assessed by the team including a significant number of locally hired staff to verify the information.
Figures from Statistics New Zealand showed migration from India to New Zealand had quadrupled compared with before the pandemic with 9261 migrants who arrived in 2019 compared to 45,116 in 2024.
The latest Immigration New Zealand data showed across South Asia, only 8.43%, or roughly 20,000 of more than 241,800 visa applications were declined.
The agency had been under criticism recently after it came to light that its Accredited Employer Work Visa had increased the risk of visa system abuse.
While the system had since been tightened, isolated cases of exploitation continued to surface.
Frankham said fraud does exist in the immigration system but it is just a small number of overall applications.
"The vast majority of applicants that we see are genuine," she said.
"It's just a small percentage that seek to exploit the system."
Corazon Miller travelled to India with the assistance of the Asia New Zealand Foundation.
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