Religious Worker Resident Visa

A Religious Worker Resident Visa lets you stay in New Zealand indefinitely.

Check if you are eligible to apply for this visa and what supporting documents and information you need to provide.

Identity

You must provide proof of your identity:

• 2 acceptable photos of your head and shoulders
• your original or a of your passport or
• your original or a certified copy of your .

Citizens of China

You can provide household registration documents if these confirm your relationship to your child.

Applicants from Hong Kong or Macao applying within Hong Kong or Macao

Also provide a copy of your identity card.

Health

You must be in good health.

You must have a chest X-ray and a medical examination as proof of your good health.

Character

You must be of good character.

If you, or anyone else included in your application, are aged 17 or older you must provide a police certificate from:

• all the countries you are a citizen of, and
• any other country you have stayed in for 12 months or more over the last 10 years, even if it was not all in the same stay.

Current work visa

You must have held a Religious Worker Work Visa for at least 3 years.

We will check our records and your passport for evidence:

• that you have a current Religious Worker Work Visa
• of when you first arrived in New Zealand on your Religious Worker Work Visa.

Sponsorship

You must have an acceptable sponsor.

You must be sponsored by a religious organisation:

• that's registered as a charity with Charities Services
• that can meet the requirements for acceptable sponsors for a period of 5 years after your resident visa is granted, including having the ability to provide you with accommodation and financial support if you need it
• that's main purpose is to advance religion
• that has a genuine need for you to do for them.

As evidence of your sponsorship, you must provide:

• a 'Sponsorship Form for Religious Workers' completed by your sponsor
• a written statement from your sponsor explaining how your will continue to serve their religious aims.

Home — Charities Services

Religious work

You must have an offer of ongoing religious work from your sponsor.

The work you have been offered must be in substantially one or more of the following religious activities:

• teaching religious scripture or philosophy
• leading religious ceremonies, worship or prayer
• ordaining new religious leaders, initiating new members into your religious community, carrying out religious ceremonies
• providing spiritual guidance and care.

If the work you have been offered is paid salary or wages, you must provide a copy of an employment agreement.

If the work you have been offered is paid by any means other than salary or wages or is unpaid, then you must provide a description of that work.

Age

You must be 55 or under.

We check your identity documents — for example, your passport — to confirm your age.

English language

You must speak and understand English.

Evidence can include proof you:

• have an acceptable English language test result
• have an English-speaking background
• are competent speakers of English for other reasons.

Religious training and experience

You must have at least 5 years' religious training and/or work experience.

Evidence may include:

• testimonials from people in your religious community
• documents that show you have been ordained
• your curriculum vitae or résumé
• documents that show you have got experience doing religious work that is relevant to your religious work in New Zealand
• of any qualifications that are relevant to your religious work in New Zealand.

No welfare assistance

You must not have received any welfare benefits or assistance.

If you or anyone included in your residence application, have received any welfare benefits or assistance since you were granted a Religious Worker Work Visa, you will not be eligible to apply for residence.

When you complete your residence application, we will ask for your authority to contact Work and Income to check if you have received any welfare benefits or assistance.

Home — Work and Income New Zealand

Location

To apply for residence, you must be in New Zealand.

We’ll check our records to confirm your location.

Relationship with family

Your family must meet the requirements for a resident visa.

To include your partner and dependent children in your residence application, you must provide evidence:

• of your relationship with your partner and dependent children, like birth and marriage certificates
• that your partner and dependent children meet the identity, health, character and English language requirements for this visa.

Your relationship with your partner

You and your partner must have been living together in a genuine and stable relationship for at least 12 months at the time you apply.

You must provide evidence that you and your partner are living together in a .

Your evidence should show:

• how long you have been together
• how long you have been living together
• that you share finances and other responsibilities
• that you spend time together, for example photos together, emails and social media conversations between you
• that other people recognise your relationship
• anything else you think shows you and your partner are living together in a genuine and stable relationship.

Dependent children

Your children must be single and 24 or under.

For us to consider your children dependent, they must be single and either:

• 17 or under
• 18 to 24 with no children of their own.

We will ask you to sign a declaration that your children are single when you complete your residence application.

We will use the documents you provide as proof of your children's identity to confirm their age.

Dependent children aged 21 to 24

Children aged 21 to 24 must rely on an adult for financial support.

When we assess if your children need financial support, we will look at whether they:

• are working, if the work full time or part time, and how long they have been working
• are able to support themselves
• live with a family member and how much support is provided
• are studying and if they study full time or part time.

We may ask for evidence that your children are financially dependent.

Your relationship with your children

You must be the parent or legal guardian of your dependent children.

You must provide evidence that confirms your relationship to your children, which may include:

• adoption papers, or if the adoption was customary, a written declaration stating you have adopted the children and the date and country the adoption took place
• any other documents that confirm your relationship to each other.

Custody of children 15 and under

You must have the legal right to remove dependent children from their home country.

If you are separated or divorced, you must provide legal documents that show that one of the following applies:

• you have the sole right to decide where your children live
• you have the right to remove your children from their home country
• you have custody of the children and your children's other parent agrees they can move to New Zealand if their application is approved.

If your children's other parent has died, you must provide their death certificate.

These are the conditions that you must meet once you have your visa.

Sponsorship

You must have an acceptable sponsor for a period of 5 years from your first day as a resident in New Zealand.

Travel

You can travel in and out of New Zealand as often as you like for a period of 5 years from your first day as a resident in New Zealand, which is when your travel conditions expire.

To travel after that, you will need to apply for and be granted either:

• a permanent resident visa
• a variation of your travel conditions, which would allow you to return to New Zealand at a later date.

Keep your visa in a valid passport

If you want to travel, your visa must be in a valid passport.

If your passport expires, you must apply to transfer your visa to a new passport before you can travel.

Transferring my visa to a new passport

Work

For 5 years from your first day as a resident in New Zealand, you can only do the specific religious work, for the specific sponsoring religious organisation, in the specific location detailed in the employment agreement and/or job description that was the basis for us to grant your resident visa.

After that, you can work in any employment for any employer.

Study

You can study in New Zealand.