Hi all,
My wife originally came here on a limited visa, and she eventually worked her way to PR using temporary visas based on her relationship with me (NZ Citizen). She now has recently obtained her citizenship also as she has been a resident for over 5 years.
We are looking into options for her parents to visit and perhaps even stay, as they are from a non visa waiver country the only option (we can see) is a visitor visa, but obviously this comes with time restrictions (I think its 90 days total in 18 months?). We are also worried their application may be declined, as they have almost no supporting evidence of being likely to return home, such as previous travel history, comitments at home to return to, money (we would have to sponsor them for sure) etc.
Is there another option to bring them here for longer considering they are her parents and she is now a citizen? we plan to have a baby next year hopefully and it would be great to have their help with that.
I see last night the govt announced they are re-opening the parent visa, is this something that might be suitable for us? I see the sponsor must earn 1.5 times the median wage which neither of us do individually, but collectively we do, does that count?
I have also seen that from the 12th of November all applications will be put into a ballot drawn every 3 months to the equivalent of 2500 applications per year. any applications made before that date will be processed in date order from when they were made, which gives me the impression we are better to apply before the 12th of November?