NZ work visa: allowed to invite a friend to apply visitor visa?

[camilord]

I got work visa, am i allowed to invite a closed friend to visit and spend vacation in NZ?

[JandM]

Do you mean, simply invite them to stay in your home? If that is the case, yes, certainly you can invite them, but they would still have to get the visitor's visa to be allowed to enter the country.

Or are you thinking of some sort of sponsorship?

[camilord]

just invitation maybe... so i need to compose an invitation letter? for my friend to show during lodging their application?

how about sponsoring the accommodation only? staying at my rented studio type accommodation? is that allowed? does it qualify?

[JandM]

If your friend is from a visa waiver country, there are few formalities to go through - they fill in a form on the aircraft shortly before arrival, then Immigration at the airport ask them a few questions based on that, before stamping their passport to admit them to the country. It could be helpful to your friend to have a letter of invitation, so there is no doubt of their welcome in the country, smaller expense for them, etc..

If your friend is not from a visa waiver country, they will have to apply for a visitor visa before travelling. http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...ss/default.htm They will have to provide evidence that they can support themself while in NZ. The amount considered necessary is mentioned in Section H1 on page 12 at this link. http://www.immigration.govt.nz/NR/rd.../0/INZ1018.pdf

If you do not have a sponsor you must provide:
• evidence that you have NZ$1000 per month for each person included in your application or
• evidence that you have NZ$400 per month for each person included in your application, and
evidence that each person’s accommodation costs are already paid.

Therefore, if you supply a letter saying that your friend will not have any accommodation costs to meet, that will be part of their evidence to submit with the application.

As you will see, just above that on the page, sponsoring someone involves making yourself responsible for much larger costs, and might not be what you want to do at all.

[camilord]

she's not from a visa waiver country, she's from Philippines but residing at Saudi Arabia...

thanks JandM for the help...

[Perick]

There is special sponsorship form (INZ1025), but you can use it in case if you have resident visa or citizenship.
http://www.immigration.govt.nz/NR/rd.../0/INZ1025.pdf