If you are the partner of a New Zealand citizen or resident, you may apply for a partnership residence visa. You can then apply for a permanent residency visa in New Zealand under this category. You can live, work, and study in New Zealand indefinitely if you are given a residence visa. You can also include your dependant children who are single and under the age of 24 in your partnership visa application, however minors aged 21-24 must be financially supported by an adult.

If your partner is a New Zealand resident due to their Australian citizenship or residency status, they must be residing in New Zealand.

If your partner is a New Zealand citizen and the two of you have been living together outside of New Zealand for 5 years or more, you may be granted a Permanent Resident Visa. However, your partner must be either overseas or in New Zealand for less than three months when you apply.

Your partner must be eligible to support your partnership residence visa NZ application, and they must complete a ‘Partnership support form for Residence/temporary admission’ as proof of their support.

You must also submit evidence that you and your partner have been living together in a genuine and stable relationship for 12 months or more in order to apply for a partnership residence visa NZ.

Because the principle applicant and their New Zealand partner bear the burden of establishing whether the partnership on which the application is based is genuine and stable, appropriate documentation must be supplied simultaneously with the partner visa application.

If, after reviewing an application, an immigration officer determines that the couple is living in a genuine and stable partnership, but the duration of that partnership is less than the 12 months required for a partnership residence visa NZ, they may defer the final decision to allow the qualifying period to be met and grant a work partner visa NZ in the interim.