Check or change your resident visa conditions
Resident visas have rules about what you can do, including travelling overseas up to a certain date. You can apply to extend this date or to get permanent residence.
Checking your resident visa conditions
Your resident visa comes with conditions on it. Conditions tell you what you can and cannot do on your visa
You can find your visa conditions:
- in your eVisa
- on the visa label in your passport, if you have a label
- in the letter we sent you when we gave you the visa
- online using the Visa Verification Service.
With a resident visa, the only condition you can change is your 'Expiry date travel' condition.
- meet your section 49 conditions, and
- get the section 49 conditions removed.
- the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020
- the Health Act 1956, and
- instructions from a Medical Officer of Health which relate to a certain disease.
- your resident visa was given, if you were in New Zealand when we approved your visa application
- you arrived in New Zealand, if you were outside of New Zealand when we approved your application.
- provide suitable accommodation, if you do not have your own place to live
- make sure your health and welfare needs are met
- pay any costs for you to be deported and repatriated (sent back home), if required.
The following are some common conditions of resident visas.
Visa expiry date
A resident visa allows you to live in New Zealand. Your resident visa will not expire while you stay in New Zealand.
Travel conditions
Travel conditions are conditions of your visa that describe when you are allowed to enter New Zealand.
Most resident visas let you travel outside New Zealand as often as you like for up to 2 years from when you first arrive — that is, you have a
First entry before
The 'First entry before' travel condition means that you must travel to New Zealand before this date so that you can keep your resident visa valid.
For most resident visas, the 'First entry before' date is 12 months from when we give you your visa.
For the Pacific Access Category Resident Visa and Samoan Quota Resident Visa you must enter New Zealand within 3 months of getting your visa. Your partner and children must enter within 12 months.
If you do not enter New Zealand before the 'First entry before' date, your resident visa will no longer be valid.
Expiry date travel
The last day you can enter New Zealand using this visa. Your resident visa will expire if you are outside New Zealand and your 'Expiry date travel' has passed.
Number of entries
If your visa states you have '
If your resident visa has section 49 conditions, they will be listed in your eVisa.
Before you can apply for a Permanent Resident Visa, or sponsor someone for a visa, you must:
After you have met your section 49 conditions, you can call our Customer Service Centre to find out how to remove them.
There is more information on the Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa about section 49 conditions and how to remove them.
If you applied for your resident visa after 30 June 2020, it will be given on the condition that you comply with orders under:
This condition applies for 3 months from the date:
During these 3 months, you must not be convicted or served an infringement notice for an offence under these Acts.
This condition does not apply after the 3 months have passed.
If your visa required you to invest in New Zealand, there may be conditions to keep your funds invested in New Zealand for a set amount of time.
Check your visa approval letter for more details.
If you were sponsored by someone for your resident visa, for example the Parent Resident Visa, there are conditions that your sponsor must meet.
Your sponsor must meet these conditions for a set amount of time after you get your visa. The amount of time is stated on your visa and will not be for more than 10 years.
Your sponsor must:
Travelling on a resident visa
Having a resident visa compared with a Permanent Resident Visa
Your resident visa only allows you to leave and return to New Zealand until a certain date, stated on your visa as the 'Expiry date travel'. If you leave New Zealand, or are outside of New Zealand, after this date, your resident visa will expire. You will not be able to return to New Zealand on that visa.
You can apply to extend your travel conditions or apply for a Permanent Resident Visa instead.
A Permanent Resident Visa lets you leave and return to New Zealand indefinitely, because there are no conditions.
If your travel conditions are expiring
If you want to travel outside New Zealand and your travel conditions have expired, or will expire soon, you may be able to:
- extend your resident visa travel conditions, or
- apply for a Permanent Resident Visa so you can travel in and out of New Zealand indefinitely.
If you are outside New Zealand with expired travel conditions
If you leave New Zealand with expired travel conditions, or they expire while you are outside of New Zealand:
- your resident visa will expire, and
- you cannot return to New Zealand and continue your residence.
If you have been outside of New Zealand for a short time, you may still be able to return as a resident by applying for a:
- Permanent Resident Visa, or
- second resident visa.
Second or Subsequent Resident Visa
Keep your visa in a current passport when travelling
When you travel in and out of New Zealand, make sure you have a current passport that has your:
- resident visa with valid travel conditions
- Permanent Resident Visa, or
- Returning Residents Visa (given before 29 November 2010).
If you get a new passport, you will need to transfer your visa into your new passport before you travel.
Who can apply to extend their travel conditions
You can apply to extend your travel conditions before you travel out of New Zealand if you:
- plan to stay on a resident visa for more than 2 years, or
- have applied for a Permanent Resident Visa after 2 years on a resident visa, but we have not approved your application yet.
Depending on your situation, you can apply to extend your multiple entry travel condition for 1 or 2 years.
If we cannot extend the condition for 1 or 2 years, we may give you an extension for 14 days.
- Inland Revenue confirms you had tax residence status for at least 12 months, and
- you spent 41 days or more in New Zealand as a resident in at least 1 of those 2 years.
- a statement from Inland Revenue, or
- a Confirmation of tax resident status (INZ 1006) endorsed by Inland Revenue.
- details of the terms of your secondment and how long it will last, and
- a statement that they consider New Zealand to be where you would normally live.
- Active Investor Plus Visa
- Parent Retirement Resident Visa
- Investor 1 Resident Visa
- Investor 2 Resident Visa.
- a letter of support from your partner, and
- evidence that you are still living together.
- your partner is a New Zealand citizen, and
- you have been living together in a
for at least 12 months. - do not want your resident visa to expire each time you leave New Zealand
- plan to travel often and you intend to apply for a permanent resident visa or sponsor a resident visa for one of your parents.
You can apply to extend your travel conditions for up to 12 months if, in at least 1 of the 2 years before you apply, you spent 184 days or more living in New Zealand.
This means you must have spent 184 days or more in New Zealand in the 12 months before we receive your application, or in the 12 months before that.
We check our records to confirm this.
You can apply to extend your travel conditions for up to 12 months if you are a New Zealand tax resident.
You are a New Zealand tax resident if in the 2 years immediately before you apply for a variation of travel conditions:
Submit evidence of your tax residence status with your application including:
You cannot be a tax resident of another country
Only New Zealand tax residents can apply to extend their travel conditions.
Some countries have double tax agreements with New Zealand. If you are considered by Inland Revenue to be a tax resident in another country because of a double tax agreement, we will not consider you to be a New Zealand tax resident.
If you were a partner or dependent child in a resident visa application
If you were included as a partner or dependent child in the original resident application, you are a
You can only apply for a variation of your travel conditions:
at the same time as the principal applicant, or
after they have applied for their variation.
There are some exceptions where you can apply before the principal applicant.
Non-principal applicants applying for permanent residence, second visas or variations
When you apply you need to tell us why you want to extend your travel conditions and provide evidence to support your reasons for applying. This information helps us decide how long we will extend your multiple entry travel conditions for.
You are normally given the same travel conditions as the principal applicant.
If you are seconded overseas as part of your New Zealand employment, you can apply to extend your travel conditions for 2 years. You can apply for this up to 4 times — this gives you a maximum of 8 years of multiple entry travel conditions.
When you apply, include written confirmation from your employer that includes:
You can apply to extend your travel conditions for 2 years if you were the principal applicant for 1 of the following visas, and your visa has investment conditions:
If you have a Partner of a New Zealander Resident Visa based on your partner being a New Zealand citizen, you can apply to extend your travel conditions for 2 years.
When you apply, you will need to provide:
If you have your own resident visa that is not based on your relationship with a New Zealand partner, you can apply to extend your travel conditions for 2 years.
You must provide evidence that:
If you are an Australian permanent resident or a citizen of Australia, you can travel in and out of New Zealand as often as you want. Your resident visa for New Zealand expires each time you leave. When you return you will receive a new resident visa.
You can apply to have multiple entry travel conditions added to your visa for up to 2 years if you:
How to apply to extend your travel condition
You can apply online or on paper to extend the travel conditions of your resident visa.
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Step 1: Gather your documents
You will need to provide:
- a copy of your passport — if you apply on paper, you can provide a certified copy, but it can prevent delays if you provide the original
- 1 acceptable photo
- any documents or evidence that support your application.
Providing your passport for an online application
How to provide a digital copy of your passport or send us your original passport so we can verify your identity.If you are applying for a visitor, student or work visa
You do not need to send us a physical copy. You must send us a high-quality scan of your passport.
Provide a scanned copy of your current and recent passports, including:
- the photo page, and
- all pages with visa records, and entry and exit stamps.
File formats for uploading documents and photos
If you are including your partner or dependent children in your application, you must send us high-quality scans of their passports too.
Resident and transit visas
If you are applying for a:
- Permanent Resident Visa
- Second or Subsequent Resident Visa
- Variation of Travel Conditions of a Resident Visa, or
- Transit Visa.
You must upload a high-quality scan of your passport or travel document when you apply online. You do not need to send us a physical copy.Upload the passport or travel document information page
You must upload a high-quality scan of your current passport or travel document information page when you start your application. This is the page with your photo, name, date of birth and document details like passport number, expiry and issuing authority. Make sure your scan also includes the MRZ code — the string of characters on the bottom of the information page of your passport.
If you are including a partner or dependent children in your application, you will also need to upload a high-quality scan of their passport information page.
Immigration Online will read the identity and document details in your scanned copy and fill in these fields for you on the form. Check the details in the form are correct and fix any mistakes. If all the information is correct you do not need to do anything and can continue with your application.
If Immigration Online could not upload your document, rescan your document and try again. Make sure the document:
- is high-quality
- does not have any screen glare
- can be easily read, and
- includes the MRZ code.
File formats for uploading documents and photosUpload other passport or travel document pages
You can upload any other pages with visa records, entry and exit stamps in the 'Identity evidence' fields in the 'Supporting documents' section of your application form.
Other online applications
If you are applying for another type of visa online, we will email you if we need your physical passport to confirm your identity.
You may not need to send us your passport if you are:
- already in New Zealand, or
- outside New Zealand and are from a visa waiver country or China.
Transfer a visa to a new passport
If you renew your passport before you travel, you must transfer your eVisa or the visa label to your new passport.
Transferring a visa to a new passport
You may not be able to come to New Zealand if your visa and passport do not match in our system.
Providing your physical passport
If we need to see your physical passport to confirm your identity, we will:
- email you after you submit your application
- tell you on the acknowledgement page when you complete your online application.
Most people do not need to provide their physical passport.
If you are not sure if you need to send your passport, check the final page of your completed visa application in your Immigration Online account.
Warning
If you do not send your passport within the time we specify, we may delay processing your application or decline it.
Sending your passport from outside New Zealand
If you are applying from outside New Zealand, send your passport to your nearest Visa Application Centre (VAC) or Immigration New Zealand (INZ) office. We must receive it within 20 working days from when we ask for it. Most people use a courier or postal tracking service to send us their passports.
Offices outside of New Zealand (Visa Application Centres)
Postal addresses for sending paper documents
Countries that cannot use a VAC
We will contact you with instructions about where and how to send your passport if you:
- do not have access to a VAC, or
- are from Algeria, Morocco or Tunisia and applying from one of those countries.
Sending your passport in New Zealand
Check our postal addresses page for where to send your passport in New Zealand. Use a signature-required courier service so it arrives quickly.
Postal addresses for sending paper documents
Sending your passport to a VAC
You may have to pay a fee to send your passport to a VAC. You can find the handling fee on the website of your nearest VAC. Fill in the filters and select the tab called ‘Passport handling for online application’.
VFS Global for individuals — VFS Global
Getting your passport returned from a VAC or INZ office
If you sent your passport to a VAC, they contact you with the tracking details after they send your passport back to you. If you have any questions or concerns about the return of your passport, contact the VAC directly.
Note
The VAC may not send your passport back to you until after we have made a decision about your visa application.
If you sent your passport to an INZ office, you receive a tracking number after we send it back to you. Contact the courier company if you have any questions about delivery. For any other questions or concerns, contact us.
Urgent return of passports
If you need your passport urgently, contact the INZ officer processing your application.
When you contact them, include:
- your client number or application number
- why you need your passport urgently, and
- your contact information.
Visa and NZeTA photos
Your photo must be less than 6 months old and clearly identify you. It must also meet all of our technical requirements.Meeting our photo requirements
If your photo does not meet all of our requirements we will ask you for a new photo.
If you are applying for a visa, we will stop processing your application until we receive an acceptable photo. If you are requesting an NZeTA, your request may be delayed or refused.
Visa and NZeTA photos are not passport photos
Use the photo examples on this page to check your photo is correct and meets our requirements.
Alert
Do not use the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs website or other online tools to check your photo as those tools are for passport photos only.
Using a professional photographer
Your photo is more likely to be accepted if you use a professional photographer or business that takes passport photos. Give the photographer our instructions to make sure you get a photo that meets our requirements.
Paper applications for visas
The photo you submit with a paper application must be 35 mm wide and 45 mm high. Further instructions are on the paper application forms.
Note
You can only apply for an NZeTA online.
Online applications for visas
The photo you submit with an online application must be:
- between 500 KB and 3 MB
- between 900 x 1,200 pixels and 2,250 x 3,000 pixels, and
- a JPG or JPEG file.
Alert
We are unlikely to accept your photo if it is not the right size.
Online requests for NZeTAs
If you request an NZeTA using the web app, you can either upload an existing photo or take one using your device's camera.
If you use the mobile app, you can only take a photo using your device's camera.
Your photo must be:
- less than 10 MB, and
- a JPG or JPEG file.
If you take a photo with your device, the camera must have a minimum resolution of 540 x 720 pixels. Large photos will be automatically formatted.
Online photo error messages
If there is an issue with your photo you will receive an error message when you submit your visa or NZeTA photo online. To help you, we have provided a list of online errors and how to fix them.
Taking your visa photo
Your photo must:
Be in portrait, not landscape
Be of you, not a photo of a photo or your travel document
Have even lighting with minimal shadowing
Be in colour, showing natural skin tones
Be in focus, not blurry
Not contain red-eye
Be an original photo, not changed by photo-editing software
Not be a selfie
Be taken 1.5 metres from the face
Be taken against a plain, light-coloured — but not white — background with no patterns or objects
Only contain plain clothing patterns
Be of one person
We need to clearly see your face
Face the camera and keep your head straight
Keep your eyes open and mouth closed
Do not smile or frown
Show your face clearly and that long hair is tucked behind your ears
Position yourself in the middle of the photo
Remove sunglasses and hats
If you wear prescription glasses
Make sure your eyes show clearly through the lenses, with no reflected light
It may be easier to remove them.
If you wear a head covering for religious or medical reasons
Make sure that your face and hairline can be seen in the photo
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Step 2: Submit your application and pay the fee
Applying online
To apply online, log in to your account, or set up an account if you do not have one already.
Under 'Your situation' choose the 'Resident visa' option, then follow the questions to match your situation.
You can then fill in your application, upload your documents and pay the applicable fees.
Applying on paper
Complete the application form and attach all supporting documents.
Application for a Variation of Conditions or a Variation of Travel Conditions (INZ 1020) PDF 537KB
Use the tool on the page 'Fees, decisions times and where to apply' to find out how much it costs to apply for a variation of conditions, where to submit your application, and how long a decision will take.
Fees, decision times and where to apply
Note
Type in 'variation of travel' to start your search when using the tool.
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Step 3: Wait for our decision
We will let you know when we make a decision.
How long it takes to process an application
The changes to your visa do not start until we approve your application and give you an updated eVisa.