Family & Spouse Visas in New Zealand
Sponsoring a partner, children, or parents
New Zealand citizens and residents can support a partner and dependent children, and there is also a route for parents, which is unusual in that part of it operates as a ballot. Partnership cases turn on evidence of a genuine and stable relationship lived together, and the standard applied to this is exacting.
| Partner routes | Partner of a New Zealander work, visitor and resident visas source |
| Relationship evidence | Commonly around 12 months of living together for residence |
| Dependent children | Generally under 25 and financially dependent |
| Parent route | Parent Resident Visa, part ballot and part queue source |
Partners
The category covers married partners, civil union partners and de facto partners on the same footing. The test is not the legal form of the relationship but whether it is genuine, stable, and lived together.
For a partner resident visa a period of living together — commonly around twelve months — is generally expected, and it is documented rather than asserted: joint tenancies, joint accounts, correspondence to a shared address, photographs across time, and statements from people who know the couple. Applications supported only by a marriage certificate are routinely queried.
The supporting partner must themselves meet requirements, including having held their own status for a period and not having supported other partners recently.
Children
- Dependent children are generally those under 25 who are financially dependent and without children of their own.
- Children can often be included in a parent's residence application rather than applying separately.
- Custody and guardianship documentation is required where the other parent is not travelling, and this is a common cause of delay.
- A child born in New Zealand acquires citizenship only if at least one parent is a citizen or resident at the time of birth.
Parents, and the ballot
The Parent Resident Visa is the main route for parents of citizens and residents, and it is the part of the system most obviously constrained by capacity. Selection has operated partly through a ballot of registered expressions of interest and partly through a queue of earlier registrations, with a capped number selected in each round.
Sponsors must meet an income requirement, and parents must meet health and character requirements. There is also a longer-stay Parent and Grandparent Visitor Visa, which permits extended visits without conferring residence and which many families use while waiting.
Because the ballot introduces genuine chance, this is the one part of New Zealand's system where meeting every published criterion does not make an outcome predictable.
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Official sources
Checked against these pages in September 2026. Fees and processing times change without notice — confirm before you act.