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Thread: Residence to PR - Travel Conditions

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
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    Default Residence to PR - Travel Conditions

    Hi All,

    Just trying to get my head around the requirements to gain PR from Residence. I'm still a little unsure about the process....

    As far as I understand you have to remain in NZ for at least 184 days out of the 2 year period before submitting for PR. Does that mean you must spend that time in each of those years or can you combine the time into 1 of those years?

    The other condition that would apply to me is the 41 days in each year and having spent a total of 9 months in full paid employment in the proceeding 2yrs before applying for PR. Would that be 9 months work across both years? and 41 days in each year or 82 combined?

    Also, what would happen if you failed to meet the PR requirements and do the travel conditions expire? If so do you just lose the visa if you in / out of NZ.

    Thanks in advance

    Josh

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
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    As far as I understand you have to remain in NZ for at least 184 days out of the 2 year period before submitting for PR. Does that mean you must spend that time in each of those years or can you combine the time into 1 of those years?
    It has to be 184 days at least in EACH 12 months of the two year period.

    Once you are in NZ, your residence visa is everlasting. It is the travel conditions that have a life of two years. So from when you activate your visa and start the clock on the travel conditions, you could leave the country and come back in as many times as you like in that two years. At the end of the travel conditions, if you are back in NZ, you could legally stay and work there for the rest of your life. But if you were outside NZ at that time, you wouldn't have permission to re-enter.

    So it is because of wanting to travel outside NZ and return freely that you need to remember about the conditions for getting PR, which will give you the permanent right to re-enter NZ as many times as you like.

    You don't have to apply for PR exactly two years after you activated your visa, although you have to have held your Residence visa (activated) for a minimum of two years to qualify. INZ count the two qualifying years backwards from the date of your application. So, in the course of the year before application, you need to have been in NZ for at least 184 days. And in the year before that, you need to have been in NZ for at least 184 days also.

    An example. Suppose, when you arrive in NZ on 1st January, 2016, you stay for 14 days, then you leave the country again. You don't come back to NZ again until 1st January, 2017. That is fine - you have the right to do this. Now you are back in NZ, you get a job and you set up home, and you stay. This is also fine - you have the right.

    On 1st January, 2018, your travel conditions run out. You are still living and working in NZ, and that is fine, because you are the holder of a Residence visa, and that entitles you to live and work in NZ for your whole life if you want to. But if you want ever to go on holiday, or back to see your family, you will want to be able to leave the country sometimes, and come back, so this is why you need to think about qualifying for PR.

    If you are going for the 'time in NZ' option, then, whenever you need to apply for PR, you need to show:
    1. I was a Resident two years before this.
    2. In the 12 months up till now, I was in NZ for at least 184 days.
    3. In the 12 months before that, I was in NZ for at least 184 days.

    On 1st January, 2018, you could say 'yes' to 1 and 2, but not 3, because between 1st January, 2016 and 1st January, 2017, you were only in NZ for that first 14 days.

    So you would need to stay on in NZ, not leaving the country, until a date came when you could count BACKWARDS and say 'yes' to ALL the questions. This date would come half way through 2018. You can count exact days for yourself, but if I just pick out 1st July, 2018, that will do for an example.

    1. I was a Resident two years before this. Yes, on 1st July, 2016, you weren't in the country, but you had activated your Residence visa, so you were a Resident.
    2. In the 12 months up till now, I was in NZ for at least 184 days. Yes, between 1st July, 2017 and 1st July, 2018, actually you were in NZ for 365 days.
    3. In the 12 months before that, I was in NZ for at least 184 days. Yes, because between 1st January, 2017, when you came in from your time overseas, and 1st July, 2017, you were in NZ.

    The other condition that would apply to me is the 41 days in each year and having spent a total of 9 months in full paid employment in the proceeding 2yrs before applying for PR. Would that be 9 months work across both years? and 41 days in each year or 82 combined?
    I presume you're thinking of option 2 here http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...quirements.htm when you say this, but I don't know where you're finding the '9 months' reference. You'd need to have the NZ IRD consider you as a tax resident http://www.ird.govt.nz/international...ency/personal/, and again, as it says on the INZ page, there is a requirement for 41 days in the year immediately before application, and a further 41 days in the year before that also.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    usa
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    Default

    Hi Josh

    Just saw your post. As Jan M clarified in the other thread, I believe your case could be similar to mine
    See link where I posted in detail using Criteria 5 ( the 9 months you mention ) but the employment based route :

    http://www.enz.org/forum/showthread....096&highlight=

  4. #4
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    A big for you JandM.

    You made those conditions so easy to understand. I too had some basic doubts regarding travel conditions which got clarified by your example.

    Thanks
    Sandeep

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Uk
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    Hi JandM,

    Thank you for that information - Do they class they visa as activated when its physically stamped in your passport?, as ive already been in NZ for 6mths. If you are in NZ but haven't met PR requirements, do the conditions just renew? and if you are outside NZ when they have expired is that the residence visa gone forever or can it be reactivated?

    I was referring to section 5 (as below) that dca777 has mentioned

    5. Established base in New Zealand

    You have been in New Zealand as a resident for a total of at least 41 days in the 12-month period immediately before lodging your permanent resident visa application, and all members of your immediate family who were included in your residence application have resided in New Zealand for a total of at least 184 days in the two-year period immediately before lodging your permanent resident visa application. Also, either:
    you own and maintain a family home in New Zealand, or
    you have been genuinely employed full-time in New Zealand, in paid employment, for a total of at least nine months in the two-year period immediately before lodging your permanent resident visa application. Employment involving payment by commission and/or retainer is not acceptable.

    Hi dca777

    Thanks for the link... So as long as you spend at least 9mths in employment in first year then at least 41 days in second year you can claim PR?

    Thanks again

    Josh

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
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    usa
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    Hi Josh

    Yes the 9 months employment should be full time and most likely( at least in my case) taxes withheld by the employer in the salary as most FTE positions are. You and your family should be physically present 184 days in the 2 year period( not specifically in any given 1 year duration but in the overall 2 year period), so if you are with your family living in NZ while doing the Full time employment then this is satisfied automatically. Then in the second year 41 days physical residence is required. If you stay/work less in the first year interval , then you could have the option of "catching up" in your second year as long as you fulfill all the 3 conditions.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
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    Yes, when Residence is granted when you are already in NZ, then your visa is activated as soon as it is put in your passport, and you have two years' travel conditions starting from that day. They run for two years then stop, whether you have ever been out of the country or not. If you are out of the country and your travel conditions run out, your Residence lapses, but you can make arrangements to get PR (or one of the alternatives if you don't qualify yet for PR, see sidebar http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...quirements.htm) from outside the country if you do it within three months of your visa lapsing.

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