Immigrating to NZ with a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder

[kakapo]

Kia ora, first post here. I'm a NZ citizen who wants to have my American partner come live with me in NZ. They have a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder (similar to schizophrenia with a mood disorder), however, and due to this are unable to work full time in the foreseeable future. They are on medication (risperidone + prozac) and have no history of hospitalization. They are 22 and have no prior work history. I've been looking around to see how this will affect them getting residency, under the "partner of an NZ resident" and have had little luck finding anyone else's prior dealings with this.

Ideally I'd be looking for any advice that we could use when we go to tackle immigration, or if there's anything we can do that will be more or less likely to get their visa granted. Feedback from anyone else with a psychotic-spectrum disorder who has gone through similar immigration loops is particularly appreciated.

Thanks for reading,
Bo

[Bromley86]

I'd take the silence on this as a bad sign, and advise (I think I'm allowed to use this term in this context) that you consult an immigration agent.

A quick look at INZ1000 would indicate that he needs a medical certificate per section I. This Telegraph article may give some context on the thinking of INZ; the bad news is that he's clearly a net burden to NZ society, financially, but the upside is that there's no mention of mental health issues in the red flags list. That said, our panel doctor said that HIV, for example, doesn't necessarily mean that a person will be blocked (not, thankfully, that that was an issue for us).

The other concern is your location, which you've listed as NZ, and the implication that your partner is currently elsewhere. That may mean you have trouble with the partnership test. Again, speak to a licenced agent, and good luck.