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Thread: Retiring to NZ

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
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    UK
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    Default Retiring to NZ

    Hi All,

    I'm an Australian passport holder and my wife has a one year Class 155 resident return visa for Australia in her EU passport. We are in our sixties and would like to retire to NZ. Do we meet the immigration requirements to enter and remain indefinitely in the country?
    I'm hoping it would work this way rather than having to go the Partner visa route with me sponsoring my wife which would seem to imply that I would need to be in NZ first in order to do that.

    I should add we are both currently living in the UK

    Thanks for any thoughts

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
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    Default

    I don't think your wife's Australian visa will mean anything to NZ, actually. But for you to sponsor her shouldn't pose any problems. For one thing, as she has an EU passport, she's probably entitled to visa-waiver entry (that is, a visitor's visa that you fill in the form for on the plane), so she can well spend the first three months in NZ without any formalities, while you sort out sponsoring her. For another thing, I remember an Australian on the forum preparing to move from Australia with his foreign wife, and being allowed by INZ to sponsor her for NZ Residence before they left, on the strength of showing the documentation about shipping their belongings. (http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...nersstatus.htm)

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    UK
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    Default

    Thanks for the quick reply. Re the Australian resident return visa I thought that gave her the right to enter New Zealand too and remain indefinitely. I saw this on the INZ site http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...as/default.htm
    You don’t need a visa if you are:
    a New Zealand citizen, or
    the holder of a New Zealand residence class visa, or
    the holder of a valid Australian passport, or
    the holder of a current Australian Permanent Resident Visa, or
    the holder of a current Australian Resident Return Visa.

    I'd be a bit twitchy about selling up and making the move banking on the hope that she'd be allowed in. Also if she was in on a 3 month waiver would that give enough time for a partner sponsorship to be sorted out and if not would she have to leave the country if her visa expired beforehand. (Getting twitchy again)

  4. #4
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    I was going on the fact that it says 'current', and you said your wife's visa is for one year. I doubted that they'd give her a residence visa for NZ which doesn't have an end date, on the basis of an Australian visa with a limited life - but I may be utterly wrong. Karen Phillips may help with this one - she's a LIA.

    As a visitor, it's possible to get an extension of time. http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...isitorvisa.htm

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
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    UK
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    Default

    Thanks again, the one year visa allows entry to Australia and indefinite stay but has a one year travel facility where you can leave and re-enter the country within that period. If you leave after the visa travel facility expires you would have to reapply for a new visa to get back in again. I was hoping that if used to enter NZ the visa would allow a permanent stay also although without the travel facility.

  6. #6
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    Feb 2008
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    Default

    I expect Karen will be along soon, and will tell you whatever she knows.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    New zealand
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    Default

    If she holds an autralian RRV, she may enter NZ and be granted a resident visa, however the resident visa expires when she leaves NZ. In order for her to maintain resident status in NZ, she may apply for 2 years Variation of Travel Conditions.
    http://www.dol.govt.nz/immigration/k...base/item/5323

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
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    UK
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    Default

    Hi! Sorry, I was away from my computer for a while - unusual I must admit! I am not an expert on Australian visas, so on this side of things, I can't be much help. I wonder if part of the potential issues you will face relate to the fact that in NZ (and maybe in Oz) to go from a RRV type visa to permanent residence, you have to have spent specified periods of time in the country. As you say you are currently living in the UK, I am guessing that your wife might not qualify for PR in Australia. I guess the options might be 1. to return to Oz and stay there until your wife qualifies for permanent residence in Oz and then move to NZ or 2. move to NZ as soon as you are ready with your wife on a visitor visa. If I wee you would look into whether it would be better to get a specific visitor visa even though she is entitled to enter under the visa-waiver scheme because trying to prove she is a 'bona fide' visitor who intends leaving NZ before that visa expires would be tricky! Once you have established that NZ is your primary place of residence (see below), you can sponsor her for residence as your partner. Assuming you both meet the character requirements and she meets the health requirements, this should not be a problem. I can't see a more certain pathway as things stand. If you need any further help, send me a private message and I will see what I can do for you. You will need to have made 5 posts on the Forum before you can do this.

    Evidence that New Zealand is the New Zealand partner’s primary place of established residence may include but is not limited to original or certified copies of:

    correspondence addressed to the sponsor
    employment records
    records of benefit payments from the Ministry of Social Development
    banking records
    rates demands
    Inland Revenue records
    mortgage documents
    tenancy and utility supply agreements
    documents showing that the New Zealand partner’s household effects have been moved to New Zealand.

  9. #9
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    Mar 2014
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    Default

    Thanks all for the replies, it's been helpful and gives us some confidence that one way or another this is a plan that could become reality. It seems the way to go may be to get the nine month visitor visa for NZ as suggested and then for me to sponsor her once in the country. She used to be a permanent resident of Oz and has family there still so we're fairly confident she'd get the Oz RRV as a former resident. This may be a belt and braces approach, if the Oz RRV gets her in then all well and good and she can at a later date get NZ PRV (as per larrykiwi's link) and later still NZ Citizenship, if it doesn't there's still the NZ visitor visa to get in on and the sponsorship approach. It's a lot less paperwork if the OZ visa works though. (No medical/Police reports etc)

    If the worst comes to the worst we get a nice long holiday before finding out we're persona non grata in at least one, possibly two of our three chosen countries. But you need challenges in later life. The only remaining concern would be whether the process of sponsorship would complete within the time frame of a nine month visitor visa.

  10. #10
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    I don't think for one moment that you'd eventually be refused, but EVERYONE has to jump through certain hoops in the proper order for INZ, and it can sometimes take a bit of mental sweat to figure out WHICH hoops.

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