Article Type: Media Articles

Ankur Sabharwal is the owner of immigration advisory Visa Matters. He is a licensed immigration adviser dealing with complex immigration matters.

OPINION: How easy is it to be approved for an ‘open’ work visa for New Zealand?

The Government has made it more difficult, but it’s still possible for some.

There are three main categories which allow ‘open’ work visas. (An ‘open’ work visa allows employment for any employer, in any location, in any occupation – apart from prostitution.)

Post-Study Work Visas

An international student used to qualify for a Post-Study Work Visa (of between one and three years) after completing any tertiary course of 60 weeks or longer. They could work in any occupation.

Now, you’ll need a three-year bachelor’s degree, a postgraduate qualification, or a qualification on INZ’s Green List before you can qualify for an ‘open’ work visa.

If your qualification appears on the Green List and is less than a bachelor’s degree, your ‘open’ work visa will only allow you to work in the occupation that the qualification relates to.

So, for example, if you complete a New Zealand Certificate in Agriculture (Level 4), which appears on INZ’s Green List, you can only be approved an ‘open’ work visa which allows you to work as a dairy farmer (i.e. someone running a dairy farm, not simply a dairy worker).

These changes to Post-Study work visas are part of the Government’s Immigration Rebalance, which is designed to make it easier to attract and hire high-skilled migrants and to discourage employers from relying on low-skilled migrant workers.

Partner of a Worker work visas

Another plank in the Immigration Rebalance policy is to restrict ‘open’ work visas for the partners of work visa holders.

Currently, if someone is approved a three-year Accredited Employer Work Visa, their partner can be approved an ‘open’ work visa for the same length of time.

The Government planned to change that last December, limiting work visas to partners of Green List workers and partners of highly paid workers.

However, those planned changes were not implemented after receiving negative feedback from employers and immigration industry groups.

“There are many employers in New Zealand who benefit and probably rely upon the flexible open work rights given to partners of work visa holders,” Nicola Tiffen, the chair of the New Zealand Association of Migration and Investment (NZAMI), told me.

Tiffen said many migrants would choose to apply for a work visa in another country if their partner cannot be approved a work visa while living with them in New Zealand.

The Government is considering changes to its plans, which it now expects to implement in April 2023.

I asked the Minister of Immigration for a copy of the feedback he had received … after I waited for a month, Hon Michael Wood told me that the feedback wasn’t recorded.

Let’s hope he does the right thing, in spite of having nothing in writing.

Working Holiday Schemes

No changes have been made to Working Holiday Visas (WHVs), which allow young people aged 18 – 30 from 45 different countries to work for up to 12 months in New Zealand.

Working Holiday Schemes were closed for two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Before Covid, more than 60,000 people a year were approved WHVs, making it New Zealand’s number 1 work visa category.

I’m sure New Zealand employers would love to hire that many migrants again on ‘open’ work visas.

Compared with the Accredited Employer scheme, there are very low costs in hiring people on ‘open’ work visas, and they can start work straight away.

Ankur Sabharwal is the owner of immigration advisory Visa Matters. He is a licensed immigration adviser dealing with complex immigration matters.

OPINION: I confidently predict that 2023 will be the Year of the Well-Paid Migrant.

In this column, I’ll focus on the pay rates required for success under three major visa categories: Accredited Employer work visa, Skilled Migrant Category and Parent Category residence visas.

Beginning in February, migrants applying for Accredited Employer work visas for most occupations will need to be paid $29.66 per hour – the new New Zealand median wage – or higher.

Ankur Sabharwal is the owner of immigration advisory Visa Matters. He is a licensed immigration adviser dealing with complex immigration matters.

OPINION: If you’d paid $57 million for a new visa processing machine, you’d expect it to be able to issue visas correctly, wouldn’t you?

Incredibly, at the time of writing, Immigration New Zealand’s (INZ’s) new ADEPT visa processing technology isn’t performing that crucial task.

Not that INZ will admit to it

At least, that’s what licensed immigration advisers (LIAs) are telling me. I asked INZ twice what are the main problems with ADEPT, and twice they wouldn’t say.

INZ does admit to “challenges” and “hitches” with the new system which have caused frustration, though it won’t list what they are.

Ankur Sabharwal is the owner of immigration advisory Visa Matters. He is a licensed immigration adviser dealing with complex immigration matters.

OPINION: When is a migrant chef not a chef? When that chef is telling Immigration New Zealand they are a cook.

In the Government’s war on migrant chefs, immigration advisers are fighting back by telling chefs to apply for work visas as cooks.

For many migrant chefs, it’s the quickest way to be allowed to work in a New Zealand restaurant.

Why is it even necessary for a migrant chef to downgrade to cook?

You may have read stories saying that Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay wouldn’t qualify for work visas to come to New Zealand as chefs – simply because they don’t hold a New Zealand Certificate in Cookery (Level 4) or equivalent.

Those stories are true.

Of the hundreds of possible occupations, ‘chef’ is the only one that requires a specific qualification when applying for an Accredited Employer Work Visa.

People working in other occupations can meet immigration requirements through qualifications, work experience, or professional registration in New Zealand.

Not chefs. They have to have a Level 4 cooking certificate. If their qualification is an overseas one which is not ‘recognised’, they’ll have to pay $445 to have it assessed by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.

This ridiculous red tape has led immigration advisers to tell restaurant owners hard-pressed to find staff: What you are looking for isn’t a chef, it’s a cook!

Cooks, chefs, tom-ay-toes, tom-ah-toes

What’s the difference between a cook and a chef, then?

When deciding what occupation an applicant will be working in, Immigration New Zealand (INZ) refers to a database called ANZSCO.

According to ANZSCO, a cook and a chef both prepare and cook food, but chefs also:

• estimate food and labour costs, and order food supplies
• discuss food preparation issues with managers, dietitians and kitchen and waiting staff

So, if your migrant chef won’t be doing those add-ons, they don’t have a Level 4 cooking certificate, but they do have years of relevant work experience they must be … a cook!

The restaurant owner advertises in Trade Me or Seek for an experienced cook, finds none, and eventually INZ approves an Accredited Employer Work Visa to an overseas chef, sorry, cook.

The really stupid things about this

There are a couple of really stupid things about this workaround of chefs applying as cooks.

INZ used to turn down Work to Residence applications of people claiming to be chefs because INZ decided they were, in fact, cooks.

‘Chef’ was a position on the Long Term Skill Shortage List, leading to residence, but not ‘cook’ (this residence pathway was closed in October 2021).

Now immigration advisers are frantically running in the opposite direction, claiming that their clients won’t be doing the fancy stuff, they’ll actually just be cooking.

Stupidly, one of the reasons that the Government required a cooking certificate only for chefs was that “there was also a concern that migrant chefs might displace New Zealanders in less skilled positions,” INZ told me this week.

Does it make sense to you that the Government is only worried about ‘migrant chefs’ but not ‘migrant cooks’? Because it is approving migrant cooks without any cooking qualifications … and the Government’s rules allow it.

Oh, and, by the way, chefs are considered more high-skilled than cooks, according to the ANZSCO database of occupations. It’s just that the Government’s new ‘qualification-required’ rule tries to keep some chefs out, but makes it easier for lower-skilled cooks to be approved.

The last word

This is a big issue for restaurants which are struggling to find suitable staff. The Prime Minister is aware of it and has asked the Minister of Immigration to look into it.

I’ll leave the last word to Andrew Craig, Immigration Policy Manager at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE):

“The Minister of Immigration has asked MBIE to provide advice on whether the current policy settings are appropriate in the circumstances.”

Ankur Sabharwal is the owner of immigration advisory Visa Matters. He is a licensed immigration adviser dealing with complex immigration matters.

OPINION: Let me tell you, Immigration New Zealand’s dirty little secret. They’ll take as long as they like to process your application, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Currently, 81% of employer accreditation applications are being decided within INZ’s target of 2 weeks.

You might be one of the lucky ones whose application meets the advertised processing time.

Ankur Sabharwal is the owner of immigration advisory Visa Matters. He is a licensed immigration adviser dealing with complex immigration matters.

OPINION: More than 5000 New Zealand employers have already applied for accreditation with Immigration New Zealand (INZ) ahead of the Accredited Employer Work Visa category opening on 4 July.

According to statistics provided by INZ on 30 June, 5282 employers have applied for accreditation since 23 May. Of these, 3819 applications have been approved already.

INZ aims to decide 90% of employer accreditation applications within 2 weeks, but did not respond to my request to say whether this timeliness standard is being met.

Why is it important for employers to become accredited?

The Essential Skills work visa category closes this Sunday, 3 July. From Monday, employers wishing to bring overseas workers to New Zealand on work visas will need to be accredited by INZ.

Employers whose staff hold Essential Skills work visas due to expire from January 2023 onwards will need to be accredited if they want to continue to employ them.

INZ has estimated that about 24,000 employers will apply to become accredited. My guess is that number will be higher, given the tight labour market and the fact that INZ is often surprised by the number of applications it receives (e.g. INZ predicted that 165,000 people would qualify under the 2021 Resident Visa category; over 200,000 people have actually applied, with more likely to apply before the category closes on 31 July).

Government-funded employers such as hospitals and schools are only starting to wake up to the fact that, if they want to continue employing migrant workers, they will first need to be accredited by INZ.

The Government has indicated that, from 2023, all employers wishing to employ migrants on work visas (including those on ‘open’ work visas such as Post-Study work visas) will have to apply for and be approved as an INZ accredited employer.

How easy is it for an employer to be accredited?

Fairly easy. In most cases, INZ accepts an employer’s declarations on their application form that they have met the requirements of immigration law and employment law and will continue to do so. An employer also has to declare that they:

• have not made a loss over the last 24 months; or
• have a positive cash flow for each of the last 6 months; or
• have sufficient capital investment to ensure the business’s viability; or
• have a credible, minimum two-year plan (for example, by having contracts for work) to ensure their business remains viable and ongoing.

Only a small number of employers are being asked for additional evidence to support their accreditation application. These employers tend to be “labour-hire” or “triangular” employers, that is, employers who hire migrants who they send to work for other companies.

INZ requires labour-hire employers to provide more evidence with their applications, such as their policies and procedures to ensure that employees are well looked after at the workplaces they are sent to.

What are the fishhooks?

While the first employer accreditation application may be relatively straightforward, INZ will look a lot more closely at an employer’s second application, which must be made within 12 months of accreditation being approved.

This is because employers are required to give guarantees in their original accreditation applications, including that they will:

• Train their ‘key persons’ (senior managers, including HR managers) in New Zealand business standards by completing Employment New Zealand online training modules
• Provide ‘settlement information’ to employees within one month of them being approved an Accredited Employer Work Visa.

With their second accreditation application, INZ will ask employers for evidence that these guarantees have been met – failure to do so could lead to their application being declined.

Employer accreditation is only the first step…

Once accredited, employers will need to make a Job Check application to INZ to prove that no New Zealanders were available for the positions they want to fill with overseas workers.

Advertising requirements are much stricter for Job Check applications than they were under the Essential Skills category.

For example, job ads need to show the job description, minimum and maximum pay (which must meet the market rate for that role and be at least $27.76 for most occupations), location of employment, minimum hours of work, minimum skills, experience and qualifications required for the role.

Employers must not inflate qualification and work experience requirements; otherwise, INZ is likely to object.

Only after the employer’s Job Check application has been approved can migrant workers apply for their Accredited Employer Work Visa, which is the third and final stage of the process. Workers must prove they are suitably qualified for the role offered and meet health and character requirements for temporary entry.

I congratulate those employers who have applied for accreditation with INZ and have been approved already.

Other employers need to be lodging their applications soon if they want to hire migrant workers in 2022.

Ankur Sabharwal is the owner of immigration advisory Visa Matters. He is a licensed immigration adviser dealing with complex immigration matters.

OPINION: When you eat at an Indian restaurant in future, you’re more likely to be served by a Kiwi than by an Indian national who’s here on a work visa.

Let me explain.

From 4 July this year, employers will have to pay workers applying for an Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) a minimum of $27.76 per hour (the new median wage), even for low-skilled jobs such as kitchenhand and waiter.

However, restaurant owners told me they could only afford to pay $27.76 for chefs and managers. That is, they cannot pay the median wage for low-skilled staff.

The Government’s objective for this category is “incentivising employers to employ more New Zealanders to respond to skill and labour shortages”. Employers I spoke to will certainly be giving New Zealanders a try in lower-skilled roles.

Where will restaurant owners find these workers?

My contacts in Indian restaurants say they are happy to hire New Zealanders if they can find them.

“Kiwis are well-travelled and eat a lot of Indian food, so they can answer customers’ questions about the food we are serving,” said Bunty Minhas, owner of Punjabi Kitchen restaurants in west Auckland and the North Shore.

Minhas told me that he could train New Zealanders quickly as kitchen or waiting staff, but recently he has had trouble finding them. Work and Income New Zealand told him on 11 April that it had no one it could refer to work for him as a dishwasher.

Where possible, Minhas said he would offer jobs to Kiwis, but he couldn’t afford to pay $27.76 to wait and kitchen staff. Instead, he would include free food as part of the deal – a common way for restaurants to attract and retain workers.

But at a time of labour shortages, who else can fill these positions at a price employers can afford? There are several possibilities.

• New Zealand residents. As well as existing resident visa holders, about 200,000 people are expected to be approved under the 2021 Resident Visa category, which closes on 31 July 2022. Once approved, they can work for any employer.
• Working Holiday Visa holders. This category is being progressively reopened from 13 March 2022. It allows full-time work on a non-permanent basis.
• People holding “open” partnership-based visas. These are mainly partners of New Zealanders and Work Visa holders.
• Student Visa holders – who can work up to 20 hours a week – and Post-Study Work Visa holders. The New Zealand border has just reopened to 5000 students from overseas, but it will take some time before they can enter the workforce. In addition, a surprising number of former students (graduates) are working in low-skilled jobs such as caregivers, despite their new qualifications. Many of these have already applied for 2021 Resident Visas and are likely to be approved.

Higher wages are just the start.

As well as increased pay levels, Minhas and other restaurant owners I’ve spoken to are concerned about a raft of new costs and bureaucratic requirements that come with the Accredited Employer Work Visa.

These include:

• An Immigration New Zealand (INZ) Employer Accreditation application fee of $740 for an initial 12-month accreditation.
• An INZ’s “Job check” application fee of $610 – to prove that no New Zealanders are available for the position being offered to a worker from overseas.
• An INZ’s AEWV worker application fee of $540.

That’s three applications for a total of $1890 compared with one application at $495 under the Essential Skills work visa, which will be phased out on 3 July 2022.

The first two – employer accreditation and “job check” application – are new costs which the employer must bear.

The employer is also required to advertise the job, so they will have to pay for that too.

Some new requirements include employers having to complete learning modules and providing migrant workers with work-related settlement information within a month of starting work.

Migrant workers must also complete modules on employment rights within a month of starting employment. These must be done during paid hours, and employers must keep records of modules completed.

Employers have always needed to meet all New Zealand employment and immigration laws, but the AEWV goes further. Employers must now comply with “employment, immigration and business standards” – which the Government will set through its AEWV policies.

There’s no free lunch. Or no lunch at all.

I have previously supported the introduction of the Accredited Employer Work Visa. It means that employers could lose accreditation or not be accredited in the first place, if they don’t treat migrant workers fairly.

But the extra fees, compliance costs, and bureaucratic hoops are harder to justify for small businesses already under the gun. Restaurant owners I have spoken to are deeply concerned about the Government adding extra expenses at a time when their other costs are also rising.

Restaurant owners such as Bunty Minhas of Punjabi Kitchen warn that if operating costs increase further, this will flow through to higher meal prices. Or, he said, some restaurants could close at lunchtime to reduce staffing costs, threatening their overall viability.

As a result, more restaurants may close for good.

After losing her husband in a car crash and facing the prospect of deportation, Qianqian Geng has had some good news – she can stay in New Zealand.

Geng​, known by most as Carrie, was in the final stages of a permanent residency application when her husband Henry Lin​ – already a resident – died after a crash on the outskirts of Hamilton in February.

The 30-year-old missed her final residency application meeting because it was the day after the crash, and was left in limbo when the application was put on hold and the expiry date for her visa approached.

However, the day after Stuff put questions about the Paeroa woman’s case to immigration, word came through that she’d been granted “mercy” and her residency was now in the process of being approved.

“I’ve been here for eight years. All my life is here. I don’t want to go,” Geng had earlier told Stuff.

“This is my home.”

After Lin’s death, she’d understood she may no longer qualify for residency. Immigration said she applied under a category for people supported by an eligible New Zealand citizen or resident.

She had limited time left on her visa, and her local community started a petition to keep her in the area.

Geng, originally from northern China, moved to New Zealand on a working holiday, met her future husband and went on to study business at Queens Academic Group in Auckland.

She graduated later and moved to Paeroa to “work hard” at the local Coin Save shop.

When the previous owners sold the business in 2020, Geng and Lin took over – often doing long distance while Lin managed another business of theirs in Auckland.

Geng applied for permanent residency in 2021 but was told the couple needed to live together for a year before she would qualify.

“We were counting down the 365 days we were living together, so I could apply,” she said.

They’d passed that mark and were anticipating the final Zoom meeting on February 10, but were in a car crash the day before, on Puketaha Road.

While the details are hazy for Geng, police said the single-car crash occurred near the intersection of State Highway 1B around 6.15pm.

Lin was taken to Waikato Hospital with serious injuries and Geng had minor injuries.

“We missed the video call because my husband was not good… but my sister-in-law answered and said there had been an emergency and to reschedule.”

Still grieving the loss of her husband, Geng was told a few weeks later that her residency application was on hold.

She understood that, due to her husband’s death, she may not qualify any more.

Border and Visa Operations acting general manager Jock Gilray said they were sorry to hear of Geng’s loss, however, the immigration instructions for the partnership category are for people supported by an eligible New Zealand citizen or resident.

Due to Geng’s husband’s death, it was difficult to assess her application, he said.

Ankur Sabharwal is the owner of immigration advisory Visa Matters. He is a licensed immigration adviser dealing with complex immigration matters.

OPINION: Ever wondered why Immigration New Zealand (INZ) makes errors in more than 40 per cent of resident visa applications which go to appeal?

It’s because INZ doesn’t learn from its mistakes.

Recently I discovered that INZ was preparing to decline some 2021 Resident Visa applications because applicants have not lived together in genuine and stable relationships with their partners overseas.

In other words, INZ was preparing to make a big mistake, one which it had made repeatedly in the past.

The issue is a little complicated, but I’ll try to explain it in a simple way.

It’s about split families

A lot of work visa holders in New Zealand have husbands or wives (and children) still living overseas.

In many cases, overseas partners have been declined temporary visas because they couldn’t prove having lived together in a relationship.

Now these people, who are still living apart, are applying together for residence under the 2021 Resident Visa category.

The Government requires that partners must be included in the residence application if they “have applied” for a temporary visa based on their relationship with their partner in New Zealand.

INZ takes this to mean that someone who has ever applied for a temporary visa based on their relationship with their partner – even if they have never been approved such a visa – must be included in their partner’s residence visa application.

What is INZ saying to these people?

INZ is now saying to these people, essentially: You have to include your partner in your residence application. Once you include your partner in your application, you can’t remove your partner from the application. If you still can’t prove that you have lived together as a couple, we are going to decline the whole application.

That is, everyone in the application will be declined, including the main applicant in New Zealand.

Not only is this unfair to the couple (who are being penalised for living apart, even though they have tried to be together), it’s also an incorrect interpretation of the rule INZ is meant to follow in this situation.

This rule says that, if the couple have not lived together in a genuine and stable relationship, INZ will continue to consider the main applicant’s eligibility for residence, but will not approve residence to the applicant’s partner who is included in the application.

INZ has a history of making this mistake

INZ has ignored this rule and declined applications previously – which have then been overturned on appeal at the Immigration and Protection Tribunal (IPT).

Here is one example. Here’s another … and another … and another.

Still, when asked earlier this month, the Practice Lead (chief technical expert) at the main INZ branch processing 2021 Resident Visa applications said applications could be declined if applicants could not prove having lived together in a relationship.

This has alarmed immigration advisers – an urgent meeting has been arranged with INZ to reconsider the issue. In the meantime, applications of “split families” who can’t prove living together are on hold.

INZ won’t say how many applications are being delayed while it dithers about what to do with overseas partners who have been included in those applications.

Don’t panic … yet

My message for split families applying for 2021 Resident Visas is ‘don’t panic yet’.

Even if INZ sticks to misunderstanding its own rules, the Immigration and Protection Tribunal (IPT) will point this out on appeal, and INZ’s decisions will be overturned.

The IPT found errors in 44 per cent of resident visa decline decisions which were appealed to the tribunal in 2020-21, leading to those decisions being overturned by the tribunal. The proportion of errors that INZ makes in its residence decision-making has actually increased since my last article on this topic, in December 2020.

It just seems a shame that INZ appears not to learn from its own mistakes, which the IPT keeps pointing out repeatedly.

Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi needs to fix INZ’s culture, which allows errors in nearly half of residence refusal decisions reviewed by the IPT, year after year after year.

Ankur Sabharwal is the owner of immigration advisory Visa Matters. He is a licensed immigration adviser dealing with complex immigration matters.

OPINION: Let’s talk about some rumours that have been swirling around the 2021 Resident Visa.

For those who don’t know, about 165,000 people are expected to be eligible for the 2021 Resident Visa. Already more than 15,000 people have been approved residence since Phase 1 opened on 1 December 2021.

With so much at stake, rumours have been circulating.

Only some of them are true.

Rumour No 1: If you don’t apply on 1 March, you are going to be at the back of the queue.

Phase 2 of the 2021 Resident Visa opens on 1 March. Immigration New Zealand (INZ) expects 110,000 applications to be lodged between 1 March and 31 July.

INZ says that it will likely begin processing Phase 2 applications at the end of March. The ones it processes first will be people whose temporary visas are about to expire.

“Processing will be in order of the principal applicant’s current visa expiry date as at the time of their 2021 Resident Visa application,” INZ told me.

If your temporary visa expires in 2023, your application will be queued while INZ processes applications of people whose visas expire this year. So, it won’t help to lodge your application on 1 March.

Rumour No 2: INZ’s website is definitely going to crash on 1 March.

In Phase 1 last December, INZ’s website crashed and it took days for people to lodge their applications, after receiving dozens of error messages.

For Phase 2, INZ is using a different IT platform, and says it has been “working hard to prepare for 1 March and to ensure that its system is able to manage the large volume of applications that are expected within the first few weeks. This includes user testing.”

INZ’s website is definitely going to crash, though. User testing didn’t involve 110,000 people all applying at once….

Rumour No 3: There is a huge backlog of New Zealand police checks, which means that it will likely take INZ 2-4 years to complete processing of 2021 Resident Visa applications.

Not true. The New Zealand Police have received 20,000 vetting requests from INZ, of which 99 per cent have already been completed, according to figures provided to me by INZ. There is no backlog of requests at all.

Rumour No 4: Twenty per cent of all applicants – and 80 per cent of Chinese nationals – are being refused visas.

This is not true. At the time of writing, only one person has been declined a visa, INZ told me.

Rumour No 5: Applications of Chinese and Russian people are going to take forever, because they require security checks through the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS).

This one is true. Applications referred to the NZSIS will take longer.

INZ won’t reveal its criteria for referring resident visa applicants to the NZSIS – it’s a secret.

INZ expects 80 per cent of applications will be decided within 12 months of lodgement. It’s a safe bet that the ones which take longer will mainly be those which require security checks.

Rumour No 6: If you give up your job and/or leave New Zealand after lodging your 2021 Resident Visa application, your application will be declined.

It depends. If you are applying under the “Settled” criteria, there is no requirement to have a job in New Zealand. If you leave the country after lodging your application, INZ will keep processing it, and it can be approved.

However, if you are applying under the “Skilled” or “Scarce” criteria (based on earning at least $27/hour or because you work in a scarce occupation), it would be a good idea to stay in New Zealand and keep working until residence is approved.

While the policy doesn’t require you to keep working after you have lodged your application, INZ could still decide that your job was not genuine if you quit soon after lodging.

Rumour No 7: Your partner is overseas, you are not living together, so if you include him/her in your application, the application will be declined.

Not true. You don’t have to be living together (or even living in the same country) at the time you lodge your 2021 Resident Visa application.

But – and it is a big but – you will need to provide satisfactory evidence of living together with your partner previously. If you have only lived together 2-3 weeks, INZ is unlikely to accept that this is long enough to prove “living together in a genuine and stable relationship”.

If you’ve lived together at least 2-3 months and can actually prove that you’ve lived together, INZ is more likely to accept your relationship meets its definition of a partnership.

Once the border reopens, your partner can apply for and be approved a temporary visa to come to New Zealand.

Then, once you and your partner have completed 12 months’ living together, your partner can be approved residence as part of your application.

Finally, INZ isn’t going to decline your application just because you include your partner and INZ decides that you haven’t lived together in a genuine and stable relationship. In this situation, INZ is required to carry on processing your application and not grant residence to your partner.