The Government approved 34,221 work, residence and student visas in October, up 10.4% compared to October last year.

The latest figures from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE)* show that 24,135 work visas were approved in October, up 9% compared to October last year.

Of those, 13,344 were renewals of existing work visas, while a further 870 work visas were approved for people who were previously on student visas.

The next biggest group was students, with 6411 student visas approved in October, up 14.8% compared to October last year.

Of those, 3570 were "first time" student visas, (up 21.1% on a year ago), with most of the rest being renewals of existing student visas.

Residence visas remained the smallest group, with 3675 residence visas approved in October, up 12.8% compared to October last year, with just over half (1854) of those issued to people who had previously been on work visas,.and 363 issued to people who had previously been on student visas.

According to MBIE, a total of 475,920 people were in this country on work, residence or student visas at the end of October, almost 10% of the total population and up 3.6% compared to the same time last year.

That included 202,917 people on work visas,187,164 on residence visas and 85,839 on student visas.

*Immigration NZ is part of MBIE.

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