Applications for the Parent Resident Visa will open February 2020 with new requirements
Immigration New Zealand has announced changes to the Parent Resident Visa.
The agency said that applications for the visa closed 7 October and will open with new requirements in February 2020.
Immigration New Zealand said that it is limiting the number of people who can get the visa to 1,000 each year, changing the financial requirements that sponsors and applicants need to meet, and changing the two-tier system to a single-tier system.
The new financial requirements include applicants no longer being able to apply based on their settlement funds or guaranteed lifetime income. Sponsors’ required income levels will also increase, the agency said.
Sponsors will need to meet the income criteria for two of three years before their parents applied for residents, as well as provide evidence of their annual income by providing Inland Revenue tax statements.
The income requirement for sponsors will be fixed each year to the current median income in New Zealand.
Immigration New Zealand said that some expressions of interest (EOI) already submitted will not meet the new eligibility criteria. Withdrawn EOIs will be eligible for refunds, it said.
