In a major hint on how various visas will be processed in future, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway, on Tuesday said this in Christchurch, “We are looking at ways to make the entire visa approval process fully automated. So if all the paper-work is in order, the applicant may get a computerised approval, with no manual work involved. Moreover, to keep a check, in cases, where the system declines an application, it will be passed to our staff to study it in detail. So in a nutshell, we are trying out a system, where all approvals are automated and all rejections are manual.”

Informing this was Narinder Warraich, who manages Canterbury Punjabi Association and was the organiser of the community meeting. He added, “It was a fruitful meeting between the Minister and Christchurch Indian community leaders, which was organised to discuss the immigration policies that are affecting our community. All of us raised concerns regarding student visa, work visa, partnership visa and parents category visa. He has assured us of some positive outcomes on some policies in the upcoming Labour Party Immigration Policy 2020. His hint towards computerised visa approvals in future is a welcome step, whenever it gets implemented.”

-Gaurav Sharma