New Zealand Residence Visa
Expert guidance through every pathway to permanent residency in New Zealand — for individuals, partners, parents, and skilled workers.
Make New Zealand Your Forever Home
New Zealand is a country that is intriguing to many people. This is partly explained by its impressive scenery, safe and high-quality living, and strong education and employment sectors. New Zealand is a favoured destination for people all over the world.
New Zealand's residence permits have administrative barriers that complicate the residence permit application. Our service supports prospective residence permit applicants to navigate through barriers. We encourage applicants to apply for residence permits. We provide applicants with the necessary administration and documentation in a structured and clear manner.
We support individuals and their families and facilitate partners, parents, and skilled workers to apply for residence permits. Understanding the necessities of our clients forms the basis of our practice. We identify and explain the best pathways, and work through the requirements and improve the quality of application documentation.
Our Service for New Zealand Residence Visas
We offer end-to-end support across the full range of New Zealand residence visa categories.
Family Residence Visa
We help our clients understand how to sponsor their family members, provide requirements and a family-based residence permit application.
Parent Resident Visa
As a parent of a citizen or resident child of New Zealand, you may be eligible for this category of permanent residence. We provide support, explain requirements and the application process, and assist with documentation.
Partner Resident Visa
Applicants may be eligible to apply for residence based on the relationship with a partner who is a New Zealand citizen or resident. Applicants must provide evidence of a genuine and stable partnership and evidence of cohabitation.
Dependent Child Resident Visa
New Zealand citizens and residents may be able to sponsor an eligible dependent child for residence. Eligibility depends on the child's age, relationship, dependency, marital status, and other factors.
Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa
New Zealand has pathways for residence for skilled workers who have a job or job offer and meet relevant requirements. Pathways include the Points-Based pathway, Skilled Work Experience pathway, and a pathway for Trades and Technicians.
Humanitarian & Refugee Family Residence
We provide guidance for the residence pathways available to humanitarian and refugee-family situations, including sponsor and dependant relationship evidence, and the requirements of the application. These are determined on a case-by-case basis.
Why Choose Our New Zealand Immigration Assistance?
Every residence application is unique. Your age, relationship status, employment, qualifications, family situation, immigration history, and supporting evidence can all affect the immigration pathway available to you.
Our goal is to make the New Zealand residence visa process more organised and easier to understand while helping you present accurate and relevant information about your circumstances.
Please note: New Zealand immigration policies, visa settings and requirements can change. Immigration New Zealand makes the final decision regarding visa eligibility and approval. Professional immigration assistance cannot guarantee a visa outcome.
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to common questions about the New Zealand Residence Visa process.
There are several pathways to New Zealand residence, depending on your circumstances. These can include skilled residence, partner and family-based residence, parent residence and other specific residence categories. Your eligibility depends on the requirements of the relevant visa category.
Requirements depend on the residence category you apply under. Depending on the pathway, you may need to meet requirements relating to age, employment, qualifications, relationships, health, character, English language ability and supporting evidence.
The Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa is a residence pathway for people with skills needed in New Zealand. Current pathways include the Points-based pathway, Skilled Work Experience pathway and Trades and Technician pathway.
Under the current Points-based Skilled Migrant pathway, applicants need 6 skilled resident points and must also meet the other requirements of the category. Points can be based on factors such as qualifications, occupational registration or income, with eligible New Zealand skilled work experience potentially contributing additional points.
A job or job offer from an accredited employer can be an important requirement for the Skilled Migrant Category, although having a job offer alone does not automatically qualify you for residence. Other eligibility requirements must also be met.
Depending on the residence category, your partner and eligible dependent children may be included. For example, the Skilled Migrant Category allows eligible partners and dependent children aged 24 or younger to be included.
If your partner is a New Zealand citizen or resident, you may be eligible for a Partner of a New Zealander Resident Visa if you meet the relevant requirements. Immigration New Zealand generally requires evidence of a genuine and stable relationship and at least 12 months of living together for this residence category.
Eligible parents of New Zealand citizens or residents may be able to apply through the Parent Resident Visa. The category has specific eligibility, sponsorship and selection requirements, so applicants should check the current requirements before submitting an Expression of Interest.
A New Zealand citizen or resident may be able to support an eligible dependent child for residence. Generally, the child must meet requirements relating to age, dependency, relationship and marital status, among other criteria.
Not every residence pathway has the same employment requirements. Skilled residence pathways generally involve skilled employment or a qualifying job offer, while family-based residence categories are based on different requirements.
English requirements depend on the residence category and the applicant's circumstances. For example, English language requirements apply to Skilled Migrant Category applicants, with specific ways to demonstrate the required ability.
Health requirements apply to New Zealand residence applications, and applicants may need to provide medical examination and chest X-ray results depending on their age and circumstances.
Character requirements apply to residence visa applicants. Depending on your age, immigration history and visa category, you may need to provide police certificates from relevant countries.
Some New Zealand residence categories allow applications from outside the country, while the requirements and process depend on the specific visa category. Your location should therefore be considered when assessing your residence pathway.
Processing times vary depending on the visa category, application complexity, supporting documents and Immigration New Zealand's workload. It is best to check the current processing time for the specific residence visa before applying.
A resident visa and a permanent resident visa are different. Depending on the category and your circumstances, you may become eligible for a Permanent Resident Visa after meeting the relevant requirements and holding residence for the required period. For example, the Partner of a New Zealander Resident Visa page states that applicants may apply for permanent residence after holding the resident visa for at least two years continuously, subject to the requirements.
No adviser can guarantee approval. Immigration New Zealand makes the final decision based on the applicable immigration instructions, your circumstances and the evidence provided. A professional adviser can, however, help you understand the requirements and prepare an accurate and well-supported application.
Documents vary by residence category but may include passports, identity documents, birth or marriage certificates, evidence of relationship, employment and qualification documents, medical certificates, police certificates and other supporting evidence. The exact requirements should be checked against the specific visa category.
Free Eligibility Assessment
We invite you to complete a free short assessment so that we can assess your eligibility for different visa programs offered by New Zealand.
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