New Zealand Announces 5 Conditions Foreigners Must Meet for Permanent Residency
- New Zealand's immigration authority outlined the requirements that resident visa holders must satisfy before they can apply for permanent residency
- Applicants must have held a resident visa for at least two years and demonstrate a genuine commitment to living in New Zealand permanently
- Good character was listed among the five conditions, and those with criminal convictions or security risks could be denied a permanent resident visa
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New Zealand's immigration authority has published the full list of conditions that must be met before a resident visa holder can apply for a Permanent Resident Visa.
The government laid out five clear requirements for those hoping to settle in the country long-term.
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Who qualifies for New Zealand permanent residency visa
According to Immigration New Zealand, applicants must satisfy five requirements for permanent residency.
These include:
1. Residency timeline
2. Visa status
3. Compliance with visa conditions
4. Demonstrated commitment to New Zealand
5. Good character.
Residency timeline for New Zealand permanent residency
Applicants must hold a current resident visa, or one that expired no more than 90 days before the date of application. That resident visa must also have been held for a minimum of two continuous years.
The two years are counted either from the date the applicant first arrived in New Zealand from abroad, or from the date the visa was issued, for those who were already in the country at the time.
If the resident visa carried any specific conditions, the applicant must provide evidence that those conditions were fully met before moving forward with the permanent residency application.
Commitment requirement for New Zealand permanent residency
On the commitment requirement, Immigration New Zealand specifies that applicants must show a genuine intention to live in the country permanently. There are five recognised ways to demonstrate this, and evidence of at least one must be provided.
One of the most straightforward ways to meet this requirement is through a time commitment: the applicant must have been physically present in New Zealand for at least 184 days in each of the two years preceding the application. Travel records are used as evidence for this.
Read also
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The character requirement applies to the applicant as well as anyone else included in the same application. Immigration New Zealand states that those with criminal convictions or those identified as a security risk to the country may not be granted the visa. Police certificates may be requested during processing to verify good character.
The authority notes that applicants will be informed during processing whether they need to submit a police certificate and how to obtain one.
Legit.ng has also published the required residency years for foreigners who want to become Qatari citizens.
Citizenship requirements: Australia mentions residency years for foreigners
Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that Australia's Department of Home Affairs outlined the residence requirement foreigners must meet before applying for citizenship.
Applicants must have lived in Australia on a valid visa for a number of years before the date they apply for citizenship.
The rules also specify how much time applicants are allowed to have spent outside Australia during that period.
Proofreading by Funmilayo Aremu, copy editor at Legit.ng.
Source: Legit.ng
