Originally Posted by
Kelerei
With the information you've provided:
Period 1: 21 March 2021 to 20 March 2022. 252 days presence, counting your day of return (12 July 2021) as a day of presence.
Period 2: 21 March 2020 to 20 March 2021. 272 days presence, counting your day of departure (17 December 2020) as a day of presence.
Period 3: 21 March 2019 to 20 March 2020. 356 days presence (extra day in this period due to leap year).
Period 4: 21 March 2018 to 20 March 2019. 309 days presence, assuming that the "1 month" you mention is 31 days.
Period 5: 21 March 2017 to 20 March 2018. With 0 days absence, you will meet the presence requirement for this period if your first day as a resident was on or before 24 July 2017.
If your first day as a resident was on 24 July 2017 (to provide the bare minimum of 240 days in the last period), total time across all five periods would be 1,429 days, which would be above the statutory minimum of 1,350 days.
Therefore, providing that your first day as a resident was on or before 24 July 2017, and assuming that you are not absent from New Zealand between now and the day you apply, you should meet the presence requirement if the Department of Internal Affairs receives your completed application on 21 March 2022, together with the required fee. For the avoidance of doubt, the date an online application is received is the date in Wellington at the time you submit and pay for your application online.
For what it's worth, I nearly thought that each of your five year periods was exactly 240 days, from the way you presented your information above. Had this been the case, you would clearly not meet the presence requirement due to the total time across all five periods being 1,200 days, less than the statutory minimum of 1,350 days. I suspect that the person advising you may have made this error. The moral of the story is: present your information in a clear and unambiguous manner.
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