Originally Posted by
Storm Petrel
Hi everybody.
The questions are:
1- Will the validity of my NZ resident visa have anything to do with the validity of my AUS PR visa whatsoever? In other words, I wonder if my NZ resident visa validity will be totally independent of my Aus PR visa validity once the NZ resident visa is issued.
2- Will the NZ immigration give me a Resident Visa with 24 months variation of travel conditions? Or will they give me a resident visa which expires anytime I leave New Zealand? (i.e. without any variation of travel conditions)
.
Ok, whilst it may be a bit late for the OP, I can give some insight into the questions (but of course whilst I have just been through this process, this is just my experience and not advice):
1 - Validity of Oz PR has no bearing on the NZ validity, they are totally independent once the NZ visa has been issued - When you turn up at Immigration in NZ, if you have CURRENT Oz PR, you will be stamped with a Resident's Visa giving you indefinate leave to remain in NZ irrespective of whether your Oz PR expires. In theory, if you have two days left on your Oz PR, you could come to NZ and stay forever but..
2 - This visa expires when you leave the country so if you want to re-enter as a resident, you still need to have CURRENT Oz PR at the point you want to re-enter.
However, with Current Oz PR and the Residents Visa you can
APPLY FOR a 24 month Variation of Travel conditions which allows you to exit and re-enter New Zealand. This is back dated to the date you initially entered (on your Residents Visa above). The process for this was simple, I went to the Immigration Counter in Auckland with form 1175 and the variation of travel conditions was issued there and then.
After this period of 24 months is up, you can then apply for a Permanent Residence Visa if you meet the criteria in the same way as anyone else who was granted residence through any of the direct application processes such as Skilled Migrants etc...
http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...quirements.htm