With the New Zealand borders once again opening to all international travelers from 31 July 2022, I have been inundated by people asking what options are available for family members who want to come visit. For the most part, the largest percentage of requests comes from people wanting to reunite with their parents. I completely understand this, as my family and I are in the exact same boat! Our parents have not been to visit us in NZ for nearly 4 years now and our children can’t wait to see their grandparents!
Knowing how important this is to a lot of people, I thought I’d share some information regarding temporary visa options available to parents and grandparents wanting to come visit their family in New Zealand. To keep things simple I am just going to review the 3 main options which are general visitor, multiple entry visitor and parent/grandparent visitor visa.
In essence, there are not a lot of differences between each of these visas, at the end of the day they are all just a slight variation of a standard visitor visa. The only real difference between them is whether they are single or multiple use and how much time the visa holder can spend in New Zealand.
Taking that into account, it’s worth noting that all 3 options share the following requirements:
a) Applicants need to be bona fide, which means that need to have genuine intentions for visiting NZ.
b) They need to meet the fund or sponsorship requirements.
c) They need to meet the onward travel requirements.
d) Must be of good health and character.
1. General Visitor Visa
This is by far the most popular temporary visitor visa, anybody with a bona fide reason for traveling to New Zealand can apply for a visitor’s visa. As long as your intentions for visiting NZ are genuine and you meet the requirements, you should be able to qualify for a tourist visa.
The limitation of a general visitor visa is that, strictly speaking, it’s only granted for a single trip. What that means is once you’ve used it to travel to New Zealand, you can’t use it again. This type of visa would normally be granted for 6 months, but could be extended to 9 months under the right circumstances.
It’s worth noting though, that regardless of what visitor visa somebody applies for, there are overarching limitations on the amount of time you can spend in NZ over a specified period. In the case of a general visitors visa, you can’t spend more than 9 months in an 18 month period in NZ. So if your parents spent 9 months here visiting you in NZ, they would have a stand-down period of 9 months before they could apply for ANY other type of visitor visa.
2. Multiple Entry Visitor Visa
It’s important to understand that you can’t apply for a multiple entry visitor visa. This is something INZ grants on it’s own accord based on the merits of the application and the way that it’s presented.
Multiple journey visas are exactly the same as general visitor visa except for a few important differences. Firstly, the visa is valid for a period of 3 years and allows multiple trips over that period to New Zealand. However, even though the visa is valid for 3 years, there are still limitations to the amount of time you can spend in NZ along with stand down periods. You can’t spend more than a total of 6 months in NZ over a 12 month period. So basically, if you spend 6 months in the country, you will have to spend a further 6 months out of the country before you can visit again. On this visa your parents would therefore be able to spend 6 months of the year here for each of the 3 years. Don’t forget though that there would need to be a period of at least 6 months between each visit.
3. Parent and Grandparent Visitor Visa
Again, the parents and grandparent visitor visa is pretty much the same as the multiple entry visitor visa but with one very important difference. While the multiple entry visitor visa let’s you visit for 6 months out of a 12 month period, there is no such limitation with the parent visitor visa. If a grandparent has visited NZ for the maximum allotted time of 6 months, they do not have to be out of the country for 6 months before visiting again. So in theory, they could visit for 6 months, leave for one day and return for a further 6 months. Having said that, like with all visitor visa there is an overarching limit on time spent in NZ and on the parent and grandparent visa that is 18 months over a 36 month period. So if your parents visited for 18 months back-to-back (with a day in between each 6 month visit of course) they would then have to spend a full 18 months outside of NZ before they could apply for another visa.
Another limitation of the parent and grandparent visitor visa is that applicants need to undergo an immigration medical. The reason being that they could in fact spend more than 12 months in NZ. At roughly $350 for an immigration medical, that does add somewhat of a cost constraint to the mix.
The biggest limitation of all to the parent and grandparent visitor visa though is the sponsorship requirements. Only New Zealand citizens and residents can sponsor a parent and grandparent visitor visa. If you are therefore on a temporary work visa you would not be able to sponsor your parents on this category of visa.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are pros and cons to all 3 visa types, so you may be asking which one should I choose? Unfortunately I can’t answer that for you as every person’s circumstances and needs are different. I will however, share my train of thought with you when it comes to my own family.
My parents will not be in a position to come and visit us for more than 6 months. In reality they will probably come and visit for 3 months every second year. Considering the cost of a general visitor and multiple entry visa are the same price, it would make sense to request the multiple entry visa as it will save me the application fees on at least one further visit.
So now I need to make a choice between the multiple entry and the parent/grandparent visitor visa. Again, my parents are not going to spend more than 3 months at a time here every second year, so being able to spend 6 months back-to-back on a grandparent visitor visa has no benefit to them. I can achieve exactly what they need with the multiple entry visitor visa and I save myself $700 as I don’t need them to have immigration medicals.
This is the way that I consider it and I advise each of you to go through the same steps, as it quickly reveals the best visa to apply for.
If you are looking for help in securing the right visas for your parents or grandparents to come and visit you in New Zealand, I suggest you get in contact with me asap. With the borders reopening for applications on 1 August 2022, you want to be ahead of the queue with a well prepared application.
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