PARENT-RESIDENT
Residence visa for parents of New Zealand citizens and residents. Selected through a quarterly ballot of expressions of interest, with 2,500 visas available each year. Sponsoring children must meet income thresholds based on the New Zealand median wage; applicants cannot have dependent children.
The Parent Resident Visa is a lottery-style ballot, not a first-come-first-served queue. Lodging an EOI on day 1 of a quarter doesn’t improve your odds versus lodging on day 89 — every eligible EOI in the ballot has equal selection chance at the next draw.
This shapes the strategic question. Because demand reliably exceeds the 2,500 annual cap, many eligible EOIs aren’t drawn within their 2-year validity. The right time to lodge isn’t determined by ballot timing — it’s determined by whether your sponsor’s income and your own documentation are evidentiarily strong now. Lodging early with weak income evidence and hoping to improve it before drawing doesn’t work; if selected, you have a fixed window to submit a complete application.
The no-dependent-children rule is a hard exclusion at EOI lodgement. If you have any child who is dependent on you for financial support (typically under 25), the Parent Resident Visa isn’t available — even via ballot. This catches some applicants who assume “dependent” means “under 18”; INZ’s threshold sits higher. If you have an adult child still studying or financially supported by you, talk to a licensed adviser before lodging to confirm where they sit against the dependency test.
The Parent Resident Visa operates on a ballot system, not a queue. You lodge an EOI; INZ draws EOIs from the ballot every 3 months and issues invitations to apply to the selected applicants. Unselected EOIs remain in the ballot for 2 years before expiring. The annual cap is 2,500 visas across all selections.
You need at least 1 New Zealand citizen or resident child aged 18 or older to act as your sponsor. Multiple children can act as joint sponsors. The sponsor must be ordinarily resident in New Zealand and meet the sponsor character requirements (no recent serious convictions, no liability for deportation).
The sponsor's income must meet a threshold based on the New Zealand median wage. The threshold increases when there's a joint sponsor or when additional parents are being sponsored. Income must be evidenced by employment records, IRD documents, and where relevant, the sponsor's partner's income. The specific median-wage figure changes — confirm the current threshold on INZ before submitting an EOI.
You and your partner (if including a partner in the application) cannot have any dependent children. A dependent child for INZ purposes is generally a child aged 24 or under who relies on you for financial support. This is a hard exclusion — having a dependent child means the Parent Resident Visa isn't available, even via the ballot.
Your sponsoring child must meet sponsorship-history requirements — they cannot have previously sponsored a parent who is currently in default of a sponsorship undertaking, and they must commit to financially supporting you if your circumstances change. Sponsorship is a legally binding undertaking, not a courtesy.
Standard residence-grade health and character requirements: chest X-ray + medical certificate (less than 3 months old at receipt of invitation), police certificates for every country lived in for 12+ months in the last 10 years, English language evidence (or the option to pre-pay for ESOL classes if not meeting the test threshold).
INZ application fee: From NZD $5,810 (EOI lodgement and residence application fees combined; specific component fees published on INZ).
ProVisas advisory fee: Fixed-fee per case where sponsor income and applicant background are straightforward; time-based for complex matters (joint sponsorship across multiple children, blended-family circumstances, prior visa refusals). Specific fees disclosed at consultation and confirmed in your engagement letter.
INZ government fees are passed through at cost. We don't mark up government charges. Note: lodging an EOI doesn't guarantee selection — even a complete EOI may sit in the ballot for the full 2-year validity without being drawn.
EOI selections occur every 3 months. EOIs remain in the ballot for 2 years before expiring. After selection, you receive an invitation to apply and lodge the residence application; INZ then processes it under standard residence timelines. Total time from EOI lodgement to residence decision can run 1–3 years depending on when your EOI is drawn.
You lodge an EOI with your details, your sponsor's details, and the sponsor income evidence. Every 3 months, INZ selects EOIs from the ballot — selections are random within the eligible pool, not first-come-first-served. Selected EOIs receive an invitation to apply for residence within a stated timeframe. Unselected EOIs remain in the ballot for 2 years total.
The threshold is set based on the New Zealand median wage at the time of EOI lodgement. The exact figure changes — confirm the current threshold on INZ before lodging. The income requirement increases when you have a joint sponsor (typically the sponsor's partner adding their income) and when more than 1 parent is being sponsored under a single application.
Yes. Joint sponsorship is available when 1 sponsoring child's income on its own doesn't meet the threshold but combined family income does. The sponsorship undertaking becomes a joint and several commitment — all joint sponsors are individually responsible for the full undertaking, not just their proportional share.
Your EOI stays in the ballot for 2 years total from lodgement. After that, it expires and you'd need to lodge a fresh EOI (with current sponsor income evidence and current English language evidence) to remain in the ballot. There's no guarantee of selection — INZ can only draw within the annual cap, and demand typically exceeds supply.
Yes, your partner can be included as a secondary applicant. Both you and your partner must meet the no-dependent-children condition. Your partner needs to provide their own police certificates, medical/X-ray evidence, and English language evidence (or commit to ESOL pre-pay). Including a partner doesn't change the sponsor income threshold but does affect the medical and character evidence stack.
You can lodge an EOI from inside or outside New Zealand. If you're already in NZ on a Visitor or Work visa, your current visa status stays in place during the ballot wait and during processing — the Parent Resident Visa is a separate residence pathway, not a conversion of your existing visa. Holding a current temporary visa doesn't affect your ballot odds.
guides
Two related INZ processes: transferring an existing visa to a new passport, and applying for a Parent Resident Visa via two-stage EOI + Full Application. Sponsor income requirements and process details.
Read articleguides
Genuine and stable partnership evidence is the load-bearing element of a partnership-based temporary visa. Required evidence categories, AEWV partner caveats, and why weak evidence is the most common decline reason.
Read articleLast reviewed 2026-05-28. Source of truth: Immigration New Zealand →
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