Resident Visa - when does my 2-year travel condition start?

[taless]

Hi all,

I have just recently sent my passport to INZ for the blue stickers, and am just slightly curious about the Travel Conditions attached to the Resident Visa.

Say my blue sticker gets issued today (18/6/12). And say I plan to enter NZ in August 2012.

Does my Travel Conditions run from 18/6/12 to 17/6/2014, or does it start from August 2012 to August 2014?

If the latter, does it technically mean I have a period of 2 months (June to August 2014) when I should really have no out of country travel?

Thanks lots for such an informative forum!!

[Sun777]

It starts from August 2012 to August 2014.

I think there's quite some confusion around this, Australian immigration had the same question when I applied for tourist visa.

[Rob&Don]

Hi all,

I have just recently sent my passport to INZ for the blue stickers, and am just slightly curious about the Travel Conditions attached to the Resident Visa.

Say my blue sticker gets issued today (18/6/12). And say I plan to enter NZ in August 2012.

Does my Travel Conditions run from 18/6/12 to 17/6/2014, or does it start from August 2012 to August 2014?

If the latter, does it technically mean I have a period of 2 months (June to August 2014) when I should really have no out of country travel?

Thanks lots for such an informative forum!!

As far as I am aware your travel conditions `start` when you arrive in NZ. So it would be August and not June.

[JandM]

As the others have said, the visa, and the travel conditions, aren't activated till you present your passport at Immigration upon arrival in NZ.

[babscat]

We have just had passports returned with a leaflet clearly setting out all the travel conditions

[Lauralocks]

I got a letter explaining the travel conditions but I didn't understand them. Is it that you have to be in NZ when the 2 years runs out?

Can you come and go up to that date or are you not allowed to leave at all in the first 2 years (that sounds odd).

[JandM]

You first get Residence, along with two years' travel conditions, which mean that you can come and go as and when you like.

After two years, the travel conditions lapse - you're still okay for living in NZ, but to have the right to travel and come back into NZ, you need EITHER to renew the travel conditions (and how long you can renew for depends on how much time you've spent in NZ over the previous two years), OR show that you have a commitment to NZ, and you will then get Permanent Residence, which gives you the right to travel and come back as much as you want, forever.

Demonstrating commitment to NZ can be done in various ways, but the most common one is to have spent 184 days or more, of each of the last two years, in NZ. Here's the link to the others. http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...quirements.htm

There's more detail on the various possible situations given in the links on the sidebar on that page. As almost always, the INZ website has the answers.