2016-Jul 01: Visas for Pre-Schoolers

1 July 2016

Operations Support has been asked to provide some advice about which visa should be granted to a child who is under five years old and is accompanying their parents to New Zealand where the parents are on a work visa.

In these cases the child should be granted a visitor’s visa, regardless of the length of their parent’s work visa, as they do not qualify for a student visa. This applies even if the child is attending kindergarten or pre-school. Student visa instructions do not allow for visas to be granted for pre-school or kindergarten, so the child should not be granted a student visa.

Once the child is approaching five years of age they will need to apply for a student visa to allow them to enrol in primary school.

Action
Please discuss with your team(s).