Permanence

During the blog-posting gap we hit our two year anniversary in New Zealand. By that time we had transitioned from renters to home owners and Hop had started primary school, so we were feeling pretty settled. The two year anniversary also marked the point at which we could transition from the residence visas we were originally granted to permanent residence.

The way the residence visas are structured, it strongly encourages you to make the transition. That’s because of the travel restrictions that kick in. The residence visa never expires, it allows you to stay in New Zealand forever. For the first two years after you enter the country you can come and go as you please, however, once you hit the two year mark, you cannot re-enter the country if you leave.

The solution to this conundrum is to transition to a permanent residence visa. The process for this is much easier, assuming you’ve actually settled in the country, since the main requirements are to 1) not have committed any crimes, and 2) have actually settled in the country. There’s a few different ways you can prove this, and we used the easiest – just let Immigration NZ calculate the number of days we’ve been in the country from their entry and exit records. As long as you’ve been in the country for about 6 months of each of the two years you’re set. We sent in the applications, and unlike the long wait for the residence visa, within a few weeks we were permanent residents.