David Farrar: Don’t overstay and you’ll get visa free travel

Radio NZ reports:

More than 45,000 people have signed a petition demanding equal treatment of visitors from New Zealand’s Pacific neighbours.

At the moment they must apply for a visitor visa, provide proof of funds for the duration of their stay and could be asked to get an x-ray or doctor’s check to show they’re in “good health”.

But the petition wants visitors from six Pacific nations to be treated the same as travellers from 60 other countries – that it says are eligible for a cheaper more straight forward electronic authority to enter Aotearoa.

Visa free travel is given to countries that don’t have a significant prevalence of travellers overstaying. It isn;’t about their location, it is about whether people abuse visitors visas.

Here are the overstaying rates, which are the percentage of temporary visa arrivals who overstay:

1. Tonga 1.9%
2. Samoa 1.7%
3. Malaysia 0.3%
4. Fiji 0.3%

If 1 in 50 visitors are overstaying, then of course visitors from that country will face more stringent eligibility to visit. And this is based on there already being these current hurdles. Presumably if they were removed, the percentage overstaying would go from 1 in 50 to maybe 1 in 20 or more.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders