I think most people on the Forum understand the anxiety associated with rushing off to the other side of the world! Ok. As a UK Citizen, your husband can enter NZ and stay there for 6 months without a visa. However, he does have to prove he is "bona fide". This means that he has to demonstrate that he has the financial means to support himself in NZ and to buy a return ticket, that he understands the commitment to leave NZ before his visa expires. There are also rules about how long a visitor can remain in NZ. On a UK visa waiver, this is 6 months in NZ and then 6 months out before returning. On a visitor visa (usually issued for 9 months) it is 9 months in and then 9 months out. However, if I am right in thinking you intend to lodge your EOI for SMC residence pretty soon, and your EOI will have more thna100 points and includes a job offer, it will be selected within a fortnight, your ITA should take no more than a couple of weeks, you could then lodge your SMC application the next day if you had everything ready and you would go into the Tier 1 managed queue. The length of time there varies, but it could be as little as 2 months - it could be 4 months. With no Security issues likely to arise, so long as you submit all the evidence they need, the 6 months on the visa waiver should be long enough. If you wanted to be on the safe-side, for the sake of £85 (+£24), you could get a visitor visa for him to minimise the very small possibility of him being refused entry. You could apply today (no medicals or police checks needed for this), it would get there tomorrow, got from the VAC to INZ on Monday and should be issued by the end of the month - especially if you include a cover letter explaining what is happening. If you want to discuss any of this on the phone, send me a Private Message with your number. I won't charge you even though I am a LIA. Kind regards. Karen