General information

You will need to provide evidence about your circumstances in China, and your reasons for coming to New Zealand to show you are a genuine visitor.

To be granted permanent residence, you need to show us you're committed to living in New Zealand permanently. There are five ways you can show your commitment.

A person who remains in New Zealand after their visa expires becomes unlawfully in New Zealand and is therefore liable for deportation. Liability for deportation can also arise in other situations. In many cases, a person can appeal against their liability, within certain timeframes.

If you’re pregnant when you apply for your temporary visa you’ll need to know the costs involved in your maternity health care while you’re here, especially if you’ll be having your baby in New Zealand.

The areas used as international airports that have been designated as Immigration Control Areas.

The conditions of your Interim Visa will depend on the kind of visa you had before we granted your Interim Visa, and the kind of visa you applied for.

A list of countries that are part of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation. If you have an APEC Business Travel Card and you're from one of these countries, you'll have access to streamlined travel processes.

If we declined your application for a work, student or visitor visa, you may be able to request reconsideration of that decision. To request reconsideration you must be in New Zealand, hold a visa and pay a fee.

You are not allowed to stay in New Zealand after your visa expires. If you do remain in New Zealand after your visa has expired you will be unlawful and liable for deportation.

We offer streamlined visitor visa processing arrangements for people who are members of certain programmes.

When individuals or organisations sponsor visa applications they take on significant obligations and responsibilities that are legally binding.

Sponsors under the Refugee Family Support Category must register as either a tier one or tier two sponsor before their family members can be invited to apply for a New Zealand resident visa.

There are some countries whose citizens do not have to apply for a visa before travelling New Zealand as a transit passenger.

Immigration New Zealand sets the rules for who can travel to and enter New Zealand. We carry out a number of checks to help us decide which passengers can travel to and enter New Zealand. We do this both at check-in and again when you arrive in New Zealand.

You can stay in New Zealand on a resident visa indefinitely, but you need travel conditions to leave and return as a resident. If your travel conditions expire before you're eligible to apply for a Permanent Resident Visa, you can apply for a variation of travel conditions, to allow you to leave New Zealand and return as a resident.

You can apply for a variation of conditions if you want to change the conditions of your work, visitor or visitor visa.

A country whose citizens don’t have to apply for a visa before coming to New Zealand for a short visit.