Australia PR wants to travel to NZ, a question about visa

[Storm Petrel]

Hi everybody.

Sorry about the long post in advance...

I am a permanent resident of Australia, landed in Australia 4.5 years ago to activate my AUS PR visa (skilled migrant scheme), but I returned to my home country soon after that.

I came back to Australia one month ago - this time to stay - and obviously started looking for jobs which resulted in an interview for a very good job in NZ.

I know I will be granted NZ PR visa upon my arrival in NZ. I also realise that if I don’t stay in OZ, I will lose my PR status as I have not been in Australia long enough to get a Resident Return Visa. To me, Aus and NZ both are lovely countries and in fact, I don’t mind losing my PR status in Australia if I become sure that my NZ PR status will remain intact after losing Aus PR.

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)

Thank you for your time.

[JandM]

Hello and welcome.

We have several members who have come to NZ from Australia, so I think you may get some useful knowledge from them once they've seen your post. If not, you could put your specific question to Immigration NZ, by way of the 'contact us' page on their website - they answer within four days, normally.

[sophiedb]

I'm pretty sure that your NZ PR would be totally dependent on your Aussie PR remaining intact *and* eligibility for an Aussie RRV, I'm afraid, but INZ will be the best people to confirm.

From the INZ Knowledge Base (my emphasis):

If you are an Australian permanent resident entering New Zealand with a current Australian Resident Return Visa in your valid passport, you will normally be granted a residence class visa to travel to, enter and stay in New Zealand, provided you have completed your arrival card correctly and truthfully. However, you can still be refused residence if you are not of good character (you will be required to make a character declaration when entering NZ).

You haven't applied to NZ for residency and haven't followed through on the Aussie residency, so don't really fit into the terms of the Trans Tasman agreement yet, I don't think. Sorry

[Storm Petrel]

Thank you both for your inputs.

@Sophiedb

Dear Sophie

I know I can't enter NZ with an expired Aus PR Visa. The Aus PR Visa (OR AUS RRV) must be valid at the time I enter NZ, otherwise I may not be granted NZ Resident visa on arrival.

I don't intend to enter New Zealand whit an expired Aus PR Visa. In fact, my Aus PR visa is still valid until 6 months later and I will arrive in NZ with a valid AUS PR visa.

What I was trying to ask was that what happens if I enter New Zealand with a valid AUS PR but during my stay in NZ my Aus PR visa expires? Will my NZ Resident visa still remain Valid?

In other words, will my NZ resident visa be regarded as if it has been granted independent of my AUS PR visa ONCE my NZ resident visa is actually issued?

Thank you once again

[JandM]

It seems likely to me that if your job is a skilled one, you may well be able to apply for NZ Residence on the grounds of that, as soon as you arrive, so it won't matter that your Australian PR runs out, but it sounds as though nobody has experience which exactly matches what you want to do. We on ENZ don't have direct contact with Immigration NZ, so you won't find expertise on every possible contingency. Therefore, your only safe plan is to contact INZ, and ask them.

[sophiedb]

What JandM said

[Storm Petrel]

Thank you JandM and Sophie for your inputs.

@JandM

Yes I can accumulate 140 pints for Immigration to NZ.


Cheers

[Skipjack]

You really need to check this out with INZ.

[pdotie]

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