Student Visa

The expiry date of the visa will be clearly marked on it. It is your responsibility to leave New Zealand before that date, or to arrange for an extension of time, before that date.

 The right to study will normally be restricted to a certain course or institution and it would be a breach of conditions to do anything other than the study specified, without getting permission from Immigration New Zealand.

 New Zealand education is historically of a very high standard. When opened up to a fee-paying international market 20 years ago student visas became very popular but an unregulated “for profit” international education market rapidly grew alongside the traditional state managed, not-for-profit system. Unscrupulous agents and operators exploited some international students until improved regulation and intervention by New Zealand authorities. Today the system provides good protection against exploitation in a financial sense but students and their parents need to make careful decisions about which school or institution to attend. New Zealand has some of the best universities, schools and institutes in the world; but just because a facility is in New Zealand does not mean it is necessarily at that standard.

 Most student visas are issued as part of a “package” sold by “agents” representing the various schools and universities overseas. That is because a precondition of a student visa being issued is, usually, that the student has been accepted by the school or university and a fee paid into a safe account; so there is often a seamless connection between deciding which school to attend, being accepted by that school and having the appropriate student visa issued.

 Malcolm Pacific has some advice to parents and students commencing this process:

• Be aware that “agents” are usually paid by commission. Not all schools are of the same high standard. An agent representing a poor school is not likely to tell you the truth! Make your own, independent inquiry to be sure of your choice.

• It is against the law for agents selling student permits to give advice on any other immigration policy; but many do so. Particularly, student permit agents often tell students or their parents that certain immigration privileges or benefits will come as a result of the student getting a New Zealand qualification. These claims are often untrue; but when students find that out, perhaps several years later, they feel they have somehow let their family or parents down. Unwilling to ask for help they become victims of exploitation and illegal schemes. We have seen too many good young people trapped into prostitution, crime, drug dealing and exploitive employment simply because they thought their father would be unhappy paying for the cost of proper immigration advice from a licensed adviser. It is very important, in our view, for parents to make clear to their student children that if any immigration difficulties or uncertainties emerge in the future, that they must go to a licensed adviser for help and that no shame will come to them from their family for doing that.