If your partner is a New Zealand citizen or resident and you want to join them, the “partner visa” is actually two visas working together: a temporary work visa that gets you into the country, and a resident visa that gets you a permanent future there. Immigration New Zealand (INZ) is stricter about proving the relationship is genuine than almost any other part of its immigration system — a marriage certificate alone will not get you approved. Here’s how the pathway actually works.
The two visas in this pathway
- Partner of a New Zealander Work Visa — a temporary, work-rights visa for partners of NZ citizens or resident-visa holders. Since 20 April 2026, it carries an “any work” condition: you can work for almost any employer, in almost any role, anywhere in New Zealand, with two exceptions — you can’t employ other people through a business you run, and you can’t work in or invest in commercial sexual services.
- Partner of a New Zealander Resident Visa — the residence-class visa, generally pursued once you and your partner have been living together for the required period, giving you a permanent pathway to stay.
Who qualifies
Per INZ’s published criteria, both you and your partner must:
- Be at least 18 (16–17 is possible with parental consent),
- Have met each other in person before applying,
- Not be close relatives, and
- Be in good health and of good character.
Your sponsoring partner must be a New Zealand citizen or hold a resident-class visa. The core requirement is that you’ve been living together for at least 12 months in a genuine and stable partnership — whether that’s a marriage, civil union, or de facto relationship. If you’ve been living together for less than 12 months, INZ can still issue a shorter, renewable work visa (up to three years total) while you build up the cohabitation history needed for the longer visa and the resident visa. Dependent children cannot be added to your application — they apply separately based on their own relationship to you.
The evidence INZ actually wants
This is where most applications succeed or fail. INZ’s Partnership Evidence Checklist and guidance on proving a partnership groups evidence into four categories, and a strong application has documents across all four — not just one or two:
- Living together — evidence covering the full 12 months before you apply: a joint tenancy agreement or mortgage, utility bills in both names, mail addressed to both of you at the same address.
- Financial interdependence — joint bank accounts, shared or pooled income, regular money transfers between you, jointly owned assets or shared debts.
- Social and community recognition — statutory declarations from people who know you as a couple describing how long they’ve known you and what they’ve observed, invitations and cards addressed to both of you, photos across the relationship’s timeline.
- Nature of the household and commitment — how you share household duties, how the relationship is publicly known, and evidence of a shared future (joint plans, insurance beneficiaries, wills).
Marriage or civil union certificates on their own are explicitly not sufficient — INZ still expects the cohabitation and interdependence evidence above regardless of your legal marital status.
Application process
- The NZ citizen/resident partner completes and signs the sponsor form supporting the partnership-based application.
- You apply online through Immigration NZ’s application system, uploading your evidence documents across all four categories.
- Pay the application fee and submit.
- Wait for a decision — INZ may request additional evidence or an interview if your file is borderline.
Fees and processing times
INZ’s own visa processing times page is the authoritative source and is updated monthly — check it directly before you apply, since both figures below move with application volume. As a general guide, third-party trackers commonly cite the work visa in the region of NZD $1,600–1,700 and the resident visa fee starting from roughly NZD $5,000–5,500, with work-visa decisions typically taking a few months and resident-visa decisions taking considerably longer — but treat any specific number you see quoted elsewhere as indicative only and confirm the current fee and wait time on immigration.govt.nz before budgeting or planning around it.
Why partner visa applications get declined
The single most common reason INZ declines a genuine relationship is insufficient documented evidence — not fraud. Couples often assume INZ will take a marriage certificate and a few photos at face value, or rely on just one category of evidence (like a joint lease) instead of building a file across all four categories. Other frequent issues:
- Gaps in the 12-month cohabitation record, especially where the couple lived apart for periods without a clearly documented, genuine reason (work travel, family emergencies).
- Evidence that’s mostly recent, without a timeline showing the relationship’s development.
- Missing financial interdependence — separate finances with no joint or shared elements at all.
If you’re refused, review our New Zealand visa refusal reasons guide for how appeals and reapplications generally work.
FAQ
Do we need to be married to apply? No. De facto relationships qualify on the same basis as marriage or civil union, provided you meet the 12-month living-together and evidence requirements.
What if we’ve lived together for less than 12 months? You can still apply for the work visa; INZ can issue a shorter visa while your cohabitation history builds toward the 12-month threshold typically expected for the resident visa.
Can I work on the Partner of a New Zealander Work Visa? Yes — since April 2026 it carries broad “any work” rights, with narrow exceptions around self-employing others and commercial sexual services.
Building a partner visa file with the right evidence across all four categories is exactly the kind of document-by-document preparation VisaMet’s AI assistant is designed to help with — join the waitlist to get guided document checks before you submit. This is general preparation guidance, not legal advice — confirm current requirements directly with Immigration New Zealand before applying.