ADEPT Visa System Faults in New Zealand: Facts and Practical Steps for Applicants and Employers

News · 2026-09-30 · 4 min read

Dozens of visa files were approved by faults in Immigration New Zealand's ADEPT platform, with no person ever checking them. This briefing covers what went wrong and the practical response for applicants, employers and anyone planning a move.

It is natural to expect that an officer looks at every application. New Zealand has learned that this does not always happen. RNZ reported on 30 September 2026 that briefings to Immigration Minister Erica Stanford confirmed some applications had gone through without any manual assessment because of software errors.

The Problem in Brief

Since 2022, Immigration New Zealand has processed visas online through ADEPT. Officials discovered that, because of a technical fault, one automated process could occasionally be triggered twice or more on the same application. The repeat runs duplicated actions and jumped past the point at which a staff member was meant to review the case.

Findings From the Review

The review that followed identified:

32 visitor visas granted without a manual check over a period of roughly three years;
23 Job Check applications passed in 2022, also without a manual check. (In a Job Check, an accredited employer demonstrates that it first tried to recruit a New Zealander.)

According to officials, technical advisors have since gone back over all of those visitor visas. Twenty holders have already made the trip to New Zealand and nothing adverse has been noted. Risk factors led to six files being reopened for a complete assessment, and a decline was recommended for one.

Additional System Errors Reported

The platform has had other problems as well:

Missed health question: in 2025, 364 people applying for multiple entry visitor visas for parents and grandparents were not asked a residency question related to tuberculosis. Of these, 295 received visas. Officials described the individual risk as relatively low and said affected applicants would be contacted.
Employer dashboard faults: around 2,300 employers with accreditation that lapsed and was later renewed lost visibility of their migrant staff on the platform, which made it harder to resend job tokens or to report a departure.
August 2026 draft problem: following a system update, some visitor visa applicants could not submit drafts after adding a second person. A permanent fix was in place within days, but how many people were affected is not known.

Automation and the Human Decision Rule

The Government had stated that automation would help with approvals, while any decision to decline would remain with staff. Immigration law allows automated decision-making, but 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 do it properly. These approvals were therefore not a planned rollout; the system acted in a way nobody intended.

There is also a wider concern. Ministers returned the $336 million Our Future Services programme for a new business case after its projected savings were overstated by $134 million, and they want a report before April 2027.

Guidance by Situation

Visa applicants: nothing in these reports indicates that genuine applications are at risk. The issue is consistency and oversight, not people being wrongly refused. However, a quick approval does not prove your file was reviewed as carefully as it should have been, and errors found later can lead to follow-up contact.

Employers and sponsors: match what the dashboard shows against your internal list of employees and issued job tokens. The platform may not reflect reality, especially where accreditation has expired and then been renewed.

Anyone planning to migrate: rules and systems change in every destination country. Whatever the platform displays, keep your own copies of submissions, confirmations, medical results and correspondence. If you are applying from Pakistan, also keep your English CV, any English test results (IELTS or PTE) and your police character certificate organised in one place, and check current emigration requirements with the Bureau of Emigration & Overseas Employment before you travel.

Good Practice for Online Applications

Save each submitted page and every confirmation.
Answer all health and character questions in full, even when the system does not prompt you.
Respond without delay when more information is requested.
Check your application status often; do not treat silence as a sign that everything is fine.
If something seems wrong, ask a licensed migration professional.

Key Point to Remember

Technology can make visa processing faster, but it needs thorough testing and human oversight. Whatever country you are targeting, an honest, complete application backed by solid documents remains your strongest safeguard. This applies equally to New Zealand jobs for Pakistani workers and to any other destination.

General information only; nothing here is immigration advice. Because processes and rules can shift, confirm the details with official sources or a licensed adviser before lodging anything.

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