Parent Boost or Parent “Boot” visa – which will it be?

The likely cost of Parent Boost visas will simply be too high for most migrants and their parents to afford.

What will a Parent Boost visa actually cost?

Start with the application fee of $3000. This is nearly seven times higher than the $441 it costs to apply for a Parent/Grandparent visitor visa (the Government’s current visa offering for parents of New Zealand citizens and residents).

The application fee of $3000 is nearly seven times higher than the $441 it costs to apply for the current Parent/Grandparent visitor visa.n/a

Add medical insurance. This will cost applicants up to $8000 a year, Minister of Immigration Erica Stanford has been quoted by Radio New Zealand as saying.

Parent Boost visa applicants also need to undergo medical testing, which costs in the range of $400-$500 per person.

Migrants in New Zealand who sponsor their parents for this visa will need to prove the following levels of income:

• $69,805 a year (that’s $33.56 per hour) to sponsor one parent, or
• $104,707 if the income is shared with a partner to sponsor one parent
• $104,707 alone or $139,610 jointly to sponsor both parents
• If the child in New Zealand does not earn this much, parents can still apply by showing savings:
• $160,000 for one parent, or
• $250,000 for two parents (a couple)
• Another option is to show proof of guaranteed retirement income of $33,000 per year for a single parent or $50,000 for a couple.

There will be hidden costs as well

If an applicant’s medical tests show any irregularities, Immigration New Zealand (INZ) will ask for further testing and specialist reports, which will cost the applicant a lot more.

If an applicant has a pre-existing medical condition, that will push their insurance premium even higher.

Even if an applicant is willing to pay $8000 each year for insurance, INZ will still refuse their Parent Boost visitor visa application if they do not have an acceptable standard of health because they are:

• likely to be a danger to public health; or
• likely to impose significant costs or demands on New Zealand’s health services.

In such cases, their $3000 application fee will be wasted.

Although the Parent Boost is a five-year visa, which can be extended once for an additional five years, Parent Boost visa holders will be required to leave New Zealand in the third year of their initial stay.

They will then be required to submit a second immigration medical certificate from outside New Zealand.

If this medical certificate shows they no longer meet the Acceptable Standard of Health for the visa, their visa may be cancelled, according to information on INZ’s website.

Ankur Sabharwal, owner of immigration advisory Visa Matters, says the new Parent Boost visa will cost more than it saves in terms of free childcare by grandparents.unknown / Supplied

Will Parent Boost visas be worth the cost and the hassle?

For some, yes – the emotional benefit of having parents close is priceless.

But let’s be clear: the Parent Boost visa is not a path to residence, not a guaranteed 10-year stay, and will cost more than it saves in terms of free childcare by grandparents.

The visa costs will be prohibitively high for many people, with no guarantee that parents will be allowed to stay if they fail to meet medical requirements.

The requirement to submit two medical certificates for each 5-year Parent Boost visa is likely to catch out many elderly parents and prevent them from staying the full 10 years.

The decline rate for the Parent Boost visa category will likely be around 16%, based on the historical decline rate for the three-year Parent/Grandparent Multiple Entry visitor visa. In my experience, nearly all applications declined under this category are due to applicants not meeting the “acceptable standard of health” (ASH) requirements.