Background
The Community Organisation Refugee Sponsorship (CORS) visa has been developed to enable New Zealand-based community organisations to sponsor refugees for resettlement. The CORS visa is complementary to the annual Refugee Quota Programme.
The CORS visa was piloted in 2018. Under that pilot, 24 sponsored refugees were resettled in New Zealand with the settlement support provided by four approved community organisations.
In 2020 the New Zealand Government extended the CORS pilot for a further three years from 1 July 2021. This decision enables up to 50 sponsored refugees to be resettled in New Zealand in each of the three financial years from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2024 (a total of 150 sponsored refugees over the three financial years), with settlement support provided by approved sponsors.
A broad range of community organisations and groups can support the settlement of sponsored refugees under the extended CORS pilot.
For more information or questions about the programme you can email us.