False & Misleading Information

All too often I hear from applicants who have landed themselves in some hot water with Immigration New Zealand (INZ) because they have either failed to declare something or something they declared was in fact not the truth.

INZ treats this stuff pretty seriously and rightly so, and for some applicants it can spell the end of their visa journey…but what happens if you genuinely made a mistake or someone else made that mistake on your behalf?

Providing false or misleading information or failing to update immigration as to a change in circumstances is a pretty serious thing and INZ takes it as seriously with an entire section of the rules devoted to how to deal with it. It also has a habit of sticking around like a bad smell, and if you are caught out once, that will stay with you for each and every application you might need to make.

There are potentially three ways that this problem might arise:

• During the course of an application, you provide immigration with information that was false or misleading (either a document or a statement or claim) or you fail to fail to declare information that might be relevant.

• You might have failed to update INZ during the course of an application of any materially relevant fact or detail, or a change in circumstances, that could have had an impact on the outcome of that application or your ability to enter NZ (and be granted entry permission) on any visa issued.

• Doing the above, in support of someone else’s application for a visa, e.g. providing a fake letter of support or not providing accurate sponsorship information.

I am paraphrasing from the official rules, but the general gist of this section is that if you tell immigration something that isn’t true or fail to tell them something they should be aware of, it can put you in a very precarious position - not one that is easy to get out of.

Read the full post here on our immigration site >>