this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2025
16 points (100.0% liked)

Aotearoa / New Zealand

2035 readers
23 users here now

Kia ora and welcome to !newzealand, a place to share and discuss anything about Aotearoa in general

Rules:

FAQ ~ NZ Community List ~ Join Matrix chatroom

 

Banner image by Bernard Spragg

Got an idea for next month's banner?

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Dave@lemmy.nz
RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz
16
Altered clients' photos causing headaches for immigration advisers (www.rnz.co.nz)
submitted 2 months ago by Dave@lemmy.nz to c/newzealand@lemmy.nz
5 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Immigration New Zealand says 1000 people each week submit photos that have been filtered or airbrushed.

The agency receives about 20,000 visa requests per week, so about one in 20 photos has been altered.

On Friday, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment deputy secretary Alison McDonald told the Association for Migration and Investment conference in Auckland that the number of touched-up pictures was increasing and was creating big problems.

"We've got more and more applicants applying, having kind of morphed their photos using AI or filters.

"If you see your client and they don't look like the picture, find yourself - if you can - a really nice way to point out that they're not that beautiful."

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I remember DIA also having a similar problem even before generative AI. People would take passport photos with the front camera, which on some phones automatically mirrors the image and may do automatic touch ups. Then the person can't use the e-gates because the passport image check fails.

[–] Ilovethebomb@lemmy.nz 3 points 2 months ago

I'd be so pissed off if I found out my phone was editing photos I took without me asking it to.