It is common for LIAs to encounter the following situation: While we are dealing with one important and urgent issue, another emergency case suddenly shows up. How can we prioritise our work in this situation?

First, we need to compare the urgency and importance of the new case with the one that we are already dealing with. It is obvious that we should deal with the case for which the due date is nearer and the importance is higher. However, how to judge if a case is an emergency? Is an emergency quantifiable?

I use the following equation to evaluate the level of emergency of each task:

Emergency = Importance ÷ Time

For example, I am processing a student visa application, which started three days ago. The applicant's current visa will expire in five days, and I am still waiting for the police certificate from the client's home country. The service fee for this application is 500NZD. Suddenly, a client comes to the office with a PPI letter from INZ whose due date is three days later. This client applied for a student visa a month ago, and the INZ has concerns that 1. her funds are not from a genuine source; and 2. she is not a bona fide applicant because she obtained a work visa in New Zealand previously and applied for an English Language programme when her previous visa was due to expire, without giving any study plan. Since the latter case is more complicated and urgent, we charge a 1500NZD service fee for this case.

Now let us evaluate the level of emergency of each task.

Student visa application:

Emergency = Importance ÷ Time = 500 (NZD) ÷ 5 (Days) = 100

PPI response:

Emergency = Importance ÷ Time = 1500 (NZD) ÷ 3 (Days) = 500

Although it seems 'superficial' to judge the importance according to the service fee, the service fee we charge does reflect the significance, complexity and urgency of a case to some extent. In this way, we make the concept of emergency quantifiable.

Second, we should be aware of the number of cases that we can undertake at the same time. If the number of new cases we take over remains the same when other LIAs or assistants are on holiday, the quality of service is likely to decline because of the shortage of hands.

In addition, we also need to pay attention to the peak period for visa submissions. For example, July is the beginning of the new school term. Many clients' student visas expire in July and, therefore, there is usually a large number of student visa applications that need processing in July each year. At the beginning of July this year, our company submitted about 10 student visas per day, which caused many colleagues to work overtime. In order that we do not bite off more than we can chew, we need to know the maximum number of cases that we can handle simultaneously. If the number of cases we are processing exceeds the maximum limit that we can handle, we need to stop taking new orders to avoid delays in the applications of existing clients, otherwise, we may end up with a decline in the quality of our service, which may generate a negative effect, both on our clients and on our company's reputation.

In conclusion, we need to know how to figure out which is the more urgent work and prioritise such cases. We also need to know our limit and stop accepting new clients to avoid a reduction in our service quality.