2021 NZ Resident Visa – Update

Immigration NZ (INZ) held a webinar today for immigration professionals on the new 2021 Resident Visa.

As we suspected, the webinar did not contain many further details on the new visa requirements or costs.

However, we did get the following confirmed which is important to note:

• No English requirements
• No Age requirements
• Partners must prove that at some stage in their relationship they have previously lived together for at least 12 months
• No consideration will be given in adding any new visas types on the eligibility list
• Must maintain eligibility after the 29th of September 2021. This means staying on an eligible visa, or eligible in an occupation, or earning over the $27 per hour threshold. this may not affect applicants who meet the “settled” criteria – arrived before or on the 29th of Sept 2018 and spent 821 days in NZ.
• Eligible applicants should receive communication from INZ late October.

INZ did also confirm that they are yet to finalise the immigration instructions which leaves us in the dark for now.

We will be in contact with you once we have more details which are due in the next couple of weeks.

For more information, please contact us.

Cameron Gray
NZ LIA 201301155

About the author

Cameron is highly experienced in visa applications and spent over a decade as a Visa Officer for the Australian Consulate General in New Zealand. He is a licensed immigration adviser for New Zealand is also an Australian Registered Migration Agent.

Cameron has extensive experience with assisting NZ businesses to look after their migrant teams as well as managing approval in principal and accreditation applications. He also specialises in employer assisted NZ work visas, as well as SMC and other residence visas.