New Parent Boost Visa to bring families to New Zealand for up to 10 years

The New Zealand government on June 8 2025 announced that it will be introducing a new long term visitor visa stream that will allow highly skilled migrants to bring their parents to New Zealand. Their hope is that it will make New Zealand more attractive to these high earners to come and work and settle thus contributing to the economy. This new visa is called the Parent boost visa.

As we all know, one of the ways to cope with homesickness and loneliness as a migrant is if you have family close by. So, I guess this is the government’s way of addressing that issue while also injecting more money into the economy. Or, could it just be my own assumption. Before I dive to deep, what is this New Zealand Parent boost visa.

What exactly is the Parent boost visa?

The parent boost visa is a multiple entry visa five-year visitor visa that will allow parents of New Zealand citizens or residents to visit New Zealand with an extension possible for another for a further five years. Which means that parents can re-enter New Zealand multiple times. It will be open for application on September 29, 2025.

You can apply for this visa online through the Immigration New Zealand website once it is open to receive applications in September 2025

Learn how to submit a New Zealand online visa application here

To be eligible for this visa, applicants will need to meet income, insurance and health requirements. All of which have been explained in details in this video. There is no English requirements.

The visa will cost NZ$3,000 (NZ$2,450 for Pacific fee band applicants) with an additional NZ$100 for International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy.

INZ estimates that it will take about 4 months to process majority of applications. The information and evidence provided, demand for the visa and just the mere complexity of this visa relative are amongst the key influences to the timeframe.

While this is a good initiative, it still seems that many will be locked out of it considering the financial requirements needed to be fulfilled to the eligible for this visa.

Notable requirements

• You will need to be outside New Zealand when you apply
• Parents under further medical assessment during the third year of their visa to show they are still of an acceptable standard of health. This means they will need to leave New Zealand in the third year of the visa
• Three options for financial requirements are available. They are sponsor’s income, parent’s income or parent’s assets. Applicants only need one of these 3 options to meet the financial requirements. The sponsor must earn at least median wage.
• For sponsorship, you can sponsor your parent(s) jointly with your partner or siblings
• Insurance must include emergency care (minimum NZD $250,000 a year), repatriation, return of remains, and cancer treatment (minimum NZD $100,000 a year).
• Insurance can be from New Zealand or offshore providers. They will be assessed based on credit ratings set

More information on requirement will be available in August.

Other things to note

• You can lodge expression of interest or apply for other visas while on the Parents boost visa
• Bank statement is not limited to NZ banks. The money must not be in NZ but not that the minimum required amounts are in NZD.
• This is not a pathway to residency visa