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SOME people applying for immigration may have to wait two years and perhaps even longer before their applications are processed, according to an official report.
And while New Zealand has recently increased its intake of migrants the report says they are putting a big strain on the country and the provision of the services.
New Zealand's ability to absorb extra people is under pressure from unprecedented numbers of permanent and temporary immigrants, official papers show.
Prepared by the Labour Department, the papers raise concern that high immigration is putting pressure on local services, particularly in Auckland.
"Immigration flows, both permanent and temporary, are putting pressure on infrastructure and services... affecting New Zealand's capacity to absorb the new arrivals," the papers said.
Auckland was shouldering a disproportionate share of the impact, becoming home to 57 per cent of migrants over the past five years and a high proportion of temporary workers and international students, they said.
The pressure on the Immigration Service itself had been acute, with the backlog of applications before it hitting 25,000 by July. It would take up to two years to clear the backlog, the papers said.
In 2001-2002, nearly 53,000 people were approved for New Zealand residence, more than 35,000 of them on the basis of the skills they brought to New Zealand, 14,276 on the basis of family ties and 2704 as refugees.
In Parliament Mr Winston Peters accused Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel of endangering New Zealanders' health by exposing them to third world diseases brought to New Zealand by refugees and asylum seekers.
He claimed that refugees and asylum seekers were bringing HIV, TB, rubella and infectious skin diseases to New Zealand.
But Mrs Dalziel accused Mr Peters of getting his facts wrong on several fronts.
Mr Peters had mistakenly targeted refugees when he was actually using several figures from a report done several years ago on asylum seekers, she said.
"Whether he has misjudged the survey or whether he is mischief-making I cannot judge."
Mrs Dalziel said the report referred to showed that 1.1 per cent of asylum seekers had HIV, 3.6 per cent showed signs of old TB infection and less than 1 per cent had active TB.