H5.5 Overview (to 29/07/2024)

See also Immigration (Visa, Entry Permission, and Related Matters) Regulations 2010, Reg 14A, 26AA

1. These instructions allow for the grant of a visa to:
   1. persons who have a critical purpose for travelling to New Zealand as defined at H5.25.15; or
   2. variation of visa conditions (for people with a valid temporary entry class visa).
2. The grant of a visa or variation of conditions under these instructions is a two-step process:
   1. Interest in travelling to New Zealand must first be expressed by:
      • applicants; or
      • employers, or supporting agencies, on behalf of ‘other critical workers’, with the agreement of the ‘other critical worker’.
   2. An immigration officer may then invite a person (that is, an applicant or an ‘other critical worker’), to apply for a Critical Purpose visitor visa, another visa appropriate to that person’s circumstances or a variation of conditions if they are satisfied based on the information available, that the person has a critical purpose to travel to New Zealand (H5.25.15) and is likely to meet the requirements of the visa applied for or variation of conditions requested.
3. Only a person who has been invited to apply for a visa or variation of conditions may make an application under these instructions.
4. Applications must be made in the prescribed manner within 4 months of an invitation to apply.
5. Despite (d) above, where a person makes an expression of interest on or after 8 July 2022 and is then invited to apply, they must make an application within 2 months of an invitation to apply (unless H5.20(c)(i) applies).

Note: An application notifying an Expression of Interest may, where instructions provide for it, include the applicant’s spouse or partner and any dependent children 19 years of age or younger.

Effective 31/07/2022