In response to demand for more workers in the manufacturing sector, Prime Minister William Massey announced the formation of an official Immigration Department in 1912.

[5] Following the Second World War, the Secretary of Labour Herbert Leslie Bockett expanded the Immigration Division by establishing sections in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin district offices.

During the 1970s and early 1980s, the Immigration Division and Department of Labour was tasked with managing various issues including Pacific Islander overstayers and refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia.

In response to the increasing strain placed by immigration on New Zealand's social infrastructure particularly housing and education, the Department of Labour tightened English language and capital requirements.

INZ maintains offices in Auckland Central, Henderson, Manukau, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Wellington's Te Aro suburb, Porirua and Christchurch.

In November 2017, the agency's general manager Steve Stuart announced that it would consider shutting down its Auckland Central and Henderson offices due to increased public usage of its websites and online visa application platforms.

Affected offices included those in Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Bangkok, Moscow, New Delhi, Pretoria and Shanghai.

While the offices in Manila, Washington, DC, London and Dubai would cease processing visas, it was decided that they would remain open in order to gather market intelligence, carry out verification activities and maintain relationships with key partner countries.

[22] In September 2018, Immigration New Zealand embarked on a NZ$25.2 million restructuring plan that led to the closure of six offices in Hong Kong, Ho Chi Minh City, Moscow, Jakarta, Shanghai, and New Delhi.

"[29] In February 2004, Immigration Officer Manjit Singh was charged for theft for pocketing the proceeds of disposing of the assets of nationals deported from New Zealand.

[30] In 2009, The Christchurch and Sydney branches were revealed to have operated an unsanctioned "initiative" called "Project Crusade" between April and July 2008 in granting visas to applicants who had not submitted either medicals or police clearance certificates.

[31] In 2012, it was reported that 50 Immigration NZ staff had improperly accessed client information since the agency started its internal investigation process in 2004.

The first scandal was where she was exposed as not only getting several relatives from Kiribati to NZ without a visa in full violation of immigration rules, but later obtaining them Permanent Residency under an annual quota.

Key complaints were that many Tongan and Pacific New Zealanders lacked access to computer and that delays in renewing immigration applications had caused some people to be classified as overstayers.

[39][40] In November 2018, drug smuggler and convicted Czech criminal Karel Sroubek was granted residency by Minister of Immigration Ian Lees-Galloway.

[41] The controversy arose when in 2018, despite being in prison for smuggling MDMA, Sroubek's residency wasn't revoked, and he was granted a further visa by the then Immigration Minister, Iain Lees-Galloway.

[43] An Immigration NZ spokesperson clarified that the map had been published as part of its online fact sheets on the humanitarian situation in Palestine and New Zealand's refugee program.

The Israel Institute's Director Ashley Church demanded that the Immigration Minister apologize to the Jewish community and confirm this did not represent New Zealand foreign policy.

[44][45] On 20 June, the Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway issued an apology to the Israeli Ambassador Itzhak Gerberg and said that immediate action had been taken to remove the diagram.

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters described the map as a "careless and shoddy mistake" and criticized the handling of the incident as "an affront to the Israeli people.

"[46][47] In mid October 2019, Immigration New Zealand controversially tightened their partnership visa policies to exclude applicants from India who were engaged in non-resident Indian (NRI) marriages.

[48] In early November 2019, the Government announced the reversal of the partnership visa decision, restoring the exception for non-resident Indian marriages.

[49] In early November 2021, Community Law Waikato challenged Immigration New Zealand's decision to stop processing visas by Afghan migrants and refugees in 2020 due to COVID-19 border restrictions.

[50] On 23 November, the High Court ruled that Immigration NZ was wrong to stop processing the Afghan interpreters' visa applications due to COVID-19 and not making an exception on humanitarian grounds in light of the 2021 Taliban offensive.

[52] Following a judicial challenge by Community Law Waikato, the High Court ruled that the government department was wrong to halt processing Afghan visas due to COVID-19.

These 17 individuals were unable to enter the country due to a lack of official assistance from MFAT, which claimed that these applicants did not meet the criteria of people who had helped NZ agencies in Afghanistan and their immediate family members.

[55] According to Immigration Minister Michael Wood's office, these 19 cases consisted of 10 Chinese, four Indians, two Tongans, one Samoan, one Malaysian and one Indonesian.

[56][57] The April raid was also criticised by the Pasifika overstayer's lawyer Soane Foliaki former Polynesian Panther Tigilau Ness, lawyer Soane Foliaki, Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson, and ACT Party leader David Seymour for traumatising the overstayer's family and evoking memories of the controversial dawn raids of the 1970s which disproportionately targeted Pasifika New Zealanders.

In response to media coverage, the National Party's immigration spokesperson Erica Stanford described the migrant exploitation situation as "the worst human suffering we have seen in this country, maybe ever" and blamed it on the lowering of checks on employers by the Government.

2 Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Russia and the partially recognised republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia each span the conventional boundary between Europe and Asia.