Parent and Grandparent Visitors Visa New Zealand - Multiple visits on the same visa for up to 6 months at time
The parent and grandparent visitors visa for New Zealand allows you to visit your New Zealand children and grandchildren. The great thing about the visa is that it's a multiple entry visa and that it allows visits of up to 6 months at a time.
Who should apply for this visa?
You should apply for the parent and grandparent visitors visa if you are:
- seeking an extended stay in New Zealand to visit your children or grandchildren, or
- are planning to travel frequently to New Zealand to visit your children or grandchildren.
Below we take you through the qualifying criteria and tell you what the parent and grandparent visitors visa allows you to do.
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Who should apply for the Parent and Grandparent Visitors Visa for New Zealand?
The application for a visitors visa for New Zealand has special categories within it. One of these special categories is for parents and grandparents visiting family in New Zealand. It therefore follows that if you are the parent or grandparent of a New Zealand citizen or resident you may be eligible for the parent and grandparent visitors visa.
You would apply for the parent and grandparent visitors visa in the below circumstances:
- You are not from a visa waiver country.
- You are from a visa waiver country but wish to have the flexibility of a 3 year multiple entry visa.
Traveling on the Parent and Grandparent Visitors Visa
One of the attractions of the the parent and grandparent visitors visa is the travel benefits it allows:
- The Parent and Grandparent Visitors Visa is a three year visa which allows you multiple entries into New Zealand.
- Over this three year period you may remain in New Zealand for 6 months at a time. The 6 months start from your date of arrival in New Zealand.
- You can stay for a maximum period of 18 months during the 3 year validity period of the visa.
You can visit your children for 6 months at a time on the 3-year parent and grandparent visitors visa!
Points to note about the Application
- If you are making a parent and grandparent visitors visa application you can include your partner. Note that partner refers to:
- Legal marriage.
- Civil union.
- De facto relationship.
- If you wish to travel to New Zealand with a dependent child, the child will need to make their own visa applications.
- The application must be made from outside of New Zealand.
- You will need to the sponsorship of your New Zealand citizen or resident child, grandchild or their parents. Hereafter known as the sponsor.
What you need to know about acceptable sponsors
The individual sponsoring you for your parent and grandparent visitors visa application must meet certain criteria and commit to certain responsibilities. Of course you are visiting your family your family will be more than in most cases with the criteria and responsibilities. That said it is always worth running your family through the criteria and responsibilities to pre-empt any issues later on with the application.
The criteria the sponsor must meet:
- Be living in New Zealand for the term of the sponsorship (the period of your stay).
- Not be sponsoring you for some form of a financial reward or fee.
- Never have been convicted of an offence under immigration law.
- Not have:
- outstanding debt to the Crown or other third parties as a result of another sponsorship arrangement, nor
- previously breached sponsorship obligations, nor
- entered into insolvency procedures or be bankrupt, nor
- any liability for deportation,
- a current custodial sentence to serve. For example in prison or be waiting to be sentenced after being convicted of a crime that carries a custodial sentence.
Responsibilities of the sponsor
The sponsor is responsible for you, as well as any other family members on the application for duration of the period you stay in New Zealand. This can be you, your partner and even a dependent.
The sponsors responsibilities to the sponsored people include :
- Items necessary for their health and welfare while in New Zealand, like food, clothing and health care.
- Providing appropriate accommodation in New Zealand.
- Covering the costs of the sponsored person’s return travel to their home country.
- Where the sponsored person becomes liable for deportation, pay any costs associated with deportation.
In most cases you are probably providing all or some of the above out of your own funds. Which means there will likely be no burden on your sponsor. However in the absence of your own funds the sponsor will be liable.
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