Immigration Series: All about New Zealand’s Parent Resident Visa

The Parent Resident Visa enables New Zealand residents and citizens to sponsor their parents for residence in New Zealand. The New Zealand resident must earn enough money and agree to sponsor their parents.

About the visa:

Length of stay: With this visa, the sponsored parent can stay in New Zealand indefinitely.

Quota: Each year 2,500

Cost: From NZD $3180

Benefit: With this visa, one can live, work and study in New Zealand and include your partner in your residence application.

Process: The visa is a two-stage process. People first submit an Expression of Interest (EOI). If the EOI is selected and it meets the requirements, Immigration New Zealand (INZ) will issue an Invitation To Apply (ITA). Only people who have received an ITA are able to make a residence application and this application must be made within 4 months of the ITA being issued.

EOI: EOI selections occur in February, May, August and November, and generally take place on the second Tuesday of the relevant month. You can only be included in one EOI in the ballot. If your EOI in the ballot pool includes someone in another ballot pool EOI, it is removed from the pool (and you will be notified).

What happens when your EOI is selected

• Once EOIs are selected they go through a checking process. Checks generally take around 2 weeks. After INZ checks your EOI, you will either be invited to apply for residence or advised if your EOI will be declined.
• INZ does not contact people whose EOIs are not selected.

Quota: INZ can approve a maximum of 2,000 visas per year to people who submitted EOIs before the restart of selections was announced on October 10, 2022. These EOIs are in a queue and selected in date order, with the oldest selected first. A maximum of 500 visas a year can be granted to people who submitted EOIs on or after October 10, 2022. These EOIs are placed in a ballot and are selected randomly. EOIs in the ballot expire two years after they are submitted.

Once all the EOIs in the queue submitted before October 10, 2022 have been selected, the full amount of 2,500 visas will be available to people with EOIs in the ballot.

Things to note: 

• Your sponsoring child must be a New Zealand citizen or resident
• You must provide proof of your identity
• You must be in good health
• You must be of good character
• You must speak and understand English
• Your sponsoring child, or them and their joint sponsor, must earn enough to sponsor you
• If you submitted an EOI under the Parent Resident Visa before October 12, 2023, you can withdraw or update it
• EOIs are selected from either a queue or ballot pool depending on when the EOI was received
• EOIs submitted before the month of the draw are eligible for selection from the ballot pool
• Grandparents and legal guardians may be able to apply for residence under this category
• If you have any dependent children, you are not eligible for this visa

Sponsorship: For 10 years after your resident visa is granted, your sponsor must meet the following sponsorship obligations:

• provide suitable accommodation if you don’t have your own place to live ensure your health and welfare needs are met
• pay any costs associated with your deportation and repatriation (if required)

The Parent Resident Visa restarted on October 12, 2022, with different requirements for sponsors:

• Sponsors will now need to earn 1.5 times the New Zealand median wage, and this limit will increase by half the median wage for each joint sponsor or additional parent
• Two adult children, not just an adult child and their partner, can now jointly sponsor a parent

Entry permission:  You must apply for entry permission when you arrive in New Zealand. You can do this by completing a paper arrival card or a digital traveller declaration. If you are completing a paper arrival card you will be given this on the way to New Zealand.

New Zealand Customs and Biosecurity also check that you meet their entry requirements.

You can be refused entry permission if:

• you don’t meet INZ’s character requirements
• your circumstances have changed since you were granted a visa
• you refuse to let INZ  take your photo, or provide your fingerprints or an iris scan, if asked for it

Travel: 

• You can travel in and out of New Zealand as often as you like until your travel conditions expire — normally two years from the date you first arrive in New Zealand as a resident
• If you are outside New Zealand when your travel conditions expire, your visa will expire as well
• To travel in and out of New Zealand after your travel conditions expire, you need to apply for: a variation to your travel conditions, or a Permanent Resident Visa
• Your travel conditions will expire 10 years from the date you first arrive in New Zealand as a resident. Your visa label and approval letter will detail the date that your travel conditions expire
• If you want to travel, your visa must be in a valid passport. If your passport expires, you must apply to transfer your visa to a new passport before you can travel
• To transfer your visa, you must: send INZ your old and new passports, complete an ‘Application for Transfer or Confirmation of a Visa’, pay a transfer fee

Other visa options available to parents and grandparents: Parents of New Zealand citizens and residents can apply for residence under the Parent Retirement Resident Visa. Applicants need to be able to invest specific amounts of money in New Zealand.

Parents and grandparents can also apply for a Parent and Grandparent Visitor Visa. This is a 3-year visa that comes with multiple-entry travel conditions.