Plain language law

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5: Notifications
or “How to properly send notices and documents to different people”

You could also call this:

“How to count days for immigration applications and appeals”

When you need to calculate time periods for making applications under this law, you don’t count public holidays, special Department holidays, or weekends. This means you only count regular working days.

For appeals to the Tribunal, the time calculation is a bit different. You don’t count public holidays, special Department holidays, or weekends. If the Department handling your case isn’t the main immigration department, there are some extra days you don’t count. These include the period from December 25 to January 2, and some extra days around New Year’s Day, Waitangi Day, and Anzac Day.

There’s an exception to these rules. When calculating ‘working days’ for certain sections of the law (section 194(2) or 195(3)), you don’t use these special counting methods.

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Next up: 7: Meaning of classified information and proceedings involving classified information

or “Explanation of secret information and its use in immigration cases”

Part 1 Preliminary provisions

6How periods of time to be calculated

  1. A period of time prescribed in this Act for the making of an application under the Act must be calculated excluding any day that is—

  2. a public holiday or a Department holiday determined by the chief executive; and
    1. not a Saturday or Sunday.
      1. A period of time prescribed in this Act for the lodging of an appeal to the Tribunal must be calculated excluding—

      2. any day that is—
        1. a public holiday or a Department holiday determined by the chief executive; and
          1. not a Saturday or Sunday; or
          2. if the Department is not the department referred to in clause 5 of Schedule 2, any day that is a public holiday and not a Saturday or Sunday, and—
            1. any day in the period beginning on 25 December in a year and ending on 2 January in the following year; and
              1. if 1 January falls on a Friday, the following Monday; and
                1. if 1 January falls on a Saturday or a Sunday, the following Monday and Tuesday; and
                  1. if Waitangi Day or Anzac Day falls on a Saturday or a Sunday, the following Monday.
                  2. Subsections (1) and (2) do not apply for the purposes of calculating working days under section 194(2) or 195(3).

                  Notes
                  • Section 6(2)(b)(iii): replaced, on , by section 8 of the Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Act 2013 (2013 No 19).
                  • Section 6(2)(b)(iv): inserted, on , by section 8 of the Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Act 2013 (2013 No 19).