Parents Category Resident Visa: Eligibility and Application Process
Greetings to all our valued readers! In this month’s newsletter, I would like to shed light on an important immigration pathway available in New Zealand, the Parents Category Resident Visa. This visa category allows parents, grandparents (sponsored by grandchildren if parents are deceased), and legal guardians to join their adult children who are New Zealand citizens or resident visa holders. We at Amerinz Legal Ltd are here to provide guidance and support throughout the application process for this visa category.
Eligibility Criteria: To be eligible for the Parents Category Resident Visa, applicants need to meet certain criteria. Let’s explore the five key criteria for eligibility:
- No Dependent Children: To qualify for this visa category, parents must not have any dependent children who solely or partly depend on them.
- Sponsorship by Adult Children: Applicants must be sponsored by their adult children who have been New Zealand citizens or resident visa holders for at least three years. Additionally, the sponsoring child must meet the income threshold set by immigration authorities.
- Health Criteria: Applicants need to meet the acceptable standards of health criteria as defined by New Zealand immigration regulations.
- Character Requirements: Meeting the character requirements is essential, ensuring that applicants have a clean criminal record and meet the standards of good character.
- English Language Requirement: Applicants need to meet the English language requirement or agree to pay for English classes.
Sponsoring Children Criteria: The children sponsoring their parents under the Parents Category Resident Visa also have specific criteria to fulfil. Here are the three key criteria for sponsoring children:
- Residing in New Zealand: The sponsoring children must be residing in New Zealand and hold their resident visa for a minimum of three years.
- Individual or Joint Sponsorship: The sponsoring child can sponsor alone or jointly with their eligible siblings or partners, providing flexibility in the sponsorship process.
- Meeting Income Threshold: The sponsoring child must have enough income to meet the required income threshold individually or jointly for two years within the three-year period before the Expression of Interest (EOI) was selected.
It’s important to note that by sponsoring their parents, the children declare the obligation to provide all welfare needs of the parents, including accommodation, health, and others, for a minimum of ten years. Any support received from Work and Income within this ten-year period may result in visa revocation and deportation.
Application Process: The Parents Category Resident Visa application process involves two stages: the submission of an Expression of Interest (EOI) and the subsequent resident visa application upon successful selection of the EOI.
Definition of the acceptable standard of health criteria
INZ may decline residence visa if the applicant or somebody else on the application, have any of the following conditions:
- Hepatitis B-surface antigen positive and meeting criteria for anti-viral treatment in New Zealand.
- Hepatitis C-RNA positive and meeting criteria for anti-viral treatment in New Zealand.
- Cardiac diseases, including but not limited to:
- severe ischaemic heart disease
- cardiomyopathy
- valve disease with a high probability of surgical and or other procedural intervention in the next 5 years
- aortic aneurysm with a high probability of surgical or other procedural intervention or both in the next 5 years.
- Malignancies of organs, skin (such as melanoma) and haematopoietic tissue, including past history, or currently under treatment. Exceptions are: treated minor skin malignancies, malignancies where the interval since treatment is such that the probability of recurrence is below 10%.
- Cardiac diseases, including but not limited to:
- severe ischaemic heart disease
- cardiomyopathy
- valve disease with a high probability of surgical and or other procedural intervention in the next 5 years
- aortic aneurysm with a high probability of surgical or other procedural intervention or both in the next 5 years.
- Requirement for organ transplants (with the exclusion of corneal grafts), or following organ transplant when immune suppression is required (with the exclusion of corneal grafts).
- Chronic respiratory disease, including but not limited to:
- severe or progressive restrictive (including interstitial) lung disease or both
- severe or progressive obstructive lung disease or both
- cystic fibrosis.
- Severe, chronic or progressive renal or hepatic disorders.
- Significant or disabling hereditary disorders, including but not exclusive to:
- hereditary anaemias and coagulation disorders
- primary immunodeficiencies
- Gaucher’s disease.
- Musculoskeletal diseases or disorders such as osteoarthritis with a high probability of surgery in the next 5 years.
- Severe, chronic or progressive neurological disorders, including but not limited to:
- any dementia including Alzheimer’s disease
- poorly controlled epilepsy
- complex seizure disorder
- cerebrovascular disease
- cerebral palsy
- paraplegia, quadriplegia
- poliomyelitis
- Parkinson’s disease
- motor neurone disease, Huntington’s disease, muscular dystrophy
- prion disease
- relapsing or progressive multiple sclerosis or both.
- Severe autoimmune disease which may require treatment in New Zealand with immune-suppressant medications other than Prednisone, Methotrexate, Azathioprine or Salazopyrin.
- Severe (71-90 decibels) hearing loss or profound bilateral sensori-neural hearing loss after best possible correction at country of origin, where significant support is required, including cochlear implants.
- Severe vision impairment with visual acuity of 6/36 or beyond after best possible correction at country of origin, or a loss restricting the field of vision to 15-20 degrees where significant support is required.
- Severe developmental disorders or severe cognitive impairments where significant support is required, including but not exclusive to:
- physical disability
- intellectual disability
- autistic spectrum disorders
- brain injury.
- Major psychiatric illness or addiction or both, including any psychiatric condition that has required hospitalisation or significant support or both.
- A history, diagnostic findings or treatment for MDR-TB or XDR-TB, unless cleared by a New Zealand Respiratory or Infectious Diseases specialist upon review of any file or applicant according to the New Zealand Guidelines for Tuberculosis Treatment.
- INZ may also decline your visa application if in the medical assessor’s opinion your health services costs are likely to be more than NZ$81,000 (NZ$41,000 if you applied for a visa before 4 September 2022).
At Amerinz Legal Ltd, we specialise in immigration matters and can guide you through each stage of the application process. Our experienced team will assist you in preparing and submitting your EOI, ensuring that all necessary documents and information are included. Once your EOI is selected, we will support you in preparing and submitting your resident visa application, taking into account the specific requirements of the Parents Category.
Applying for the Parents Category Resident Visa in New Zealand can be a complex process. However, with the assistance of Amerinz Legal Ltd, you can navigate through the stages of the application smoothly. We understand the importance of family reunification and are committed to providing you with reliable and professional immigration services.
If you have any questions or require further information, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are here to help you make your family’s immigration journey a success.