Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Immigration New Zealand has announced a one-time increase in the parent visa quota, allowing more approved applications to be processed this financial year.
The annual cap for the parent visa category typically stands at 2500, with 2000 visas allocated to queue-based applications and 500 to ballot-based applicants.
However, due to a backlog, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford has authorised an additional 331 queue-based visas, bringing the total to 2331 for the financial year ending 30 June.
The ballot allocation remains unchanged at 500 visas, and the overall 2500 cap will be reinstated for 2025-26 financial year.
INZ will contact applicants whose queue-based expressions of interest are selected.
RNZ has reported that thousands of families are growing increasingly frustrated with long delays and a lottery system that determines whether their overseas parents can join them permanently.
About 12,000 parents of residents and citizens are waiting, but only 500 people have been picked to apply in 2023.
Those in the random ballot, held every three months, must be drawn before they can even apply for residence. Some parents have reportedly died while waiting.
Beyond those in the ballot system, some parents are waiting for updates on a possible long-term visitor visa as an alternative pathway to residency.
