The objective of the Refugee Family Support Category is to help refugees living in New Zealand to settle by allowing them to sponsor family members for residence. We welcome 300 sponsored people (including their partners and dependent children) to settle in New Zealand each year under the Refugee Family Support Category.
The Refugee Family Support Category has replaced the previous Refugee Family Quota ballot system.
Refugee Family Support Category overview
Bringing your family to New Zealand under the Refugee Family Support Category is a three-stage process.
- You register as a sponsor.
- We select your registration.
- Your family members apply for residence.
The registration system
The Refugee Family Support Category has a two-tier registration system. Priority is given to tier one sponsors who meet our tier one sponsorship requirements – these people have a more immediate need to bring their family to New Zealand.
The table below shows how the process works.
Step 1 |
Registrations from tier one sponsors are given first access to the 300 places available each year. They are put in a queue.
Registrations are selected from the tier one queue until the 300 places are filled. |
Step 2 |
| If any of the 300 annual places are still available, we will call for registrations from tier two sponsors. |
Step 3 |
| The tier two registrations we receive are put into a ballot, and selected randomly. |
Step 4 |
| If their sponsor’s registration is selected from the tier one queue or drawn from the tier two ballot, family members can apply for residence under this category. |
Sponsorship requirements
To find out more about sponsorship requirements:
Residence requirements
To find out about the requirements that the people applying for a residence visa or permit must meet:
Latest news about Refugee Family Support Category
Update on tier one queue
As of Friday 18 July 2008 the total number of registrations provisionally entered into the tier one queue is 414. These registrations represent 1710 nominees.
All registrations provisionally accepted into the tier one queue have been allocated an application number according to the date the application was received by Immigration New Zealand. Letters have been sent to sponsors advising of this application number.
As of Friday 18 July 2008 registrations with application numbers between 7810773 and 7867747 have been drawn from the tier one queue. All applications within this range have been subject to a second stage of verification to ensure the sponsors meet all tier one requirements. Those verified as eligible tier one sponsors are then issued an Invitation to Apply for Residence for the relatives they nominated in their RFSC registration form.
One hundred and thirteen tier one sponsors within the range of application numbers 7810773 and 7867747 have been invited to Apply for Residence.
The remaining sponsors within this range have been informed they do not meet tier one requirements or that more information is required to complete verification of their application.
Applications between 7867747 and 7874020 will continue to be drawn from the tier one queue in chronological order and passed through the second stage verification over the next two months.
As noted in the previous RFSC update (15 January 2008), RFSC registrations with an application number greater than 7874020 are likely to be drawn from the tier one queue in 2009.
It is currently anticipated that new registrations received from now will be waiting two to three years before they are drawn from the queue and receive an Invitation to Apply.
No tier two ballot in 2008
As sufficient registrations have been received and provisionally entered into the tier one queue to fill the number of places available under the Refugee Family Support Category for this financial year, there will not be a tier two ballot in 2008.
There will be another update posted on this website in January 2009.
Living in New Zealand
For general information on New Zealand, take a look at our Discover and Decide section of our website.