Parent Resident Visa overview and application numbers

The Parent Resident Visa enables New Zealand residents and citizens to sponsor their parents for residence in New Zealand, to support skilled migration.

The visa is a 2-stage process. People first submit an Expression of Interest (EOI). If the EOI is selected and it meets the requirements, Immigration New Zealand (INZ) will issue an Invitation To Apply (ITA). Only people who have received an ITA are able to make a residence application and this application must be made within 4 months of the ITA being issued.

INZ can approve a maximum of 2000 visas per year to people who submitted EOIs before the restart of selections was announced on 10 October 2022. These EOIs are in a queue and selected in date order, with the oldest selected first.

A maximum of 500 visas a year can be granted to people who submitted EOIs on or after 10 October 2022. These EOIs are placed in a ballot and are selected randomly. EOIs in the ballot expire 2 years after they are submitted.

Once all the EOIs in the queue submitted before 10 October 2022 have been selected, the full amount of 2,500 visas will be available to people with EOIs in the ballot.

More information on the application process and criteria can be found on the Parent Resident Visa page.

Parent Resident Visa

The data in these tables are valid at 27 August 2025.

Table 1: Parent Category resident visas granted by financial year

Counts parent resident visas approved and applications completed by financial year. The data in this table is valid as 27 August 2025.

* The cap of 2831 for the 2024 to 2025 financial year reflects that the Minister of Immigration approved a one-off increase to the amount of Parent Resident Visas Immigration New Zealand could grant in the 2024 to 2025 financial year to people who made queue EOIs.

** Data is for 1 July 2025 to 26 August 2025

Table 2: Number of Parent Resident Visa EOIs in ballot by submission month

Please note there may be some variation to numbers previously published.

Table 3: Number of EOIs and applicants selected from the queue by selection month

There are two parent resident visa EOI in the queue, these EOIs were selected from the queue on 12 August 2025.

Please note there may be some variation to numbers previously published.

Table 4: Decisions on parent queue EOIs selected

Table 5: Number of EOIs and applicants selected from ballot by selection month

*An additional 400 EOIs representing 604 people were selected from the ballot on 12 August 2025.

Table 6: Decisions on parent ballot EOIs selected

Table 7: Parent Resident Visa applications submitted by submission month

Note: This table only reflects applications that were accepted for processing. There may be some variation to numbers previously published. This data only includes Family Parent Visa Applications (grounds code: ABBIBO).

Table 8: Parent Resident Visa by month

Note: This data only includes Family Parent Visa Applications (grounds code: ABBIBO). There may be some variation to numbers previously published.

* Approved refers to applications approved in principle. After an application is approved in principle, applicants have 6 months to provide evidence of meeting the English Language requirements and passport documentation. Once this information is received and the requirements are met, the application is completed and visas will be issued.

** Completed only includes completed and approved applications.

Table 9: In progress Parent Resident Visa applications allocated vs in queue by submission month

Note: This data only includes Family Parent Visa Applications (grounds code: ABBIBO).

Applications in queue refer to those that have been accepted for processing and have not yet been assigned to an immigration officer for an initial assessment of the application.

Allocated applications refer to applications that have been accepted for processing, have been assigned to an immigration officer for an initial assessment, or have had an initial assessment done by an immigration officer, but are pending as further information is required before the application can be finalised.