{"id":40932,"date":"2025-09-24T16:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T16:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/40932\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T16:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T16:02:08","slug":"loosened-residency-requirements-mean-that-it-just-got-easier-to-move-to-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/40932\/","title":{"rendered":"Loosened Residency Requirements Mean That It Just Got Easier To Move To New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gorgeous beaches. World-renowned scenery. Friendly people. It\u2019s no wonder that you want to move to New Zealand<\/a>, but until now it\u2019s not been a particularly easy thing to do. That is changing, however, as the nation has just announced that its requirements for residency are loosening.<\/p>\n

In the past few years, a record number of New Zealand citizens have emigrated to places that offer more jobs and better pay. They leave behind an incomplete workforce, which has led to economic stagnation \u2013 basically, the country needs people to take their places and get things moving again.<\/p>\n

Who is eligible?<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s answer to this problem is the introduction of two brand new pathways to residency: one for skilled workers, and another for technicians and tradesmen. Those in \u2018skilled\u2019 professions \u2013 that is jobs you tend to need some form of higher education to access \u2013 will need to have at least five years of relevant work experience, two of which must have been in New Zealand, and be paid 1.1 times the median salary to qualify for permanent residency.<\/p>\n

People working in the trades will need to be making the median wage or higher, and have a minimum of four years industry experience, and 18 months of experience directly in the country.<\/p>\n

Read more: New Zealand named world\u2019s best country for work-life balance<\/a><\/p>\n

Nicola Willis, minister for economic growth, explained that this was an ideal way to provide employers with the staff that they need, saying: \u2018Businesses told us it was too hard for some migrants to gain residence, even when they had crucial skills and significant experience that was not available in the existing workforce\u2019, adding \u2018we\u2019re fixing it\u2019.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that this is not a new type of visa, but instead a way for existing visa-holders to become\u00a0permanent residents. Immigration minister Erica Stanford explained it as being for people \u2018who are already contributing to New Zealand\u2019s economy and have demonstrated value in their roles\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"green
\nPhotograph: Nareeta Martin via Unsplash <\/p>\n

But not everyone supports the move. New Zealand First, who are currently in a coalition with the incumbent National Party, said that it would increase the number of people using the country as a \u2018stepping stone\u2019 to Australia.<\/p>\n

Winston Peters, the party\u2019s leader, said that immigration policy was not the solution, and instead that there is a need for a system which \u2018consistently provides young Kiwis with the skills we need domestically, working alongside the education system, which fills the skills we need in our industries\u2019.<\/p>\n

Regardless of disagreement, it looks like the government will go ahead with the changes \u2013 meaning if you moved to New Zealand now, you could be entitled to stay for good within a couple of years. What are you waiting for?<\/p>\n

ICYMI: Spain has clamped down on thousands of holiday rentals \u2013 here\u2019s what that means for your trip<\/a><\/p>\n

Plus:\u00a0It\u2019s about to get more expensive for travellers to visit the USA<\/a><\/p>\n

Stay in the loop: sign up to our\u00a0free Time Out Travel newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for all the latest travel news and best stuff happening across the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gorgeous beaches. World-renowned scenery. Friendly people. It\u2019s no wonder that you want to move to New Zealand, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[36948,36946,111,43,36947,139,69,274],"class_list":["post-40932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-audience-location-audience-worldwide","tag-categories-travel","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-news-transport-travel","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}