New Zealand Wants to Change Visa Requirements for Overseas Parents & Scrap Cultural

This term, Immigration Minister, Erica Stanford has revealed that she plans on making changes related to family visas, enabling some categories longer stay in New Zealand.

Some of the changes intended include those for overseas parents and grandparents, as well as partnership visa policies, VisaGuide.World reports.

National and ACT parties, both proposed long-term visas for parents of overseas-born permanent residents and citizens at the last election.

What Changes Are Expected?

While parents and grandparents might get a long-stay visa for their visit to New Zealand, the Ministers want to scrap partnership visas, saying culturally arranged marriage visas are not fit for purpose.

However, the biggest changes regarding visas can be expected in the next parliamentary term, since more urgent matters, like reforming the accredited employer work visa, await.

There are some immediate things that have taken our attention like AEWV (accredited employer work visa) and migrant exploitation that we’ve been working very hard on and will be announcing. Everything else at the moment we’re putting into a a pipeline of work about when it will happen and what sort of changes are required. 

Apart from the residence visa, which has not been updated for the last six years since it was first introduced, parents are currently allowed to stay up to 18 months every three years on a multiple-entry visitor visa.

Changes to Parent Residence Visas Would Be More Than Welcomed

The Association for Migration and Investment says the new changes would take the pressure off parent residence visas. Annually, the quota of residence visas for this category is 2,500 – which has already been exceeded.

A total of 13,044 people in 8,564 expressions of interest were filed to a ballot of parent resident visas and 308 people from 200 expressions of interest have already been chosen. This means that the annual quota of 2,500 residence permits, can quickly run out.

Culturally Arranged Marriages Not Sufficient Reason for Partnership Visas

This no longer serves as a strong reason for New Zealand authorities to issue partnership visas, as of 2019 when Immigration New Zealand changed rules around partners who had not lived together before coming to New Zealand.

New Zealand First MP Shane Jones had responded harshly to the members of the Indian community, who were protesting against the long wait times and visa rejections.

You have no legitimate expectations in my view to bring your whole village to New Zealand and if you don’t like it and you’re threatening to go home – catch the next flight home. 

Between 2015 and 2021, the majority of applications for such visas came from India, Fiji and Afghanistan, followed by Pakistan, Cambodia and Iraq.

In 2022, 319 visas were approved, while the rejection rate was high as 275 were denied.