Partnership visas, sponsoring family and the family violence visas

Proving a genuine and stable partnership

The instructions define the test in two limbs: a partnership is genuine because it was entered into with the intention of being maintained long-term and exclusively, and stable because it is likely to endure. Officers must be satisfied on four elements — the couple's credibility, that they are living together (absent genuine and compelling reasons for separation), genuineness, and stability. The evidence factors behind those elements include the relationship's duration, common residence, financial interdependence, jointly owned property, commitment to a shared life, children, shared household duties and how public the relationship is — and the instructions say expressly that no single document is determinative.

For residence, the couple must have lived together for 12 months or more at the time the application is lodged; evidence of a shared address should be dated every few months across the whole period — joint tenancy or ownership, joint utility accounts, bank accounts actually used jointly, and correspondence to the same address. Partner work visas have no 12-month prerequisite, but under 12 months of living together the first visa is capped at 12 months. A culturally arranged marriage has its own visitor-visa route for couples married through a recognised cultural tradition. In the tribunal's published decisions, 52% of 1,514 decided partnership residence appeals succeeded — and the recurring theme in the declines is gaps in living-together evidence. If INZ doubts the relationship, the concern arrives as a PPI letter; a residence decline carries the 42-day appeal.

The supporting partner's own eligibility

The New Zealand partner has rules of their own: they cannot have successfully supported more than one previous partnership application, none within the last five years, and they must meet a specific character requirement — a supporting partner convicted of any offence involving family violence or any offence of a sexual nature does not qualify unless a character waiver is granted. Sponsors for other family categories must generally have held citizenship or residence for at least three years, spending at least 184 days in New Zealand in each of those years.

Bringing parents — three routes, new thresholds

The Parent Resident Visa runs on expressions of interest drawn from two pools — a queued pool for EOIs lodged on or before 11 October 2022, and a random ballot for everything since — with selections every three months and 2,500 visas a year. From 30 April 2026 a single sponsor needs $109,200 of income to sponsor one parent, joint sponsors $145,600, proved over two 12-month periods, with a ten-year sponsorship undertaking.

The Parent Boost Visitor Visa, open since 29 September 2025, is the faster route: a five-year multiple-entry stay, renewable once for ten years in total. Sponsors must meet income thresholds, or parents can self-fund — from 30 April 2026, $170,000 in personal funds for a single parent or $260,000 for a couple, or ongoing income of about $33,663 (single) or $51,183 (couple). Health insurance is compulsory throughout, covering at least $250,000 a year of emergency care and $100,000 of cancer treatment, and parents must complete an offshore medical during the third year. The Parent Retirement Resident Visa remains for those able to invest $1 million for four years, with $500,000 of settlement funds and $60,000 of annual income. Dependent children of residents qualify under age brackets: 17 and under; 18–20 if single with no children; 21–24 if also financially reliant on an adult.

When your visa depends on a partner who is violent

Safety first: if you are in danger call 111. Women's Refuge runs a free 24/7 crisisline on 0800 733 843, and Shine's national helpline is 0508 744 633. None of these calls affect your immigration status.

Two dedicated visas exist for people whose partnership ended because of family violence. The Victims of Family Violence Work Visa is free, requires you to be in New Zealand after a partnership with a New Zealand citizen or resident — or, since 2023, a partnership-based visa linked to a temporary migrant — ended due to family violence, and runs six months, or nine if you have applied for residence. The Victims of Family Violence Resident Visa is also free and covers people who intended to get residence through a partnership with a citizen or resident that ended through family violence, and who cannot return home because they would have no means of support or would face stigma or exclusion. Dependent children aged 24 or under can be included.

Family violence can be evidenced four ways: a final protection order, a relevant conviction, a Police-investigated complaint where Police are satisfied family violence occurred — or, where none of those exist, your own statutory declaration plus declarations from two unrelated professionals such as registered doctors, nurses, psychologists, counsellors, social workers or approved refuge staff. The tribunal's published decisions include declines for insufficient evidence of the violence itself, which is exactly what the declaration route exists to solve — this is a situation where getting help from a professional or a refuge advocate early makes a decisive difference.