Students and tourists flocked to apply for visas on the day the last border restrictions were lifted.
Photo: 123RF
Immigration numbers show a 73 percent increase on pre-Covid-19 figures.
The last border reopening phase began at midnight on 1 August, and more than 3559 people applied for visas on the opening day.
Until now, only people from countries that did not need visas to travel here have arrived.
Yesterday, almost 3000 visitors from other countries started the visa application process.
The number of student applications were double that of a similar time in 2019, while visitor visas jumped by more than 70 percent.
Immigration New Zealand (INZ) has said it is committed to processing straightforward visitor visas within 20 working days.
"New Zealand's border has fully reopened with people now able to apply for student and visitor visas as of Sunday 31 July at 11:59pm," INZ border and visa operations general manager Nicola Hogg said.
"On 1 August 2022, INZ received 2863 visitor visa applications, and 696 student visa applications.
"For comparison, over a two-week period in 2019 around this time of year, the average number of applications INZ received was 1657 visitor visa applications and 350 student visa applications."
INZ said numbers of people applying yesterday to reunite with family were not readily available.
Immigration adviser Katy Armstrong said partnership applications opened on 4 July, the same date as work visas, but an online poll she carried out yesterday showed only four of 74 had been granted so far.
A further 28 people had applied before August 2020 for a visas and were still waiting.
She said split families had been left to the end of priorities in reopening the border, and while some partners and children had been allowed in under other policies, she still had dozens of clients waiting to see their families.
