Parents and their sponsor will need to meet a range of health and income requirements to qualify for the new visa. Photo: RNZ
Migrant communities are hailing a new visa which will allow parents of New Zealand citizens and residents to visit multiple times over a five-year period.
Applications for the visa - announced by the government yesterday - will open from 29 September, with parents and their sponsor needing to meet a range of health and income requirements.
And while the Green Party has concerns it would lock out all but the most wealthy, the government says having income requirements is the "responsible" thing to do.
The Parent Boost visa allows migrants to sponsor their parents to visit and stay in New Zealand for up to five years, with the option to extend for five more.
The prime minister said it would mean a lot for many families.
"Many, many other countries around the world have started to back off from visas like this. But it's so important to our migrant community, when we know how hard they work, and what they're doing to try and raise their families and strengthen their communities, and we want to be able to support them in this way," Christopher Luxon said.
To get the visa, parents will need to have an eligible sponsor, meet acceptable character and health standards, and have at least one year of health insurance coverage providing emergency medical cover, repatriation, return of remains, and cancer treatment.
While offshore during the third year of their visa, the parent would need to complete a new medical assessment and demonstrate they had maintained their insurance.
The sponsor must also earn the median wage to sponsor one parent, or one and a half times the median wage for both parents.
Otherwise, the parent or parents must have an ongoing income aligning with the superannuation rate, or have available funds of $160,000 for a single parent or $250,000 for both, to see them through the duration of their visa.
Both National and ACT campaigned on a parent visitor visa in 2023.
The policy was secured in the coalition agreement, although ACT wanted an annual $3500 fee, which would go into a public health fund, and ensure the visa was self-funding.
ACT immigration spokesperson Parmjeet Parmar was at the announcement and while she was celebrating it, she said she did not want to see any situations where migrants were forced to remortgage their house to pay for emergency hospital bills.
"Having a health insurance component is helpful, but sometimes it can also be a risk if the health insurance co-pay doesn't cover the cost, because I don't want to see any sponsor in any kind of debt," she said.
Immigration Minister Erica Stanford Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER
Immigration Minister Erica Stanford said the insurance component was necessary.
"When you come to New Zealand on a visitor visa, there is no ability for you to go into the public service and receive healthcare. That's why, when you're here for five years, there needs to be that insurance component," she said.
Insurance from an overseas provider would also be eligible.
Luxon was confident the right balance had been struck.
"People will need to have health insurance for the whole duration that they're here… This is a visitor visa. It's not a residency pathway visa," he told Morning Report on Monday.
"We're striking the balance of making sure that, you know, these folks who are not taxpayers haven't contributed to our publicly funded healthcare system won't be eligible for those services. That's why they need to make income tests.
"There's also health insurance and regular health assessments, and I think we have got the balance right so that actually we are supporting immigrant families, but equally they're not a burden on the New Zealand government."
Luxon said he did not want the requirements to be "onerous and unachievable".
Ethnic and Faith Communities Network convenor Abdur Razzaq said the announcement was a long time coming, and was a significant step towards ensuring ethnic minorities in New Zealand would feel like they were part of New Zealand's fabric.
"What we have got now is families who can be actually families," he said.
He said many doctors, engineers, and IT professionals had been leaving New Zealand because their parents could not come.
"Canada has had this for a long time, and it's worked."
Razzaq believed it struck the right balance so there would not be burdens on the health and housing sectors.
Daljit Singh from the Supreme Sikh Society said he had been lobbying Parliament for this kind of visa for years.
"It's a benefit to every migrant in this country. It is the opportunity for parents to stay with their children," he said.
Income thresholds a concern
But Singh continued to have concerns about the income thresholds.
"There is still a gap between rich and poor. Everybody wants, actually, to stay with their parents."
The Green Party's immigration spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March said the income requirements would lock out thousands of migrant families.
"Low-waged workers that National called essential during the pandemic will be missing out on being able to have their parents living with them in their new homeland," he said.
Menéndez March had concerns that when the visas expired, migrants would end up sending more money offshore instead of in New Zealand, and using up weeks of leave to see their ageing parents.
Speaking to Morning Report on Monday, Stanford said just like raising children, it cost money to economically support parents who were unable to work.
"You can't expect someone who is on, you know, a low wage, potentially, with other costs themselves - maybe children - bringing in a parent that they are responsible to look after, to feed, to house… to have all of the running costs on a very low wage. It's just not the responsible thing to do.
"And so we've set that at the median wage for one sponsor, and I think that's entirely reasonable and it's very much in line with other countries as well."
The visa is not a pathway to residency. Parents would not be able to work in New Zealand, but would be able to do remote work for their offshore employer.
Luxon said checks and balances would be in place to ensure parents and their sponsors met their obligations.
"I know people will respect it, but it's really important that people meet their obligations, and so there will be stronger enforcement as well associated to make sure that people are not abusing the system or taking advantage of the system," he said.
The existing $441 Parent and Grandparent visitor visa allows relatives to stay for six months at a time, for a maximum of 18 months over a three year period.
A separate Parent Resident visa lets parents live in New Zealand indefinitely, but comes with English language requirements, costs $5810, and needs an expression of interest before being invited to apply. They can apply for permanent residence after ten years.
There is also a Parent Retirement Resident visa which costs $12,850, and requires parents to have an adult child who is a New Zealand citizen or resident living in New Zealand, have at least $1 million to invest in New Zealand for four years and at least $500,000 for settlement, and an annual income of at least $60,000. After the four years, the parent can apply for permanent residence.
Stanford did not expect the new visa to result in a significant increase in migration to New Zealand.
"I don't expect that there will be huge numbers. We know that all it's going to do is cannibalise the other visas that already exist, so the three-year multiple entry, other visitor visa types, those will go down as this one comes up.
"So we'll just keep a close eye on it to make sure that we've got that balance right."
Luxon said the policy was modelled on between 2000 and 10,000 takers a year, averaging 6000.
"But there's no doubt about it - you've got to have health insurance for the whole duration in New Zealand that covers their emergency medical cover, repatriation of remains, cancer treatments. They can do that through an overseas, provider or a domestic provider, but that's a critical element of it."
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