PR, SSRV, VOTC…Confused?

The term “Permanent Residence” or “PR” is probably the most commonly misunderstood Visa reference in the INZ vocabulary and that is largely because the term itself doesn’t actually refer to whether you can live here permanently or not, but instead it refers to your ability to travel in and out of New Zealand, once you have your Resident Visa approved.

PR as we will call it in this article, is actually the right to leave NZ and then return as a Resident (referred to as “Travel Conditions”) and comes with various timeframes attached. We also take a look at the options to extend these travel conditions, as well as what happens if you miss the boat on being able to turn your Resident Visa in to a Permanent one.

To start with, let’s take a look at what happens when your initial Residence is approved - note that this applies to most people, but as always with this process, there are some unique situations where the following may not apply. So it pays to check your visa conditions very carefully.

Let’s imagine the day has arrived and as a skilled migrant applicant you have finally been granted your Resident Visa. Apart from drinking the largest bottle of champagne you can find, you will potentially also be a bit confused by some of the terminology that appears on the visa label.

For most people, who are approved for Residence, their first visa comes with the following “conditions” attached.

• If they are onshore (in NZ), the visa starts on the day it was granted. If you are offshore, then it will come with a first entry date, which is usually within 12 months of the date it was granted - in this case, you (any family that were also included and approved) must arrive in NZ within 12 months to activate your Residence. If you dont make this first entry your Visa will lapse and disappear.

• The visa itself, allows you to reside in New Zealand indefinitely, meaning if you never left NZ, you could live, work and study here until your last breath.

• However to cover travel, your visa will also come with travel conditions, usually valid for 24 months from the date of issue (if you are in NZ) or 24 months from your first arrival (if you are approved whilst offshore). It is really important to remember this future date, because if you leave NZ after this date and haven’t secured PR or a VOTC (details below) you wont have a visa to return to NZ with.

• Other conditions - there may be other conditions attached to the visa, such as Section 49 conditions, relating to investment or employment) and these will be specified at the bottom of the visa itself.

So the key thing to remember in all of the above is your first entry date (if you are offshore when the visa is issued) and then the expiry date for your travel conditions, which are 24 months from the date of issue if you are onshore, or 24 months from the date of arrival if you are offshore.

Obviously you will want to travel beyond the first 24 months and so that is where PR comes in to the equation. Once you secure PR, you have the indefinite right to travel back and forth. Remember though that your first visa allows you to live here forever, PR just gives you the right to leave and come back again - forever.

The “Permanent” in PR

The “Permanent” in PR can be confusing as it actually refers to your ability to travel.

Permanent Residence (PR)

Permanent Residence (or “PR”) is acquired (usually) after you have held a Resident Visa continuously for 24 months and have met one of five possible eligibility criteria - these are all designed to measure your commitment to New Zealand in some way, shape or form. The easiest and most commonly used criteria is the time spent option, where you have to have spent 184 days in each of the two 12-month portions of the 24 months immediately before your PR application is made. The really important part here is that the 24 month period is not calculated from the date your Resident Visa is initially granted, but the 24 months going back from the date you submit your PR application. For some, this means some careful planning on the timing.

For PR, only the main applicant in the original Resident Visa application needs to qualify - everyone else who was originally included (partner and children) will be granted PR, on the basis that the main applicant qualifies. That of course is assuming the partner is still in fact the partner. For dependent children, they no longer have to be dependent or under the age of 25.

However if your relationship ends and the partner in the original application wants to remain in NZ, they can be assessed for PR in their own right (using one of the five eligibility criteria).

People often ask if they can apply for PR before their 24 months of travel conditions is up, if they meet one of the five criteria, and the short answer is no. The rules are very clear in that you must have held your Residence for 24 months, continuously, prior to applying for PR.

Also when you apply for PR, you must either hold your Residence, which means be in NZ on your Resident Visa or be offshore with valid travel conditions. If you are offshore and your Visa has expired, you have a three month “grace period” to apply for PR, even with expired travel conditions.

Securing PR should be relatively simple and for most people it is, but sometimes, there are situations where people haven’t given themselves enough time or have misread the rules on when to apply. These are the most common reasons PR applications fail or have to be filed again.

Need More Time?

A Variation of Travel Conditions is one way to extend your ability to travel in and out of NZ.

Variation of Conditions (VOTC)

Sometimes (actually fairly common) people are heading for PR and something happens that means they can’t quite meet one of the elements of the five eligibility criteria. For example, missing out on one set of 184 days or being just short. In this case, all is not lost, because you can apply for and be granted a Variation of Travel Conditions (VOTC). This effectively gives you a second chance to try and accumulate more time or any other factor that you might need to finally get PR. For example if you are relying on the “time spent” criteria and achieve year one (184 days) but then miss out in year two, you can secure a VOTC for 12 months, giving you the chance to try again and to accumulate more time. VOTC’s can be issued for 12 months or 24 months depending on the situation and there is even a 14 day VOTC that INZ must approve, not matter what the circumstances are.

The key thing to remember with a VOTC is that you have to hold a Resident Visa, which means be in NZ with that Visa or be offshore but have valid travel conditions. If you are offshore and your travel conditions have expired and you don’t qualify for PR within three months of the expiry of those travel conditions, then you are looking at an entirely different process.

For many, who have lost their Residence (travel conditions expired and offshore) and don’t qualify for a VOTC, they assume that all is lost and there is no way to get their Residence back - which is actually not the case. There are options to secure Residence again, under the Second or Subsequent Resident Visa option.

Missed The PR Boat?

An SSRV let’s you claim back your Residence for a second chance at PR.

Second or Subsequent Resident Visa (SSRV)

This is the more confusing part (unless you have been baffled by PR and VOTC’s already). A second or subsequent Resident Visa (SSRV) is an application made by someone who doesn’t hold their Resident Visa any longer (offshore with expired travel conditions) and is not eligible to apply for PR within the three month grace period. In this scenario, INZ gives applicants the opportunity to reinstate their Residence, but with some limitations.

If you are in this situation, and apply for an SSRV, INZ will look to see whether you were a) eligible for a VOTC when your visa or travel conditions expired or b) eligible for PR when your visa or travel conditions expired. If the answer is yes to either of these, then for someone who was eligible for a VOTC of 12 or 24 months, they will determine if that VOTC would still be valid on the day you apply for your SSRV. If the answer is yes, then you get the balance of that 12 or 24 months.

For example, if you were on the track for PR (184 days) but missed the second year, then you left NZ and didnt apply for a VOTC and you apply for an SSRV six months later - INZ would say you could have secured a 12 month VOTC when you left NZ, it would still be valid, because only six months has passed and so they will give you the balance (of six months).

If you were in the above situation but eligible for PR when your Visa expired, they will give you the balance of 24 months, from the date your visa expired.

It gets very confusing, but the simple message here is that even if you have left NZ, and your visa and travel conditions have expired, if you aren’t too late, you might be able to get your Residence back.

The process that follows the grant of Residence, including PR, VOTC’s and SSRV’s is actually one of the hardest concepts to explain to clients and dare I say it a mine field for even some of the more experienced in the industry - but it is a very important one, because securing that magical PR is often at the top of everyone’s list.

We know this stuff inside out, and so if you are in the situation where your Residence might have lapsed and you are not sure if you can get it back, drop us a line. We might just be able to work out a solution for you.

Until next week.