The Immigration Act 2009 explained — a map of New Zealand immigration law

What the Act does — and what it leaves to instructions

The Act sets the framework: powers, rights, obligations, deadlines and offences. Almost everything applicants experience day to day — which visa categories exist, what they require, wage thresholds, health and character standards, waivers — sits in immigration instructions, rules certified by the Minister under section 22 and published in INZ's operational manual. That split matters practically: instructions change often and without Parliament, so a guide or adviser citing "the rules" is usually citing instructions, while deadlines and appeal rights come from the Act and only Parliament can move them.

The Act does hard-code a floor. Sections 15 and 16 make certain people ineligible for visas outright — serious criminal histories and security grounds — with section 17 carrying the exceptions, including a power added in November 2025 for the Minister to grant temporary entry visas despite those sections. How the bars and the instruction-level character rules interact is covered in the criminal convictions guide. One neighbouring statute is regularly confused with this one: the licensing of immigration advisers lives in the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007, a separate Act administered by the Immigration Advisers Authority.

The thirteen parts at a glance

The Act runs to more than 470 sections across 13 parts. The map:

• Part 1 — Preliminary provisions (ss 3–12): purpose, definitions, what "unlawfully in New Zealand" means (s 9), and the meaning of absolute discretion (s 11).
• Part 2 — Core provisions and decision-making (ss 13–42): the excluded-person bars (ss 15–17), the obligation to leave (s 18), and immigration instructions (s 22).
• Part 3 — Visas (ss 43–95): visa grants and conditions, including the special-case powers (ss 61, 61A).
• Part 4 — Arrivals and departures (ss 96–123): the border, entry permission.
• Part 5 — Refugee and protection status (ss 124–152): claims and the officers who decide them.
• Part 6 — Deportation (ss 153–182): every ground of deportation liability (ss 154–162), the deportation liability notice (s 170) and deportation orders.
• Part 7 — Appeals, reviews and proceedings (ss 183–271): reconsideration (s 185), the no-appeal rule for temporary declines (s 186), residence appeals (ss 187–188), refugee and protection appeals (s 194), humanitarian appeals (ss 206–207), the Immigration and Protection Tribunal itself, and judicial review (s 247).
• Part 8 — Compliance and information (ss 272–306): enforcement powers and information sharing.
• Part 9 — Detention and monitoring (ss 307–341): warrants of commitment and detention powers, heavily amended over 2025–2026.
• Part 10 — Offences, penalties and proceedings (ss 342–372): false or misleading information (s 342), employer offences (s 350), exploitation (s 351) and the premium-charging offence (s 351A).
• Part 11 — Miscellaneous (ss 373–403A): including special directions (s 378).
• Parts 12–13 — Transitional provisions and the historical amendments that retired the 1987 Act.

The sections people actually meet

A handful of sections do most of the work in real cases. Section 11's absolute discretion is the reason a section 61 request can be refused without reasons and without appeal — and the November 2025 section 61A gives the Minister a parallel power to grant visas even contrary to instructions. Section 154 does two things at once to a person who becomes unlawful: creates deportation liability, and grants the humanitarian appeal right that expires 42 days after first becoming unlawful — with sections 206 and 207 supplying the machinery and the test, exceptional humanitarian circumstances making deportation unjust or unduly harsh. The deportation guide walks the full sequence.

On the appeals side, the Act is deliberately asymmetric. Residence declines carry a full appeal to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal under section 187; temporary declines carry only section 185's reconsideration, because section 186 expressly bars any appeal to any court, the tribunal or the Minister — the single most misunderstood rule in the Act, covered in what you can and cannot appeal. And two offence provisions increasingly shape real cases: section 342 on false or misleading information, which pairs with section 158's deportation liability for concealment (see the false information guide), and sections 351 and 351A on exploitation and premium-charging (see job scams and exploitation).

What changed in November 2025 — and since

The Immigration (Fiscal Sustainability and System Integrity) Amendment Act 2025 received assent on 27 November 2025, with its main provisions in force the next day. It inserted section 61A (the ministerial visa-grant power), section 351A (the premium-for-employment offence, up to seven years' imprisonment), and the section 17(4) route around the section 15 and 16 bars for temporary visas. Further stages followed: detention and warrant-of-commitment changes from 27 February 2026, and from 27 May 2026 the deportation liability provisions in sections 156, 158 and 161 were extended from people convicted of offences to people convicted or found guilty — a wider net. Electronic monitoring provisions are signalled to commence in late 2026.

The Bill that would change it again

The Immigration (Enhanced Risk Management) Amendment Bill had its first reading on 26 March 2026 and sits with the Education and Workforce select committee, whose report was due mid-August 2026. As introduced, it would make it easier to demand identity information from suspected unlawful persons, remove the tribunal's humanitarian appeal jurisdiction for temporary visa holders who offend and for visitor visa holders, and make residents liable for deportation if sentenced to ten years or more for offending committed within 20 years of their first residence visa. Several guides on this site flag where it would bite; until it passes, the rules described across this directory are the current law — but if you are reading this after late 2026, check the Bill's status before relying on the appeal-rights landscape described here.