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New Zealand Permanent Resident Visa visa allows you to stay in Aotearoa indefinitely and use the resident’s status to its full potential.
The ultimate goal of many, a New Zealand Permanent Resident Visa may be available after showing commitment to the country and staying on the right side of the law. In some cases, however, the road to Permanent Residence may be shorter. Below you will find the answers to the most common questions asked about Permanent Resident Visas.
While you are onshore, you may enjoy all the perks of residence, such as unlimited stay in New Zealand, domestic fees at educational institutions, full subsidized access to healthcare, priority when applying for a job, and some more, it is with a Permanent Resident Visa that you will feel the utmost freedom you can avail yourself of.
| Resident Visa | Permanent Resident Visa |
|---|---|
| Allows the holder to take unlimited trips to New Zealand, but only before the expiry of the travel conditions; | Allows the holder to take unlimited trips to New Zealand at any time; |
| Allows the holder to stay in New Zealand indefinitely, if entry permission is granted to the holder. | Allows the holder to stay in New Zealand indefinitely. |
| First entry travel conditions:If the visa is granted outside New Zealand, the date by which the holder must enter the country will be displayed on the visa. This date cannot be varied anyhow, and should the date be missed, the resident visa will expire and that person will have to apply for residence again. |
Holders of both types of visa must see to it that their passport is still valid. Before the expiry of the passport, both visas can be transferred to a new one.
Resident visas, unlike their permanent variation, come with a few conditions which are to be met for the holders to continue enjoying the benefits of unlimited rights to stay together with absolute freedom when travelling.
| First entry travel conditions: | If the visa is granted outside New Zealand, the date by which the holder must enter the country will be displayed on the visa. This date cannot be varied anyhow, and should the date be missed, the resident visa will expire and that person will have to apply for residence again. |
| Multiple entry travel conditions: | These are constraints which will be valid for a certain amount of time since the first day the holder spent in New Zealand as a resident. This will either be the day of their first entry in New Zealand if the visa was granted offshore, or the day the resident visa was granted whilst they were in Aotearoa. The end of the travel constraints will be indicated on the visa as the “Expiry date travel” |
A resident visa will expire if the holder is overseas and the travel restrictions are past their expiry date. The expiry date will depend on when the holder left New Zealand, and may either be
The answer is - you may, in certain cases. For example, if
When preparing your PRV application, by ticking an appropriate box you may authorise INZ to check your eligibility for a SSRV if you do not qualify for a PRV
Here is a flowchart where you can, at your convenience, check what visa you may get.
You will need to show your commitment to New Zealand through one or more ways defined by law, and namely
| Demonstrate their commitment to New Zealand by meeting one of the five options: |
|---|
| 1. Spend enough time in New Zealand (at least 184 days in each of the 12-month portions of the 24 months immediately before applying for a PRV) |
| 2. Have a tax residence status in New Zealand. This will be assessed by Inland Revenue Department and, if this status is confirmed, the applicant will have to have spent at least 41 days in New Zealand in each of the 12-month periods right before the 24 months immediately preceding their application for a Permanent Resident Visa. |
| 3. Retaining an acceptable investment in New Zealand. Apart from meeting the Investor Category where all the conditions are met, there is another option of being on any other resident visa and having maintained an investment of at least NZ$1 million that has met the applicable rules for at least 24 months since the grant of the RV. |
| 4. Establishment of a business in New Zealand. This condition is also applicable to holders of any type of resident visa who have established, purchased, or invested in at least 25% of the shareholding of an established business, and their business has been successfully trading or benefitting New Zealand in some other way for at least 12 months before lodging an application for a PRV. |
| 5. Base established in New Zealand. To demonstrate a base has been established in the country, a principal applicant must provide proof - that each member of their immediate family included in the RV application has resided in New Zealand for at least 184 days in the 2-year period straight before the PRV application, and - that the principal applicant has been in New Zealand as a resident in at least 41 days in the 12 months before applying for a PRV, and either owned and maintained a family home in New Zealand, or have held a full-time continuous genuine employment in New Zealand immediately before the lodgement of the Permanent Resident Visa application. |
| Before the expiry of RV | After the expiry of RV |
| Before your resident visa expires, or within 3 months of its expiry, you have an option of obtaining a PRV (if eligible), ora Variation of Travel Conditions (VOTC), extending the date of your travel restrictions. | If you are outside New Zealand and your travel conditions have expired, you need to apply for a Second or Subsequent Resident Visa (SSRV), which will allow you to return to the country in your resident status. |
A VOTC of a valid Resident Visa (in New Zealand or overseas with unexpired travel conditions) may be valid for
who do not qualify for a PR.
An SSRV may be available to those as follows:
| Principal applicants | who would have met the criteria to be granted a VOTC if they had applied for it on the date the current applicant’s resident visa expired and those travel conditions would still be valid when the application for a SSRV was made; or who would have met the criteria to be granted a permanent resident visa had they applied for it on the date when the applicant’s RV expired and that date was less than 24 months before a SSRV was applied for; or who meets the criteria for one of the special provisions for a SSRV (partners of New Zealand citizens and their dependent children; former holders of RVs seconded overseas, etc.) |
| Non-principal applicants would normally be eligible for a SSRV, as well as PR and VOTC, once the principal applicant becomes entitled to these. Some exceptions are | The principal applicant has deceased The principal applicant has become a New Zealand citizen The principal and the non-principal applicant have separated or divorced The original residence application was approved before 30 October 1995. |
This may be the case, albeit in very specific situations, for example:
In case you obtained your Resident Visa as a non-principal applicant and require guidance, our immigration consultant will gladly assist you in finding you own, bespoke solution. Book your 100% free 30-minute consultation with us today.
