Permanent Residence is intended for individuals or families that wish to live in New Zealand permanently.  There are vaious policies under which you may apply for Residence.

Skilled Migrant Category
The Skilled Migrant category (SMC) is a category which requires applicants to score points under a range of criteria. The intention of the category is to allow Immigration New Zealand to more actively target those migrants with the requisite skills to benefit the country and to have more control over migrant numbers.

Under the SMC, prospective migrants must register an Expression of Interest ('EOI') as the first step to applying for residence. Applicants must be fluent in the English language (to IELTS 6.5 level) and should have an acceptable tertiary or trade qualification or work experience relevant to an offer of skilled employment in New Zealand.However applicants with a suitable offer of skilled employment may be able to qualify for residence without holding a qualification.

All EOI applications which meet the minimum requirements are coordinated and logged into a centralised Immigration New Zealand database. INZ will, every two weeks, make a selection from the EOI pool of those applicants at a points/criteria level sufficient to deliver the number of migrants required to achieve the annual target. Selected EOIs then undergo further verification checks which, if favourable, will result in INZ issuing an invitation to apply for residence and the residence application documentation. The residence requirements can then be completed and the application lodged.

Family Categories
If you have family who are already permanent residents or citizens of New Zealand, you may be eligible to apply for residence under one of the following categories:

Partner
You must be in a stable and genuine relationship with a New Zealand citizen or resident and must currently be living together, and have been living together for a minimum of 12 months. Your partner must support your application. Your relationship may be heterosexual or same sex, and you are not required to be married. An application may include any dependent children.

Parent
Parent applications must be supported by an adult child who has lived in New Zealand, and held permanent residence, for 3 years and who satisfes the required income and good character policy requirements. Parents will either have no children in their home country or they must have an equal or greater number of adult children permanently living in New Zealand than in any other country.

Sibling and Adult Child
You must be the only member of your family permanently living in your country of residence and be at least 17 years old. You must have a parent or adult sibling who is a permanent resident and who has lived in New Zealand for 3 years and supports your application. You must have a suitable offer of employment.

Dependent Child
You must be 16 years or younger and financially dependent on an adult for your living expenses. You must have a parent who is a New Zealand permanent resident of citizen.


One person is nominated as being the principal applicant for a residence application and the application can include their partner and dependent children.