Hey everyone
This is my first time posting on these forums. After reading through many post on this website as well as INZ website and both the immigrations act and education act I still do not quite understand the requirements for becoming a domestic in NZ.
So here's the situation, I am a NZ citizen and have a German girlfriend which I met at the beginning of 2012 well she was in NZ for a year. We are currently researching options for our future with the preferred option being her moving to NZ permanently. The plan would be for her to enter under the work visa for partners so we could complete the required 12 months living together for her to be able to apply for NZ residency.
In the future she plans on undertaking a university degree within NZ. This is where things start to get confusing as from my research I find two different definitions of a domestic student. The education act describes a domestic tertiary student as a holder of a residency class visa then the partnership resident visa would meet this requirement where as the university site I have looked at ask for a permanent residency visa which if I understand correctly is obtained have having a residency visa for two years. From my understanding the reform of the immigration act renamed what was previously known as a permanent resident visa with conditions to a straight residency visa and a permanent residency visa with conditions was renamed to a straight permanent residency visa.
My questions are,
Does the difference in definitions results from this change in terminology?
And if so it it possibly to study as a domestic student in the two years before permanent residency is achieved with just the normal residency visa?
I have few more questions relating to her immigration but for the moment this is the biggest factor in deciding if she should move her or I to Germany.
Thanks in advance for any help