Parent Boost Visa
The Government has finally announced the Parent Boost Visa - a Visa that was promised as part of both National and Act’s campaign pledges and has taken a little longer than either party (or the hopeful applicants) might have liked, to finally roll out. The actual Visa doesn’t go live until 29 September, but the core components have been released, meaning we know how it will work and there will be plenty of people beginning to prepare their applications to apply later this year. We anticipate that demand for this Visa will be relatively high, given both the number of parents, waiting in the Parent Residence queue, as well as those who may not yet qualify for Residence, but want to join their children and grandchildren in New Zealand.
Whilst the official rules have not yet been let out in to the wild, there is enough information for us to work through what the key requirements are, as well as some of the challenges that potential applicants might face. In this week’s article we break down the new Visa, set out some of the key things for people to consider, and look at how the Parent Boost Visa, might all work in the real world. I will caveat this by saying that until the official rules are released, there may be some things we need to adjust or update, but hopefully this post gives people a pretty clear idea as to whether this Visa might work for them.
The Parent Boost Visa
The Parent Boost Visa was formulated as part of National and Act’s campaign pledges, and was warmly welcomed by the local migrant community, largely because of the existing queues with the Parent Resident Visa category. With so many parents waiting in that queue, the Parent Boost Visitor Visa, was seen as a means to bridge that gap. However the Government also had other ideas, in terms of what this Visa might do for NZ and a big part of it, was adding to the appeal for Skilled Migrants, who could in turn bring their parents for a much longer time frame.
Attracting Skilled Migrants
One major driver behind the release of this Visa, was the Governments desire to attract more skilled migrants.
For many would-be migrants, the idea of being able to have your parents come with you, to support you in your move and often to act as temporary caregivers to your children, is a welcome one. The overall plan being that by allowing parents to stay here for a much longer period, we might just be able to attract a lot more skilled migrants along the way.
The Visa was initially advertised as a five year Visa, with one renewal (so up to ten years) and that is mostly how it has arrived, although with a few catches. The Visa is issued for five years, however at the third year (so potentially in year four), applicants will need to be offshore to complete a second medical assessment, as well as being checked for compliance (holding insurance and being sponsored). So in theory there is a gap in the five years, where applicants must be offshore to complete these checks before returning. In addition applicants will need:
To be sponsored by an adult child who is a citizen or resident. The sponsor must agree to covering essential costs such as accommodation and daily living costs, ensuring access to health and financial support and covering costs related to repatriation or deportation, if required.
There is a financial requirement, consisting of either the sponsor having sufficient income (at least the New Zealand median wage or 1.5 times the median wage for joint sponsors) to sponsor 1 parent, with the amount increasing by 0.5 times the median wage for additional parents being sponsored, or the parent(s) have a personal income equivalent to New Zealand Superannuation currently NZD $32,611.28 gross per annum for a single parent and NZD $49,552.88 for a couple, or the parent(s) have sufficient personal funds: NZD $160,000 for a single applicant or NZD $250,000 for a couple.
Applicants must hold acceptable insurance that covers emergency medical care (minimum NZD $250,000 a year), repatriation, return of remains and cancer treatment (minimum NZD $100,000).
There will be further criteria attached to the above, that will be rolled out with the formal rules, including the timeframe the sponsors income must have been earned and the specifics for the insurance, but these are the key factors to consider.
Interestingly the Government has given applicants three ways to meet the financial requirements, either with a sponsor earning the right income, having their own income or having access to sufficient capital. This means a greater pool of people will potentially qualify, than if it was just sponsors income.
Naturally the above financial requirements and the insurance (which wont come cheap) have caused significant concerns for a number of potential applicants (and their NZ children) with some advisers quoting this as being an “elitist” policy. I think that is just belly-aching, because this Visa was never going to be designed to allow absolutely every parent in. The Government had to set limits and these are sensible. They ensure that parents wont end up on welfare, uncared for and without the support they need (believe me, “parent-dumping” is a thing that happens in NZ in some migrant communities).
So all in all, from my view, it is a sensible outcome that captures a wide enough pool of people, without creating an unnecessary financial drain on the country (or the sponsors).
Daisy-Chaining Visas
One interesting thing, yet to be confirmed, but from all accounts likely to happen, is that this Visa can be added on to the end, of other temporary Visitor Visas that are already available. By doing this, the total time, parents could spend in New Zealand could actually reach 12.5 years with some creative travel in between. Given the Parent Boost Visa, requires you to exit during the five years anyway, this reinforces the fact that these are “temporary Visas” and not intended to be considered as Residence. The Government was very clear on that.
The Bigger Plan
The Parent Boost Visa can be linked to others, to secure even more time in New Zealand.
However, if you link General Visitor Visas, then the existing Parent/Grandparent Visa, and then the Parent Boost Visa (times two), you end up with a total maximum stay of 12.5 years.
You have to exist the country in between some of these Visas, in order to be able to apply for the next one, but there is no signs that the Government is intending to prevent these Visas being applied for in sequence. The final rules may change that, but I would be fairly confident that there is no incentive for the Government to do so, as it would create headaches for those, that have already used those existing Visa options.
With some very careful planning and also calculated risk (as you never know what health issues may surface during the validity of these Visas), applicants can enjoy one and a quarter decades of time in New Zealand, which is an exceptionally long time.
Of course, one fly in the ointment, will be the changing financial implications, which get steeper with each Visa, you apply for, but for those who are able to afford it, or have children earning a modest income in New Zealand, there is a very viable long-term plan here. INZ will of course still want to make sure that parents have an “anchor” back home, so proving that will be an interesting part of the process, but we are all hoping that INZ will take a pragmatic and sensible approach to applicants having to show that they have some sort of “incentive to return” to their home country.
Good Or Bad Idea
Whilst I think this Visa is a definite win for many applicants and their New Zealand based children, there are some lingering concerns and these are shared by many in the adviser community who have been around longer than the politicians in charge of creating these grand schemes.
Yes, this will act as a significant incentive for many skilled migrants, who will now be able to relocate their parents to New Zealand at the same time (and for quite some time), and it will also ease the burden for many parents, currently awaiting selection for Residence under the Parent Category, so some solid winners in there.
Pros and Cons
Any Visa policy that allows for this length of time in NZ, is going to be problematic in the long-term.
However, like all Visa categories it is potentially subject to change and so any new Government that rolls in to town, with a different view, could just as easily alter this - admittedly harder to do when you have already dished the Visa out to thousands of people, but their is always the risk that the second five years is removed, if the current Government isn’t the Government, the next time around. Any long-term Visa like this is going to be subject to changes and so ten years may become five. Of course that is political speculation, but stranger things have happened and also similar things have happened to other Visa categories. I suspect that any future Government, would potentially look at maintaining the status quo for anyone already on the Visa, but then close it down to new applicants, if they were going to make a change.
The bigger issue for me, is that whilst the Government has gone to great lengths to signal this as a temporary Visa and not a direct pathway to Residence, migrants have a habit of not always reading the fine-print. For many this will be a way to get to NZ, and once they have been here for ten years, having settled in NZ, with nothing to return to, there will be a potential avalanche of Ministerial requests for clemency. People will inevitably want to keep their parents here, given they will have been here for a decade (the clever ones for slightly longer) and that has chaos written all over it.
Don’t get me wrong, I think this Visa, overall is a good idea and solves several issues for parents, plus allows us to attract a much bigger pool of good quality, skilled migrants, however I also believe that it might create some headaches for future administrations, particularly because there will be plenty of migrants who don’t read the warning label and will still see this as a potentially a means to staying in NZ permanently.
Planning For Parents
If you are are sponsor, hoping to bring mum and dad in to New Zealand on the Parent Boost, the one thing I would suggest is that you consider how to maximise their stay, using the existing Visa policies all added together, before the Parent Boost. Assuming my prediction is correct and these Visas can be daisy-chained together, it might make a lot of sense to use those existing policies before or after, to create a longer-term pathway.
However, even just using the Parent Boost and securing five years, with a further five years is going to give people a lot of time. There will be things to watch out for though, such as the way the sponsors income is measured and how the insurance works in practice, which will all be revealed in the final policy release, but there is no harm in starting to prepare for the application process ahead of time.
One thing we can be sure of however, is that the demand for this policy will be high and so the initial wave of applications will be very large. There will also be plenty of people who misunderstand the requirements, which will create a potential backlog. The key will be to be prepared and to fully understand the rules when they are released.
To plan your parents big (10-year) move, get in touch with us today and we will make sure they are prepared for when the final policy is released.
Until next week…
