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Information about Pacific Access Category Resident Visa

If you’re from Kiribati, Tuvalu, Tonga or Fiji, we encourage you to register for a ballot to come to New Zealand. If your registration is drawn from the ballot, we may invite you to apply for residence. If you’re granted a resident visa, you’ll be able to work, live, and study in New Zealand indefinitely, while also enjoying our unique lifestyle.

Overview

Overview

Length of stay

Indefinitely

Age range

18 – 45 years

Quota
  • 75 Kiribati citizens
  • 75 Tuvaluan citizens
  • 250 Tongan citizens
  • 250 Fijian citizens

You can

  • Live, work and study in New Zealand.
  • Include your partner, and dependent children aged 24 and under, in your residence application - if you first included them in your ballot registration.

Things to note

  • You or your partner must have a job offer that pays enough to support you and your family in New Zealand.
  • You must be able to read, write and speak English.
Criteria

Meeting the criteria

The criteria and evidence below will provide you with the information you need to meet the requirements.

Use the filters to display country specific tips, under evidence, to assist you with your application

Show all evidence Hide all evidence

Ballot registration

You must register for the Pacific Access Category ballot by the closing date

EvidenceHide

You must complete a 'Pacific Access Category Registration' form and include:

  • a copy of your birth certificate
  • copies of birth certificates for your partner and dependent children, if you would like for them to come to New Zealand with you.

Pacific Access Category Registration form (INZ 1092) PDF 276KB
Partnership
Dependent children

Don’t send original birth certificates, as we may not be able to return them to you.

If you don’t include your partner or children in your ballot registration, they won’t be included in an invitation to apply for residence later.

Age

You must be at least 18 but no older than 45 when the registration for the ballot closes

EvidenceHide

We’ll use the birth certificate you send with your ballot registration to confirm your age.

Invitation to apply for residence

You must be invited to apply for residence

EvidenceHide

If invited to apply for residence, you must apply within 8 months of being invited to apply.

Character

You must be of good character

EvidenceHide

If you are 17 or over, you must provide a police certificate from:

  • your country of citizenship
  • any other country where you have spent 12 months or more over the last 10 years, even if you did not spend that 12 months all in one visit.

Good character

How to get a police certificate

Police Certificates must be less than 6 months old when you apply.

You don’t need to provide any Police Certificates until you’re invited to apply for residence.

Citizenship

You must be a citizen of Fiji, Kiribati, Tonga or Tuvalu

EvidenceHide

If you’re invited to apply for residence, you’ll need to provide a valid passport from your country of citizenship.

Country of birth

You or one of your parents must be born in the country you are a citizen of

EvidenceHide

If you were born in the country you are a citizen of, you must provide your birth certificate.

If you were born overseas, you must provide the following documents for your parent:

  • their birth certificate
  • their passport or certificate of identity showing they share your country of citizenship.

You don’t need to provide any evidence until you’re invited to apply for residence.

Location

You must apply for residence while in your country of citizenship or while in New Zealand on a valid temporary visa

EvidenceHide

Any documents that prove where you’re living. Examples include:

  • letters sent to your home address
  • references from your employer.

You can also apply from Fiji.

English language

You must be able to speak English

EvidenceHide

If invited to apply for residence, we’ll test your English by talking to you about yourself, your family and your background.

You’ll need to be able to read and answer questions in English to pass the test.

New Zealand job offer

You must have a job offer

EvidenceHide

If you’re invited to apply for residence, you must provide evidence of a current offer of full-time work that is for 12 months or more.  

Evidence must include certified copies of your:

  • job offer
  • job description
  • employment agreement
  • registration, if it’s work you need to be registered to do.

We can’t grant a visa if your employer is included on the list of non-compliant employers maintained by the Labour Inspectorate.

Employment agreements and rights

List of non-compliant employers

The job offer can be for you or for your partner.

Bring family

Your partner and dependent children must meet the requirements for this visa

EvidenceHide

If invited to apply for residence, you must provide evidence:

  • of your relationship with your partner and dependent children
  • that your partner and dependent children meet the health, character and identity requirements for this visa.

Partnership
Dependent children

If any of your immediate family members hold New Zealand temporary entry visas based on their relationship with you, they must be included in your residence application.

Minimum income

You must earn enough money to support your family

EvidenceHide

If you’re invited to apply for residence, you need to provide evidence, such as employment agreements, that you and your partner will earn NZD $38,577.76 or more between you each year.

We review minimum incomes each year.

Process

Process

The information below will help you understand the process so you can plan ahead and have the best chance of submitting a complete application.

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Fees & receiving centre

Fees & receiving centre

The information below will help you understand the process, timeframes and costs involved in applying for this visa, so you can plan ahead and have the best chance of submitting a complete application.

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Conditions

Conditions

These are the conditions that you must meet once you have your visa.

Entry permission

You must apply for entry permission when you arrive in New Zealand. You can do this by completing an arrival card, which you are given on the way to New Zealand.

Arriving in New Zealand

You can be refused entry permission if:

  • you don’t meet our character requirements
  • your circumstances have changed since you were granted a visa
  • you refuse to let us to take your photo, or provide us with your fingerprints or an iris scan, if we ask you for them.

Arriving in New Zealand

When we grant your visa, you’ll have 3 months to come to New Zealand.

Your partner and dependent children will have 12 months to come to New Zealand.

If you and your family are unable to come to New Zealand by these times, your visa will expire and you’ll have to apply for a new visa.

Your family must have been included in your resident visa application for them to come to New Zealand.

Keep your visa in a valid passport

If you want to travel, your visa must be in a valid passport.

If your passport expires, you must apply to transfer your visa to a new passport before you can travel.

Transferring my visa to a new passport

To transfer your visa, you must:

  • send us your old and new passports
  • complete an ‘Application for Transfer or Confirmation of a Visa’
  • pay a transfer fee.

 

Application for Transfer or Confirmation of a Visa (INZ 1023)

Fees, decision times and where to apply

Travel

You can travel in and out of New Zealand as often as you like until your travel conditions expire.

To travel after that, you will need to apply for and be granted either:

  • a Permanent Resident Visa
  • a variation of your travel conditions, which would allow you to return to New Zealand at a later date. 

Your travel conditions will expire 2 years from the date you first arrive in New Zealand as a resident.

If you’re outside of New Zealand when your travel conditions expire, your visa will expire as well.

Employers

Employer obligations

New Zealand employers have certain obligations they must meet when employing a non New Zealand resident.

What an employer needs to do

Show all evidence Hide all evidence

Job offer

You must provide a written employment agreement, which your candidate will need to support their application

EvidenceHide

For us to grant your candidate a resident visa, they must provide a written employment agreement, which must:

  • be for at least 30 hours a week and be ongoing for at least 12 months, with an option of more work after that
  • include a full job description, terms and conditions for the job, and your contact details
  • pay at least NZ$33,739.68 a year before tax if they have dependent children
  • pay no less than the minimum wage if they don’t have dependent children
  • comply with New Zealand employment law.

 

You also need to provide a job description and a covering letter.

Minimum employment rights

Writing a job description

Employment agreement builder

You don’t have to check if there are any New Zealanders available to do the work before you offer the job.

If your candidate’s partner also has a job offer, the minimum income requirement can be shared between them, as long as one partner has a full-time job.

Information updated on 2019/12/13 12:21:33.619605 GMT+13