Variation of Travel Conditions on a Residence Visa - No Valid Passport

[karoro]

Apologies if there's a thread for this already, or if I'm breaking other rules - if needed please admonish me and delete this thread.

I have been ringing the INZ call centre incessantly, with no success, and I have scoured their website to no avail, so I turn to ENZ for help. I would greatly appreciate any information regarding varying travel conditions on my Residence Class Visa. I am from the UK and received my Residence just over two years ago. My travel conditions expired on 22 August 2022, and obviously I started to look into obtaining PR. However, my UK passport expired in July 2022, something I hadn't realised having not used or even looked at my passport during the pandemic. Anyway, I have been dragging my feet a little when it comes to the laborious process of renewing a UK passport from overseas.

Fast-forward to now and a close family member has suddenly been taken gravely ill, so I need to get back to the UK. But with no valid passport, and the travel conditions of my visa expiring I am a bit stuck. I can get an emergency travel document from the British High Commission, which will allow me to travel without a passport : https://www.gov.uk/emergency-travel-document

Then, my question is: is it possible to apply for the variation of travel conditions using this document as opposed to a passport? I understand that the waiting period for the variation is currently 35 days, which may make the whole thing moot, but I have to see if it's possible.

[Kelerei]

This would definitely not work: regardless of whether or not INZ considers an emergency travel document to be an "acceptable travel document" per A2 (and I would strongly suspect that it would fail A2.5(e); I'm aware that the South African equivalent fails this), the link you posted states that your emergency travel document will be retained at the UK border upon your arrival.

If you have no choice but to travel to the UK on an emergency travel document, you would therefore need to apply for a new UK passport whilst in the UK, and as your Resident Visa will have expired, then apply for a Second or Subsequent Resident Visa in order to return to New Zealand. I would strongly urge you to ensure before you leave New Zealand that you will meet the criteria for this, as you would need to apply for a new Resident Visa from scratch if this is declined.

Note also that, if you apply for a Second or Subsequent Resident Visa, it is possible to be granted a Permanent Resident Visa instead. For this to happen, you would need to apply within three months of leaving New Zealand, and you must have held your previous Resident Visa continuously for at least 24 months before it expired upon your departure from New Zealand (per RV2.5(a)(ii)). Of course, you would need to meet all other Permanent Resident Visa criteria (RV2.5(b) through RV2.5(e)) as well.

[karoro]

Not the news I was hoping for, but you have my sincere thanks nonetheless, Kelerei. I did suspect that would be the case. The link does state that the document can enable me 'to return to the country you’re applying from if you live there', and that the document would be retained at my 'final destination', in this case NZ. Does that make a difference from your perspective? I guess it's moot if it doesn't meet the criteria you reference.

I could go back, apply for a passport and a second visa (which I am eligible for), but the timeframe for the latter is prohibitive given full-time employment in NZ.

Thanks again for the prompt reply - much appreciated

[karoro]

So, I finally got through to Immigration New Zealand, and it turns out that I can use the emergency travel document to vary my residence visa's travel conditions. The link I posted fails to mention that the emergency travel document is, for all intents and purposes, an emergency passport: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britis...gency_passport