Visas for people working in the hospitality sector are taking up to three months to process, which is having a major impact on businesses.
Chris Buckley owns two bars in Queenstown and is a member of Hospitality New Zealand.
He told Andrew Dickens turnover and staff morale are suffering because of lengthy delays in visa processing.
"There are quite a few places have to close for a couple of days to give staff a break and there are other places that just don't have enough workers."
Buckley says Immigration's restructure and move to one site obviously hasn't worked, and it needs more people to process visas.
For example, one of my chef applied for a work visa seven weeks in advance, but was told two days before it was due to expire it would take another seven weeks to process."
Buckley says the chef was given an interim visa but wasn't allowed to work.
LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW ABOVE