Frequent travelers from Samoa may soon be eligible to bypass visa requirements when planning to travel to New Zealand.
The Immigration Minister, Michael Wood has expressed his hopes that an agreement in this regard would be signed off in the following months, VisaGuide.World reports.
The Minister stressed that he believes that it is not something that will take a long time in order to be finalised, while emphasizing that it would cover those travelling often, taking also into account travel for business as well diplomatic purposes.
The new amendments mean that all those passengers would end up on a visa permitting them to bypass having to reapply every time they visit New Zealand.
“We had some specific requests that we have looked into in terms of people who have very frequent travel between the Pacific and New Zealand as to whether we can facilitate that and make that smoother,” the Minister pointed out in this regard.
According to the data provided previously by the Official Information Act shows that about half of all visitor visas being denied by authorities in New Zealand are people who apply from Pacific countries.
At the same time, it has been emphasized that there is no requirement for citizens of New Zealand wishing to holiday in the Pacific in order to request a visitor visa.
In this regard, Wood said that it is not unreasonable for a specific country to require a visitor visa in order to visit this country. However, Wood stressed that most Pacific applicants are accepted.
“We respect the right of states to make their own decisions about their own borders and also to manage those appropriately and I believe that our Pacific partners respect our right to make those decisions for ourselves as well,” the Minister pointed out in this regard.
In this regard, other Labour Ministers told 1News that they were subject to scrutiny in the past few months with the Pacific community waiting to see new changes on visa requirements.
He stressed that especially in South Auckland they are facing pressure from constituents there, stressing that he understands that taking into account their long history regarding the Labour Party.
At the same time, the report provided by Pacific Peoples Minister emphasized that the issue had been a particular focus point.
Authorities in New Zealand are continuously attempting to ease the travel process in order to bring to the country a large number of internationals.
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