Applying for PR from overseas

[eraul]

Hello,

I have some questions about applying for PR from overseas. If hypothetically I received Residency on Jan 1 2020, then lived in NZ for all of 2020 and Jan - July 2021, then moved back to Canada and attempted to apply for PR on Jan 2nd, 2022 from Canada, would it affect my eligibility? Would I be required to move back to NZ under any specific timeline? Are there any conditions that would need to be met to maintain PR? I plan to live in NZ, but also to spend significant amounts of time in my home country for the forseeable future.

Something I've found confusing on the INZ website for PR requirements is:

"You must have held your resident visa and been living in New Zealand continuously for at least 24 months at the time you apply for a permanent resident visa." - What does it mean that you need to live in NZ continuously for 24 months, when the other requirement says that you must spend only a minimum of 184 days in the country for the 2 consecutive years before applying for PR?

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Thanks team!

[veelove]

No personal experience, but first result on google: https://www.immigration.govt.nz/know...-question-1034 leading to https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-...anent-resident

[TheNewKiwi]

"You must have held your resident visa and been living in New Zealand continuously for at least 24 months at the time you apply for a permanent resident visa" means just that. You are not eligible to apply for PR until 2 full years have passed since your visa was granted (or from your first day in NZ as a resident if your visa was granted while offshore). In your case it is, as you say, no sooner than 2 January 2022.

However, you're going to need to very precisely count your days for time spent in NZ to show your commitment if you want to qualify for PR. In addition to holding your resident visa for a minimum of 24 months, you need to (as you saw) "have spent 184 days or more in New Zealand as a resident in each of the two 12 month portions of the 24 months immediately preceding your application for permanent residence." If your time so far in Canada has caused you to not meet the 184 day requirement for your second year, you will need to apply for a variation of conditions to extend your travel conditions, or return to NZ prior to 1 January 2022. Remember to take into account any time spent away from NZ for other travel, such as holidays. It is still days not spent in NZ, even if your primary residence did not change.

[JandM]

Don't forget that INZ count BACKWARDS from the date of application when calculating whether or not you have the correct number of days in NZ to qualify. So for one thing, you would have had to have held your Residence visa for at least two years, your primary residence being in NZ, and ALSO, if you're using the 'time spent in NZ' criterion to show commitment, you would have to have spent at least 184 days in the country in the year leading up to your application, and at least 184 days in the country in the year before that. As TheNewKiwi said, this can call for some very careful counting of days.

Once someone HAS Permanent Residence, there are no further conditions to be met.

[eraul]

Thanks for the thoughtful responses everyone. I am confident about meeting the 184 day minimum & the 2 year minimum for my Residency Visa. I think what my concerns are more specific to are:

1) How does INZ acertain whether your "primary residence" is in NZ if you split time between two countries (while still meeting the 184 day minimum in NZ)?

2) Are there any issues to applying for Permanent Residency from overseas? It appears to me that as long as I send in my PR application within 3 months after I've held my Residency visa for 24 months (meeting the 184 day requirement in NZ for each of the 2 years beforehand) I'm in the clear. However, on my visa it reads that my conditions are: "Visa is invalid if holder is outside NZ with expired travel conditions." Am I still able to say that I've "met my Visa Conditions", if I allow my travel permissions to expire while in Canada, and wait for a PR approval before returning to NZ?

Thanks heaps for your help. I really appreciate your time.