You want to sponsor a family member or Partner.
How can I bring my family to New Zealand?
There are several ways in which the families of New Zealand residents may apply for entrance to the country. Temporary visas can be provided for shorter visits – there are several temporary visa policies available, based on your relationship to the New Zealand citizen or resident.
Usually, a standard visitor’s visa will suffice in these cases; however, parents and grandparents of New Zealand citizens and residents can obtain multiple-entry visas, which enable them to enter the country several times over three years.
As with any other visa, general health and character requirements must be met before anyone is issued a visa allowing them to enter New Zealand.
Application under the Family category
Any recognised partner (opposite or same-sex) of a New Zealand citizen or resident, be it an officially sanctioned or de facto partnership, may apply for New Zealand residency.
Your partner must be eligible to sponsor you, meaning that they must be able to prove their immigration standards and meet certain character requirements.
In particular, sponsors and partners cannot have been convicted of domestic violence or a sexual crime.
What about dependent children?
If you are already a citizen or resident of New Zealand and wish to gain visas and/or residency for your children, you must be living permanently and lawfully in New Zealand, and be able to provide proof of your residency status.
Children must meet the same basic health and character requirements as all visa and residency applicants.
If your children were born before you established residency in New Zealand, you must declare them on your residency application if you hope to have them gain residency status in the future. Children must be totally financially dependent on an adult, though that adult does not necessarily have to be a parent.
Under recent changes to the family stream, young adult children aged 18 to 20 may be eligible for residence – even if they have a job in their home country – provided they are single, have no children and are included, or were declared, in their parents’ residence application.
How can I sponsor my parents?
Parent Resident Visa – EOI for this category is currently suspended
If you have an adult New Zealand citizen or resident child who earns enough and agrees to sponsor you, you may be able to live in New Zealand permanently.
You need to send an Expression of Interest explaining how you meet the requirements and be sponsored by your child, or your child and their partner. If you meet all the criteria you will then be invited to apply for a residence class visa.
If you submitted an EOI before this visa closed , you can choose to:
• update your EOI to meet the new requirements, or
• withdraw your EOI and apply for a refund of your EOI fee.
For details about this category, please click on this link: Parent Resident Visa Reopens 24 February
Begin the process now.
Even if you are not yet a New Zealand resident, but are planning a permanent move and eventual residence there, you can start the process of bringing your family to join you.
There are a number of temporary visas available as a legal means to bring relations into New Zealand to join you, and if they prove themselves reputable, productive and law-abiding individuals, their application for residency is likely to be approved.