Latest news with #INZ
Mint
3 hours ago
- Business
- Mint
Immigration news for Indians: New Zealand launches Parent Boost Visa
The New Zealand government is launching a new Parent Boost Visa, a multiple-entry visitor visa that allows parents of New Zealand citizens and residents to visit for up to five years. The Parent Boost Visa holders can apply for a second visa, enabling a total stay of up to 10 years, provided they continue to meet all eligibility requirements. Opening on September 29, 2025, the Parent Boost is a visitor visa, not a pathway to residence, and parents are expected to leave before it expires. People who remain in New Zealand after their visas expire are automatically liable for deportation. For those seeking permanent residency, the existing Parent Resident Visa remains available. Eligibility: Applicants must demonstrate that they are of good character, meet the acceptable standard of health (aligning with the standard for residence). There is no English language proficiency requirement. Sponsorship: Applicants must have an eligible sponsor who is: • Their biological or adopted child The sponsor must also agree to take on specific responsibilities for the full duration of the visa, including: • Covering essential costs such as accommodation and daily living costs • Ensuring access to health and financial support • Covering costs related to repatriation or deportation, if required Citizens and residents can sponsor jointly with either their partner or an adult sibling. Financial requirements: Applicants must meet one of the following financial criteria: • The sponsor earns at least the New Zealand median wage (or 1.5 times the median wage for joint sponsors) to sponsor one parent, with the amount increasing by 0.5 times the median wage for additional parents being sponsored, or • The parent(s) have a personal income equivalent to New Zealand Superannuation, currently NZD $32,611.28 gross per annum for a single parent and NZD $49,552.88 for a couple, or • The parent(s) have sufficient personal funds: NZD $160,000 for a single applicant or NZD $250,000 for a couple. Health insurance: Applicants must hold at least one year of health insurance that covers: • Emergency medical care (minimum NZD $250,000 a year) • Cancer treatment (minimum NZD $100,000) They must also maintain valid health insurance for the entire duration of their stay in New Zealand. Not maintaining valid health insurance while in New Zealand may impact a person's eligibility for future visas, including residence under the Parent Category. It may also result in visa cancellation or make the individual liable for deportation. Applicants will be required to undergo two health assessments to ensure they are of an acceptable standard of health. The first health check is completed as part of the initial visa application. In the third year of the visa, applicants must get a second health check while outside of New Zealand. They will also need to show proof that they have held valid health insurance while visiting New Zealand. How to apply: Apply online through the Immigration New Zealand (INZ) website when the applications open on September 29, 2025. Visa fees: The cost of the visa is NZD $3,000 for most applicants and NZD $2,450 for applicants eligible for the Pacific fee band. This includes both the immigration fee and levy. An International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy of NZD $100 will also be charged. After three years, there is an additional processing fee for the third-year health check of NZD $325 for most people, or NZD $240 if eligible for the Pacific fee band. Processing: Within 4 months. As with other visitor visas, Parent Boost Visa holders may study for up to three months each year or undertake remote work (for an offshore employer). For more substantial work or study, they will need to apply for the appropriate visa. Some parents who come to New Zealand on a Parent Boost Visa and receive income (either from remote work or passive income sources) may trigger New Zealand tax obligations. • The Parent and Grandparent Visitor Visa allows parents to come to New Zealand for 18 months within a three-year period for a maximum of six months at a time. • The Parent Resident Visa provides 2,500 places per annum for residence (through a ballot system). • The Parent Retirement Resident Visa provides residence to parents who will invest at least NZD $1 million in New Zealand bonds, shares or property (excluding their home) for at least four years. Applying for or holding a Parent Boost Visa will not prevent anyone from submitting a visa application or having an active expression of interest in applying for other visas- Parent Boost, Parent Retirement, and Parent Resident. However, a person can only hold one visa at a time. For example, if a parent currently has a Parent and Grandparent Visitor Visa, they can apply for a Parent Boost Visa. When the Parent Boost Visa is granted, the Parent and Grandparent Visitor Visa will be cancelled.
Scoop
a day ago
- Business
- Scoop
Welcoming More Visitors From China
Minister of Immigration Hon Louise Upston Minister for Tourism and Hospitality The Government is boosting New Zealand's attractiveness as a destination for Chinese tourists by improving visa settings and processes. From November, New Zealand will trial visa waiver status for Chinese passport holders travelling from Australia with a valid Australian visitor, work, student or family visa, allowing them to visit for up to 3 months. 'Our immigration settings play an important role in brightening our country's economic future. More than 240,000 Chinese visitor visas were granted in 2024, and we want those numbers to grow,' Immigration Minister Erica Stanford says. 'This will make it easier, cheaper and faster for them to cross the Tasman and visit our shores. The trial will last for 12 months and will be supplemented by further improvements to our immigration processes, making it easier for people applying for a visa.' Other changes include: Immigration New Zealand (INZ) is establishing a dedicated contact centre number and support in China for Chinese 'Approved Destination Status' travel agents. New Simplified Chinese web content on the INZ website Visitor Visa applicants will no longer need to have their document translations certified. This will remove additional translation fees for all Visitor Visa applicants who need to provide translated documents, not only those from China. These complement the five-year multiple entry Visitor Visa already in place and NZ's current average processing time of five working days visitor visa applications from China 'China is one of New Zealand's most important tourism markets, and more international visitors means more bookings in our restaurants, more people visiting our regions and attractions, more jobs being created across the country, and an overall stronger economy,' Tourism and Hospitality Minister Louise Upston says. 'In the year ended March 2025, visitors from China contributed $1.24 billion to New Zealand's economy, but there's still more work to do to grow these numbers and drive further economic growth throughout the country.' Notes: Approved Destination Status (ADS) is an arrangement between the Chinese Government and another country, that lets Chinese holiday travellers visit a country in a tour group. Read more about the scheme on the Tourism New Zealand website:
RNZ News
02-06-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Emotional immigration wait after ballot draw error in a sytem with no queue
Photo: RNZ Families waiting for news on parent residence visas were given false hope when a website glitch seemed to show them having a place in an immigration ballot system. Migrants want to see the end of the lottery system , which they say is unfair, inhumane and unstructured - and a queue introduced instead. The ballot draws expressions of interest every three months, and holders of the lucky numbers get the right to apply for residence. "Following all of the expat groups on Facebook, some people submit an expression of interest one month and then the next month they get drawn, and then there's people who are sitting in their second round of expression of interest submissions [after two years]," said Alison Renwick, who moved from South Africa nine years ago. "And there's just no sign of an end, so it's really quite emotional, especially with elderly parents - time just ticks as we get older and there's less and less opportunity that they'll be able to qualify for their health requirements to get over here in time. So it really is just a waiting game. It feels hopeless at times." The Immigration NZ (INZ) website has a tool where expression of interest (EOI) numbers can be checked by families to see if they will be granted an invitation to apply. "For the May draw, we entered our expression of interest number and a message popped up to say success confirmation and that she should expect an email from INZ with the invitation to apply details. So it was really exciting at first when I saw the message." She messaged her mother, Pamela Davisworth, who visits Auckland frequently to see family including her 15-year-old granddaughter. But the excitement turned to anxiety - no email arrived and three calls to INZ shed no light on what had happened. Eventually they looked closely at the number and saw the winning eight-digit ticket was one number away from theirs. "And then I saw on the Facebook page somebody had mentioned that there was something wrong with the tool checker and that it was just bringing up lookalike or similar numbers instead of exact matches, and there was quite a few people that had received that success confirmation message who hadn't actually had their number drawn. "It was terrible because then I've got to call Mum and tell her it was a mistake on the INZ website and there's nothing that we need to prepare and it's just back to the waiting game. And it makes it even worse knowing that there's only one more draw that she'll be able to qualify for before we have to pay INZ again for another expression of interest." Migrants have to pay to be part of the ballot, renewing their spot if they are not drawn after two years. Many have just reached that point, as the policy started in 2023. It was poorly handled with no accountability or recognition of the pain it caused families, she said. Chau (Sandy) Nguyen-Pendreigh has been in New Zealand for 17 years and her brother for 11 years, while their parents still live in Vietnam. "My parents are in early 50s and there is a lot more time that we could spend with them, but at the same time it is disappearing quickly. My husband and I are more than qualified to meet the criteria. I believe based on that criteria we should be able to apply, not be in the lottery hoping for the chance. "Our son is missing out on opportunity to learn more about his heritage and culture, through his grandparents." Chau Nguyen-Pendreigh (Sandy) her family and parents. Photo: Supplied Migrants say many of the large number of people who received residence through the 2021 Resident Visa will now be joining the ballot and make getting one of the annual 2500 places even less likely. Risk manager Sophie Liu is launching a new petition for policy change to the ballot and is also looking ahead for news on the promised five-year parent visa. "My mother, she is alone, living in China by herself. My parents got divorced when I was eight, so she doesn't have anyone else to support her - only me, who is far away. I've been waiting many years wanting to bring her here to live with me. "Every time every three months, when the draw's about to happen I will pray. Couple of weeks early even, and a couple of weeks afterwards because you won't get immigration notification email or anything to tell you if you are successful or not every time. So I keep telling my Mum also to pray and to hope. Then it goes on again another three months repeatedly, I get disappointed every time. I realised that it has been impacting on my mental health chronically." With 10,500 people each paying $450 to be in the ballot, she queried whether the ballot could genuinely cost the $4.7 million they would collectively have paid. "Within the last two years we've had nine draws in total, it still hasn't been selected, it's going to expire next month. So my question would be, is that a reasonable cost for Immigration New Zealand to run a lottery system? It's no guarantee - our parents may never get selected until they die." While she could afford the fee, and the $5000+ residence application charge if she is successful in the ballot, it was unclear why a ballot had been preferred over a queue, or why people had to pay again to retain their place in the ballot. "Who made this stupid, unfair decision? The policy need to be changed. Personally, I contribute a lot to the society by paying high tax amount. I have a decent job. They made the decision on the policy without consultation. We are not numbers, we are human beings with genuine needs of reunion." Policy work on a five-year, renewable parent visa started at the beginning of this year, said immigration minister Erica Stanford. "It's a brand new visa, so there's a lot of detailed policy work that has to be done. There will be consultation and and other processes that have to be taken, but we will have this visa up and running this year, towards the end of the year, we'll be able to have it up and running and available." The government was looking at a range of health insurance options to make it as accessible as possible, she added. Immigration New Zealand said it regretted the distress caused to families affected by the website error, and had apologised directly to Renwick. "The first stage of Immigration New Zealand's new website went live on 15 May 2025 which included the new Parent Resident Visa expressions of interest tool which tells people if their visa application was successful in the ballot. "The tool was incorrectly set to show partial matches on the number instead of exact matches as it should have. This meant the tool may have shown results that were not an exact match to some customers' ballot number and, unless they manually checked the ballot number matched the number on their expression of interest, they may have mistakenly thought that their application had been selected." It said it was alerted to the issue by a customer four days later and corrected the setting immediately. "We apologise for this error and any confusion. We are committed to being a customer-centric organisation that is simple to engage with, helps to keep our customers safe and provides certainty for them. Anyone who has been successful in the May ballot draw has now received direct communication from Immigration New Zealand. "Our customer service centre staff have been provided with further advice so they can help people who call with questions about this issue. We will also share information on our website to clarify the situation with customers." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
