When will my PR requirements be "locked in?"

[A.C. Slater]

Now that we're approved for residency under SMC, I'm already thinking about getting to permanent residency. I know I can't apply for two years, but it is my understanding that you do not necessarily have to be living in New Zealand when you apply, so long as you meet one of the five conditions that shows your commitment to New Zealand, outlined here:

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...quirements.htm

My question is that if we have some massive life change and have to go back home or somewhere else for a while, at what point will I have met the requirements so that I can still apply, whether still here in NZ, or anywhere else?

#1 is pretty straightforward. 184 days in two consecutive years. That would essentially mean that about 18 months from now, I could conceivably leave the country, and apply for PR six months later. Is that correct?

#5 (Establish a base in NZ) is even more intriguing. It says we only have to be here for 184 days out of two years and have held a job for nine months of those two years, which I'm taking to mean that if everything is still the same nine months from now, we would be candidates for PR, even if we did have a change of residency.

Have I calculated that all correctly?

[JandM]

Apart from having held your Residence visa (from the date it's in your passport and activated) for at least two years, you have to calculate everything backwards from the date of your application. For instance, for the first requirement, time spent in NZ, the 184 days are required in the 12 months leading up to when you apply, and again in the 12 months before that. So unless you count very carefully and apply promptly, it's possible to 'lose' some of the time from the early part of your Residence. The requirements aren't actually 'locked in' - they're looked at on the day you apply for PR. It won't work to say, 'But I DID have the 184 days in each of two years last Wednesday,' if now, six days later, the 12 month time periods are different, cutting across when you were in NZ so the count is wrong.

[A.C. Slater]

Thanks, JandM. I plan to apply on the two-year anniversary of receiving our residency, so I think I'll be okay. ;-)