New Zealand Immigration rule for permanent resident visa application modified

Immigrants who wish to apply for a Permanent Resident Visa in New Zealand must do so entirely online rather than submitting in paper forms. The New Zealand government has announced that applications for the Permanent Resident Visa will be moving online in late January 2024.

If you want to live, work, and study in New Zealand and travel to and from New Zealand any time you like, you will need a Permanent Resident visa. You can even include your partner, and dependent children aged 24 and under, in your visa application.

Immigration New Zealand (INZ) is moving the Permanent Resident Visa, Second or Subsequent Resident Visa and Variation of Travel Conditions of a resident visa application processes into Immigration Online at the end of January 2024.

At the end of January 2024, foreigners will be able to submit the following applications electronically using Immigration Online (instead of using a paper-based application):

Permanent Resident Visa

Second or Subsequent Resident Visa

Variation of Travel Conditions of a resident visa

Currently, these applications are submitted using paper forms, limiting an applicant’s ability to track the progress of their applications online.

By using Immigration Online, applicants can check their application status online without having to call the INZ contact centre, and applicants will no longer have to submit physical documents, such as passports, which was a requirement for paper applications.

People are only eligible for a Permanent Resident Visa once they have held their resident visa for at least 2 years. If the applicant was outside of New Zealand when their resident visa was issued, the start of the 2 years is when they arrived in New Zealand on their resident visa.

A Resident visa is different from a Permanent Resident Visa. A Permanent Resident Visa is usually the next step after being granted a Resident Visa. While Resident Visas have travel conditions that only allow a person to re-enter New Zealand as a resident until a certain date, a Permanent Resident Visa allows indefinite re-entry to New Zealand.

The cost for the Permanent Resident Visa starts from NZD $240 and the Processing time for 90% of applications is within 28 weekdays.