Residents or the citizens of New Zealand who have been living in the country and have been separated from their spouses or partners who are citizens of Australia can now reunite with them.

Under the present border restrictions, partners of the people living in New Zealand who wish to reunite should possess a relationship-based visa, or have been traveling with their partner in New Zealand.

But there has been a change in the restrictions from the beginning of October. The partners in Australia can apply for a border exception for an entry in New Zealand. Partners may add their dependent children to the applications too.

New Zealand Minister of Immigration Kris Faafoi said that they are in a position of making some changes to the immigration rules which under normal circumstances allow a small number of people to come to New Zealand.

"They will have to apply for the border exception request and provide evidence that they are in a legal and stable relationship."

Faafoi

If the partner of the New Zealand citizen living in Australia gets the border exception then they will be issued a critical purpose visitor visa automatically. With this visa, they can travel to New Zealand and they will get a resident visa when they arrive. The Australian partners will get a critical purpose visitor visa for six months. Those who want to extend their stay can apply for a partnership visa or any other related visa.

All the returnees will however have to undergo the 14-day managed isolation and adhere to the protocols of the managed isolation and quarantine.

The charges for the visa of the Australian partners will be NZD 45 to get entry in New Zealand. But they will not have to pay the fees for application.

Seems like happy times are back again. Things seems to loosening up and for good as far as migration to New Zealand is concerned.