New figures show where thousands of permanent residents and temporary visa holders have returned from

Plane above Auckland (file picture).

New figures show where the tens of thousands of returning New Zealand permanent and temporary visa holders are coming home from, and they’re arriving from near and far.

Between March 26, 2020, the day New Zealand went into Covid-19 Level 4 lockdown, and February 13 2021, 11,614 permanent New Zealand residents have returned home.

Of those, 2,455 people were Chinese citizens, 1,814 had British passports, and 1,813 were citizens of India.

On the other end of the scale, six Ethiopian citizens returned in the time period, and six passport holders from Kazakhstan.

The biggest group of temporary and non-permanent resident visa holders came from Australia, with 5,151 crossing the ditch. Six citizens with temporary and non-permanent resident visas came from Brunei, Estonia, Guyana, Botswana, Zambia, and Uganda.

Since the Alert Level 4 lockdown, 12,467 people with visitor visas have arrived. Immigration NZ says this includes people who are family members of a New Zealand citizen or resident, humanitarian cases, family of temporary visa holders and critical workers.

According to Immigration New Zealand, 3,896 people came through on worker visas and 1,098 came in on limited visas (including RSE workers).

Student visas accounted for 542 people coming into the country, including returning PHD students and designated post-graduate students, while 392 people came in under diplomatic or official exemptions.

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