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Residence

Staying in New Zealand permanently

There is no single residence visa. There are several routes with little in common, and the first useful step is working out which one you are on, because they are not interchangeable.

The short answer

How do you get residence in New Zealand?

There is no single New Zealand residence visa. Residence is reached through several separate pathways with different criteria: skilled work assessed on points, shortage occupations on a published list, a relationship with a New Zealand citizen or resident, and investment. Evidence that is decisive on one pathway is often irrelevant on another.

  • Time spent living in New Zealand does not count towards residence by itself. What counts is the visa held, the role, and what it paid.
  • You are generally assessed under the rules in force when you apply, not the rules that applied when you arrived.
  • The points required for the Skilled Migrant Category, and how each point is earned, are set by Immigration New Zealand and have changed more than once.
  • A resident visa lets you stay indefinitely, but the travel conditions attached to it expire.
  • Residence is not citizenship. Citizenship is a separate application to a different agency, years later.

Four routes, and they are not variations of each other

People often describe themselves as "applying for residence" as though it were one process. It is not. New Zealand residence is reached through several separate pathways, and they are assessed against completely different criteria:

  • Skills. Points from your qualification, registration, income and New Zealand work experience.
  • Shortage occupations. Your role appears on a published list, either straight to residence or after a period of work here.
  • Relationship. You are the partner or dependent child of a New Zealand citizen or resident.
  • Investment or business. Assessed on capital and on what you do with it, not on your occupation.

Evidence that is decisive on one route can be irrelevant on another. A strong employment record does very little for a partnership application; a genuine long relationship does nothing for a skills application. Working out which route applies before you start collecting documents saves the most time of anything you can do.

Where the points figures are, and how to trust them

The number of points required, the wage thresholds and the way points are earned have all changed more than once, and they are exactly the figures people find on an old page and rely on. So every figure we state is printed with a link to the Immigration New Zealand page it was read from and the date it was checked, and our skilled migrant points page sets all of them out that way.

The Skilled Migrant Category page is where the points sit. The pay rates page is where the income thresholds sit. If anything on this site disagrees with either, they are right.

The mistake that costs the most time

It is spending years in New Zealand on work that was never going to count. This happens to people who are doing everything else right: they arrive on a work visa, they work hard, they stay, and at the end of it the role was the wrong skill level or the pay never reached the threshold, so none of it converts.

If residence is the point of being here, the question to answer in your first year is not "am I doing well" but "does this specific role, at this specific pay, count towards the pathway I am on". That question has a checkable answer.

Pathways

The routes to residence

Immigration New Zealand holds the criteria for each of these. Where a card links to their site, that is where the current rules live.

Questions

Common questions

How many points do I need for the Skilled Migrant Category?

You need 6 skilled resident points. What is worth explaining is where they come from, because points are drawn from one skill category only, either your qualification, a New Zealand occupational registration, or your income, and those three cannot be combined with each other. Only skilled work experience in New Zealand can be added on top. Our skilled migrant points page sets out what each one is worth, with the Immigration New Zealand source and check date against every figure.

Do I have to have a job offer to get residence?

For the skills-based routes, generally yes, and usually with an accredited employer. Relationship-based and some sector routes work differently. This is one of the biggest forks in the road, so it is worth establishing early which side of it you are on.

Can I include my partner and children in my residence application?

Usually you can include a partner and dependent children in the same application, and each of them has to meet health and character requirements in their own right. A dependent child who turns a certain age partway through the process can fall outside the definition, which is one reason delay has a real cost here.

I have been here for years on work visas. Does that help?

It helps if the work qualified. Length of time in New Zealand on its own is not a residence pathway. What matters is the type of visa, the role, the pay and whether the occupation was on the relevant list at the time.

What happens if my residence application is declined?

Residence class visa decisions can generally be appealed to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal, and there are strict time limits measured in days from the date of the decision letter. Missing the deadline usually ends the option. See the immigration problems section.

Where this comes from

Immigration New Zealand publishes the rules and can change them without notice. These are the pages this one is based on. If something here and something there disagree, Immigration New Zealand is right.

Licensed advice

Working out whether your route actually qualifies?

This site explains how the rules work. It cannot tell you what will happen in your case, because that depends on facts only an adviser who has seen your file can weigh up.

In New Zealand it is a criminal offence to give immigration advice without a licence or an exemption. ProVisas holds IAA licence 201301110.

Talk to a licensed adviser +64 22 112 1112