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Visas Approved With No Officer Check: Simple Lessons From New Zealand's System Errors for Applicants From Indonesia and Everywhere

News · 2026-09-30 · 5 min read

Faults in Immigration New Zealand's ADEPT platform let dozens of applications be approved without any person checking them. This guide explains what went wrong and what applicants, employers and people planning a move can learn from it.

When you apply for a visa, you probably imagine a trained officer reading your papers carefully. New Zealand has just learned that this does not always happen. Briefings to Immigration Minister Erica Stanford, which RNZ reported on 30 September 2026, show that software errors in the online system approved some applications with no manual assessment at all.

How the Error Happened

ADEPT is the online system Immigration New Zealand has used to process visas since 2022. Officials discovered a technical fault. Sometimes it allowed the same automatic process to run more than once on one application. This created duplicate actions, and it skipped the stage where an officer was supposed to assess the file.

A review after this discovery found the following:

• 32 visitor visas were approved with no manual assessment, over a period of about three years.
• 23 Job Check applications were approved with no manual assessment in 2022. (A Job Check is the step where an accredited employer proves it tried to hire a New Zealander first.)

Officials told the minister that technical advisors have now looked at all of the visitor visas. Twenty of the visa holders have already travelled to New Zealand, and no negative outcome was recorded. Six files were opened again for a full assessment because of risk factors. For one of them, officials recommended a decline.

More Problems in the Same System

Other reports show that this was not the only issue:

• Missing health question: In 2025, 364 people who applied for multiple entry visitor visas for parents and grandparents were not asked a residency question linked to tuberculosis. Of these, 295 received visas. Officials said the risk for each person was fairly low and that affected applicants would be contacted.
• Problems on employer dashboards: About 2,300 businesses whose accreditation had lapsed and was then renewed could no longer see their migrant workers in the system. This made it harder for them to resend job tokens or report that a worker had left.
• Submission error in August 2026: After a system update, some visitor visa applicants could not submit their drafts once they added a second person. A permanent fix came within days, but nobody knows how many people were affected.

Why Human Decisions Still Matter

The Government had promised that automation would help to approve applications, while staff would keep the power to decline them. Immigration law allows automated decision-making. However, the agency had reportedly not used it yet. In 2025, it said it was still about two years away from having the data and testing to use it properly. So these approvals were not part of a planned launch. The system simply did something that nobody meant it to do.

There is also a wider issue. Ministers sent the $336 million Our Future Services programme back for a new business case, because its expected savings had been overstated by $134 million. They want a report before April 2027.

What You Should Take From This

For visa applicants: Nothing in these reports suggests that genuine applications are in danger. The worry is about consistency and oversight, not about people being refused unfairly. Still, a quick approval does not prove that your file was checked as carefully as it should have been. If mistakes are found later, you may be contacted again.

For employers and sponsors: Compare your dashboard with your own records of the people you employ and the job tokens that have been issued. Do not assume the system shows your real situation, especially if your accreditation has lapsed and then been renewed.

For anyone planning a move: Rules and systems change in every destination country. Whatever the online platform shows, keep your own copies of submissions, confirmations, medical results and letters or emails.

Good Habits Every Time You Apply Online

1. Keep a copy of each page you submit and each confirmation you receive.
2. Give full answers to all health and character questions, even when the system does not ask you directly.
3. Reply fast if you are asked for more information.
4. Look at your application status often. Do not assume that no news is good news.
5. If something seems strange, ask a licensed migration professional for advice.

If you are applying from Indonesia, these habits are just as useful. Keep your English translations of Indonesian-language documents together with your other records, and store copies of everything in a safe place.

Final Thoughts for Careful Applicants

Technology can make visa processing faster, but it still needs proper testing and people to oversee it. For you as an applicant, the best protection is an application that is well prepared, honest and supported by clear documents, no matter which country you apply to.

Please note: this article is general information only and is not immigration advice. Rules and processes change, so check official sources or talk to a licensed adviser before you apply.

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