I am sure you have thought about retiring to New Zealand before. Well, I am going to explain the New Zealand visa requirements to you as getting a visa is one of the most important things when looking to retire over there.

One of the most important aspects is contacting immigration in New Zealand and making sure you are familiar with all the latest immigration updates. These will keep you up to date with all the New Zealand visa information you need as well as ensuring you don’t fall foul of New Zealand’s visa requirements.

There are two types of New Zealand visas, we will go into this in more detail below together with timeframe and cost.

There are fees involved when applying for visas as you must pay for it all to be processes correctly; the money you spend on the fee you cannot get back even if you do not end up getting a visa.

The Temporary Retirement Visitor Visa is 3,366NZD and the Parent Retirement Resident Visa is 3,729 NZD.

For a Temporary Retirement Visitor Visa, it usually takes around 39 days give or take a few days.

The Parent Retirement Visa takes a lot longer, it takes around 21 months.

The reason why visas cannot be done quickly is because there is a lot of information to be processed and they need to ensure that the information and documents you have provided are correct and valid before they can supply you with a visa.

Yes, there are. There are two main types of visas for UK retirees in New Zealand.

The first option is the Temporary Retirement Visa. This one is only for people that can invest money into New Zealand for up to 2 years. After 2 years has passed you can re-apply for it if you want to.

For this visa you need to:

• Be at least 66 or older
• Have a minimum of 750,000 MZD (£390,000) invested in investments in New Zealand for the whole 2 years
• Have good travel and health insurance for the duration of the time you are there for
• Have another 500,000 NZD to be able to live there and have an annual income of 60,000 NZD

With this visa you are permitted to travel in and out of the country and your partner can be involved in your application. It is good to bear in mind that you cannot bring young children that depend on you.

The second visa is the Parent Resident Visa. This is for people who have an independent child that is a permanent resident or citizen of New Zealand.

This visa will let you join them over there and if you want to you are allowed to work or study over there and bring your partner.

For this visa you need to:

• Have an annual income of at least 60,000 NZD and have 500,000 NZD for you to live on whilst you are there?
• Invest 1m NZD (£520,000) over 4 years
• After the 4 years you can apply for permanent residency

You are permitted to travel in and out of this country for the first 2 years, after you become a permanent resident then you can do what you want when you want with no rules!

There are some documents that are required to be able to apply for any of these visas. If you do not have the right documentation, then you will not be able to get the visa.

You will need:

• Evidence of good character (Police report from the UK)
• Evidence of good health (medical exam)
• Proof that your partner meets the requirements too
• Proof of ID (Passport, birth certificate and recent photographs of you)
• Evidence that you have got the right amount of money to invest, annual income and money to live on
• Proof of your independent child’s residency status and proof of your relationship to them