Parent Retirement Resident Visa

Apply for this visa if you want to live in New Zealand permanently and you have an adult child who is a New Zealand citizen or resident. You must meet our income and investment requirements.

  • Length of stay

    Live, work and study

    indefinitely

  • Cost

    From

    NZD $12850

  • Processing time

    Approval in principle 80% within

    24 months

To apply you must:

  • have an adult child who is a New Zealand citizen or resident living in New Zealand
  • have no dependent children
  • have at least NZD $1 million to invest in New Zealand for 4 years, and at least NZD $500,000 for settlement
  • have earned or acquired your funds lawfully
  • transfer your investment funds to New Zealand
  • have an annual income of at least NZD $60,000
  • meet the other requirements of this visa.

This visa lets you:

  • live, work and study in New Zealand
  • include your partner in your application
  • travel in and out of New Zealand for the first 2 years of your 4-year investment period
  • apply for permanent residence after 4 years of keeping your funds invested in New Zealand.

If we approve your residence application in principle, you will have 12 months to transfer your investment funds to New Zealand.

If you want to come to New Zealand to investigate investment opportunities, you will need to apply for a work visa. If your partner wants to come with you, they will need to apply for their own work or visitor visa.

How long you can stay

A Parent Retirement Resident Visa lets you stay in New Zealand indefinitely.

Who can apply

Check if you are eligible to apply for this visa and what supporting documents and information you need to provide.

Identity

You must provide proof of your identity:

  • 2 acceptable photos of your head and shoulders
  • your original or a of your passport or
  • your original or a certified copy of your .

Note

You can provide either your original passport or a certified copy when you submit your application. If you provide a certified copy, we may request your original passport to complete your application.

Citizens of China

You can provide household registration documents if these confirm your relationship to your child.

Applicants from Hong Kong or Macao applying within Hong Kong or Macao

Also provide a copy of your identity card.

Citizens of Indonesia

If you are a citizen of Indonesia, also provide your .

Applicants applying from French Polynesia or Wallis and Futuna

If you are not a French national, also provide a copy of your carte d’assuré.

Applicants applying from New Caledonia

Also provide a copy of your livret de famille.

If you are not a French national, also provide a copy of your carte d’assuré.

Health

You must be in good health.

You must have a chest X-ray and a medical examination as proof of your good health.

Note

If you have submitted a general medical and chest X-ray certificate in the last 36 months, for another visa application, you do not need to resubmit one.

Character

You must be of good character.

If you, or anyone else included in your application, are aged 17 or older you must provide a police certificate from:

  • all the countries you are a citizen of, and
  • any other country you have stayed in for 12 months or more over the last 10 years, even if it was not all in the same stay.

Note

Police certificates must be less than 6 months old at the time you apply.

If you provide a police certificate that is not in English, you must provide an . This includes police certificates that record no convictions

Your child's immigration status

Your child must be a New Zealand citizen or resident.

You must provide an original or of your child's:

  • New Zealand passport, birth certificate or certificate of citizenship, or
  • New Zealand Resident Visa, or
  • Australian passport.

Note

Your child must be 18 or over for us to consider them an adult.

If your child is a New Zealand resident, their visa must be free from .

If your child has section 49 conditions, these will be listed on their visa label.

Your child's place of residence

Your child must live in New Zealand.

You must provide evidence your child lives in New Zealand, which may include:

  • letters or bills addressed to them, for example power bills
  • employment records
  • records of benefit payments from Work and Income
  • tax records from Inland Revenue
  • mortgage or rental agreements
  • documents showing their belongings have been moved to New Zealand
  • any other documents that show they live in New Zealand.

Note

Your child must also be a New Zealand citizen or resident.

Dependent children

You must have no dependent children.

We will ask you about your family when you complete your residence application.

Note

If you have dependent children, you will not be eligible for this visa. 

Your relationship with the sponsoring child

You must be the parent or legal guardian of your child.

You must provide evidence of your relationship with your child, such as original or certified copy of your child's , or adoption papers.

If you are the legal guardian of a sponsoring child, you must provide:

  • evidence the child's parents are deceased, and they died before the child turned 20
  • documents, including medical and school records showing you had custody of the child, and the right to control the child's upbringing before they turned 20

If you are the grandparent of a sponsoring child, you must provide:

  • evidence the child's parents are deceased, and they died before the child turned 20
  • legal documents naming you as the child's guardian
  • documents, including medical and school records, showing you had custody of the child, and the right to control the child's upbringing before they turned 20.

Your relationship with your children

You must provide evidence of your relationship to all of your other children.

You must provide evidence that confirms your relationship to all of your other children, including:

  • your biological and adopted children, and any other children you were the legal guardian for
  • any of your partner's children, who lived with you and your partner as part of your family before they turned 17.

Evidence may include:

  • adoption papers
  • any other documents that confirm your relationship to each other.

Investment funds

You must have NZD $1 million or more to invest in New Zealand for 4 years.

You must nominate the type, location and value of the funds and/or assets you intend to invest. Evidence may include:

  • bank statements
  • title deeds
  • property valuations
  • share certificates
  • business ownership documents
  • asset valuations.

The value you can claim for your nominated funds, depends if they are owned by you, or jointly by you and another person. If you own an investment jointly with:

  • your partner, you can claim the full value of the investment, as long as you and your partner are in a recognised partnership
  • someone who is not your partner, you can only claim for the part of the investment that you own.

Note

The funds and/or assets you nominate for your investment cannot be borrowed, or have a loan or bond against them.

The funds you nominate for your investment must be on top of your annual income and your settlement funds.

Source of investment funds

You must have earned or acquired your funds lawfully.

The evidence you provide will depend on how you came by your funds. It may include:

  • tax returns or certificates
  • pay slips
  • business financial statements
  • business shareholdings
  • dividends
  • receipts for property sales
  • bank certificates
  • share trading profits
  • evidence of gifted money
  • probate and other evidence of inherited money.

Note

It is OK if your funds were gifted to you, as long as the gift was unconditional and lawful, and was earned or acquired lawfully.

If the funds were earned or acquired in a way that is not lawful in New Zealand, we will not be able to approve your visa application.

Transfer investment funds

You must transfer your investment funds to New Zealand.

You must transfer your investment funds directly from your bank account to New Zealand through the banking system.

If we approve your application in principle, you will have 12 months from that date to transfer and invest your funds. 

Note

You can apply for a temporary visa to come to New Zealand and investigate investment opportunities.

Specific Purpose Work Visa

We cannot extend the timeframe for transferring and investing your nominated funds.

Citizens of China

If you are a citizen of China, you must make sure your funds meet currency exchange and transfer requirements in place in China.

The following organisations have previously demonstrated they have acceptable QDII products:

  • Bank of China
  • China Construction Bank
  • ICBC
  • Guosen Securities Company Ltd.

Settlement funds

You must have at least NZD $500,000.

You must provide evidence you have the funds and/or assets to cover the required settlement funds, which may include:

  • bank statements – you must be able to access the funds from New Zealand
  • title deeds
  • property valuations
  • share certificates
  • business ownership documents
  • asset valuations.

The value you can claim for your settlement funds, depends if they are owned by you, or jointly by you and another person. If you own your settlement funds jointly with:

  • your partner, you can claim the full value of the investment, as long as you and your partner are in a recognised partnership
  • someone who is not your partner, you can only claim for the part of the investment that you own.

Note

Your settlement funds must be on top of your annual income and your investment funds.

Annual income

You must have an annual income of NZD $60,000 or more.

You must provide evidence of your income. This may include documents that show you have:

  • a pension
  • earnings from rental properties
  • dividends from share portfolios
  • interest from investments
  • profits from owning a company
  • share market trading profits.

Note

Your income can be earned by you alone, or together with a partner you have included in your application.

Bring partner

Your partner must meet the requirements for this visa.

To bring your partner, you must provide evidence:

  • of your relationship with your partner, like a marriage certificate
  • that your partner meets the identity, character and health requirements for this visa.

Acceptable investments

You must invest NZD $1 million in acceptable investments in New Zealand for a minimum of 4 years.

You must provide documents from a trusted professional like a chartered accountant or solicitor that confirm:

  • your full name
  • the amount invested in NZD
  • the date you started your investment
  • the investment type
  • the names of any organisations you invested in
  • the number of shares or bonds you bought in any organisations.

Note

If you already have funds invested in an acceptable investment in New Zealand, we can start your investment period from the time we approve your residence application in principle.

Once your funds are invested in New Zealand, it is OK to transfer funds between acceptable investments.

How to pay and submit

When you arrive

Entry permission

You must apply for permission to enter New Zealand. You do this by completing a New Zealand Traveller Declaration (NZTD) form.

You can start your digital declaration any time, but the earliest you can submit it is 24 hours before starting your travel to New Zealand.

A paper declaration form is available for travellers who cannot complete it online.

New Zealand Traveller Declaration

New Zealand Customs and Biosecurity also check that you meet their entry requirements.

Arriving in New Zealand

Alert

You can be refused entry permission if you:

  • do not meet our character requirements
  • have had a change in circumstances since we issued your visa
  • refuse to let us take your photo, fingerprints or an iris scan.

While you are in New Zealand

These are the conditions that you must meet once you have your visa. Your visa conditions are recorded in your eVisa.

Invest in New Zealand

You must keep at least NZD $1 million invested in an acceptable investment in New Zealand for 4 years.

Note

We ask for evidence you have kept your funds invested at the end of the second and fourth years you are in New Zealand.

You will have 3 months to provide the evidence.

It is OK to transfer funds between acceptable investments.

If you already have funds in an acceptable investment in New Zealand when you apply for residence, we can start your investment period from the time we approve your application in principle.

Contact details

You must let us know if your address or other contact details change during the 4-year investment period.

Note

We will need to keep in touch with you to check you are meeting the conditions of your visa.

If we are unable to confirm that you are meeting the conditions, you may not be able to stay in New Zealand.

Work

You can work in New Zealand.

Study

You can study in New Zealand.

Travel

You can travel in and out of New Zealand for the first 2 years of your 4-year investment period.

If we confirm that you are meeting all of the conditions that apply to the first 2 years of your investment period, you can apply for a variation of conditions to allow you to travel for the last 2 years.

Note

If you are not meeting the conditions of your visa, you may have to leave New Zealand.

If you have met all the conditions of your visa at the end of the 4-year investment period, you may be granted a permanent resident visa.

A permanent resident visa allows travel in and out New Zealand free from conditions.

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 your visa to a new passport

Note

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

Fees, decision times and where to apply