Going from 'Work to residency' visa (accredited employer) to permanent residency

[Paul78]

Hi,

Does anyone have experience going from completing 2yrs on a work to residency visa with an accredited employer to gaining permanent residency?

from the pdf at
http://www.immigration.govt.nz/NR/rd.../0/INZ1176.pdf

page 3 states:

"A small number of people can be granted a permanent
resident visa without first having held a resident visa.
These are:
• refugees and protected people
• successful applicants under the Talent (Accredited
Employer) Residence from Work Category who meet a
certain income threshold, and
• partners of New Zealand citizens, where the couple
has been together for more than five years and the
New Zealand citizen has been overseas for more than
five years."

and from:
http://www.enz.org/work-visa-new-zealand.html it states:

"Work To Residence (WTR)
The most desirable work visa is the Work to Residence Visa.

If you can get one, qualifying for permanent residence is straightforward. All you need to do is work in NZ for two years and apply for permanent residence."

..so is my understanding that I can go straight to permanent residency correct? i.e. no having to spend 2 years on a residence class visa first before it becomes permanent?

My company is an accredited employer and I'll have the offer of a contract for an additional 12 months, and over the 2 yrs of my work visa I'll have been in the country enough days, and assuming medical and police checks are fine - it seems like this is a pretty pain free route to getting the permanent residency? unless I've mis-understood something?

Any thoughts

Cheers
Paul

[IanW99]

...

http://www.enz.org/work-visa-new-zealand.html it states:

"Work To Residence (WTR)
The most desirable work visa is the Work to Residence Visa.

If you can get one, qualifying for permanent residence is straightforward. All you need to do is work in NZ for two years and apply for permanent residence."

..so is my understanding that I can go straight to permanent residency correct? i.e. no having to spend 2 years on a residence class visa first before it becomes permanent?

My company is an accredited employer and I'll have the offer of a contract for an additional 12 months, and over the 2 yrs of my work visa I'll have been in the country enough days, and assuming medical and police checks are fine - it seems like this is a pretty pain free route to getting the permanent residency? unless I've mis-understood something?

Any thoughts

Cheers
Paul

First point is that the information listed on the enz website is out of date, it should say residence and not 'permanent residence' i.e. it is still using the old terms.

It is possible to go straight from WTR to permanent residence (was a reasonably recent change) but most people would go to residence first.
Will you meet the requirements to go straight to permanent residence including minimum income?

What do you mean by pain free route? Surely there are more (or should that be less) pain free routes?

Ian

[Karen Phillips]

Hi. If your base salary is more than $90k and you meet all the other standard requirements then you can go straight to Permanent residence. See Ops manual RW2.1. Cheers. Karen

[nalinduh]

hi Karen, is this still valid today? the 90K base?

[gsz]

hi Karen, is this still valid today? the 90K base?

I'd also like to know that. Current INZ1176 doesn't mention that (or I missed it)

[BazCat]

I'd also like to know that. Current INZ1176 doesn't mention that (or I missed it)

I spoke to INZ this morning and two different agents confirmed that it is still the case that you may be considered for PR if your base salary is over $90,000.

https://www.immigration.govt.nz/docu...es/inz1003.pdf mentions it on page 11.

[gsz]

I spoke to INZ this morning and two different agents confirmed that it is still the case that you may be considered for PR if your base salary is over $90,000.

https://www.immigration.govt.nz/docu...es/inz1003.pdf mentions it on page 11.

Great! Thank you very much.

[girlwithanewf]

Yes, it is straightforward if you are on an accredited employer work visa (talent visa) to go to residence/permanent residence. Once you have been here 2 years you can apply for residency and if you earn over $90 000 and fulfill the other requirements you should get permanent residence status straightaway. This applies to everyone on your initial application as well so if you have a partner/children they also get the permanent residence status. Only if you fulfil the salary requirement, otherwise you can get residence status and apply for permanent residence after a further 2 years.
Info here: http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...tepsfortalent/
and here about the $90,000 requirement: http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra.../residence.htm
This application can go quite quickly as they are processed through the business immigration section and we know of other peoples' applications which took a similar length of time.

[harmon]

Yes, it is straightforward if you are on an accredited employer work visa (talent visa) to go to residence/permanent residence. Once you have been here 2 years you can apply for residency and if you earn over $90 000 and fulfill the other requirements you should get permanent residence status straightaway. This applies to everyone on your initial application as well so if you have a partner/children they also get the permanent residence status. Only if you fulfil the salary requirement, otherwise you can get residence status and apply for permanent residence after a further 2 years.
Info here: http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...tepsfortalent/
and here about the $90,000 requirement: http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra.../residence.htm
This application can go quite quickly as they are processed through the business immigration section and we know of other peoples' applications which took a similar length of time.

Any idea on the processing time of such visas ?

[girlwithanewf]

Any idea on the processing time of such visas ?

That took about a month in Wellington.