Family of refugees: Special visa categories
The Refugee Family Support residence category
Overview of the Refugee Family Support category
INZ Operational Manual: Residence, S4.10
The Refugee Family Support residence category allows you to sponsor some of your family for New Zealand residence if you were granted a residence class visa in New Zealand on the basis of being :
- a refugee or protected person (this includes people who were UNHCR refugees, those sponsored under the Community Organisation Refugee Sponsorship programme, and those who successfully claimed refugee or protected person status in New Zealand),
- an Afghan interpreter or evacuee, or
- a partner or dependent child of an Afghan interpreter or evacuee who accompanied them to New Zealand.
To register to sponsor family members under the Refugee Family Support residence category, you must also:
- be a New Zealand citizen or resident,
- be in New Zealand,
- be aged 18 or over,
- meet most of the standard requirements to sponsor someone for a resident visa, and
- not have previously sponsored someone who was granted a resident visa through the Refugee Family Support category or the Refugee Family Quota.
The purpose of this category is to help with your resettlement by allowing you to sponsor family members who don’t qualify for residence under any of the other New Zealand residence categories. Under this category, you can sponsor one family member (as the principal applicant) and that family member’s partner and dependent children.
The first step is for you, the former refugee in New Zealand, to register as a sponsor under this scheme. If you’re selected, your family member can then apply for a Residence Visa within the next 12 months. All the people included in this application are required to meet the usual health and character requirements (see: “Health, character, and money”).
Only 600 people are accepted under the Refugee Family Support category each year (and this includes any partners, children, or other family members that the sponsored person brings with them). In recent years, you’ve only been able to register to sponsor family members under the Refugee Family Support residence category if you come under Tier 1 of this category, which means that you currently have no immediate family in New Zealand. Tier 2 has been closed for new applications since 2017.
If you sponsor a family member under the Refugee Family Support category, you’ll have to make sure they have an adequate place to live for the next two years.
Tier 1 and Tier 2: Who is eligible to be a sponsor or who can be sponsored
INZ Operational Manual: Residence, S4.10
At the moment, you can only register to sponsor family members under the Refugee Family Support residence category if you come under Tier 1 of this category, which means that you currently have no immediate family in New Zealand.
People sponsored under Tier 1 are given first entry into the queue for the 600 available places each year under the Refugee Family Support category, in the order that their sponsors registered with Immigration New Zealand. People sponsored under Tier 2 (where the sponsor already has some immediate family in New Zealand) will only be invited to apply for residence if not all available places for a year are not filled by those sponsored under Tier 1.
Who can sponsor their family under Tier 1?
You can sponsor a family member for residence under Tier 1 if you meet the general requirements to be a sponsor under the Refugee Family Support category and either:
- you don’t have any immediate family living lawfully and permanently in New Zealand, or
- you are the sole carer for a dependent relative or dependent relatives who do not have other immediate family in New Zealand and you do not have any other immediate family living lawfully and permanently in New Zealand.
In general, “immediate family” means partners, parents, and children (excluding dependent children). Depending on how old the child is, there are different rules about when Immigration New Zealand will see them as dependent:
- If they are under 18 years old, they just have to be single
- If they are older than 18 but younger than 21, then they need to be single and with no children
- If they are older than 21 but younger than 25, they need to be single, with no children, and are substantially or totally reliant on their parents for financial support.
To illustrate how these rules work in practice, below are some example of situations in which you would or would not be eligible to sponsor family members under Tier 1. These examples are not exhaustive and you will need to apply the rules to your own circumstances.
You would be eligible if you had:
- a 22-year-old daughter in New Zealand who is single, has no children, and is financially dependent on you
- a 17-year-old son in New Zealand who is single
You would not be eligible if you had:
- an 8-year-old daughter and a 26-year-old son in New Zealand
- a 19-year old daughter in New Zealand who is married
- a 22-year old son in New Zealand who is single and has no children, but who lives separately from you and has a full-time job.
Which family members can you sponsor under Tier 1?
If you’re eligible under Tier 1, you can sponsor a parent, an adult brother or sister, an adult child, a grandparent, an aunt, an uncle, a niece or a nephew (plus that sponsored person’s partner and/or dependent children). You generally need to have mentioned any family member you seek to sponsor in your previous dealing with Immigration NZ (for example, in an interview). If you have never mentioned the person before, Immigration NZ are likely to believe that you were not fully honest with them in the past or that you are now claiming someone is a relation simply in order to get them a visa. Immigration NZ might, however, allow you to sponsor the person if you can a very good reason for not having mentioned them previously.
In practice, this means that multiple family members can be brought to New Zealand, even if you are only able to sponsor a single primary applicant. It is important to note, however, that the rules that determine whether someone is a dependent child mean that some or all of the children of the sponsored family member may not be able to be included in their application.
If you chose to sponsor your sister, who was married and had five children, this could potentially mean that her husband, her 12 year-old son, her 14 year-old daughter, and her 24 year-old single and financially dependent daughter could be included in her application. However, she would not be able to include her 19-year-old married daughter and her 21-year-old financially-independent son.
Who can sponsor their family under Tier 2?
Unlike Tier 1, you can sponsor family members for residence even if you have immediate family in New Zealand (including partners, parents, and non-dependent children aged 25 or over). But, to be a sponsor under Tier 2, you must also have been a New Zealand citizen or resident for at least three years, and you must have been in New Zealand for at least 184 days (roughly six months) in each of the last three years.
Which family members can you sponsor under Tier 2?
You can sponsor a parent, an adult brother or sister, an adult child or a grandparent who is your legal guardian. Your grandparent will be considered your legal guardian if both your parents died before your 20th birthday and your grandparent had custody of you and the right to control your upbringing. You can’t sponsor a grandparent who is not your legal guardian, an aunt, an uncle, a niece or a nephews. If you sponsor someone under Tier 2, that person’s partner and/or dependent children can also be included in their application.
Tier 2 is currently closed to new applications. In December 2023, Immigration New Zealand stated that there were 954 Tier 2 sponsorship registrations (totalling 4,207 people). In 2023-2024, 79 applications for residency by those sponsored under Tier 2 (totalling 376 people) were granted. On the basis of these numbers, it is clear that Tier 2 will not be open to new applications for a long time.
Note: If you receive a letter from Immigration NZ inviting you to apply, you have 12 months to make an application, starting from the date at the top of the letter. For example, if the letter is dated 10 May 2026, the application will need to be submitted by 10 May 2027. Applications made more than a year after the invitation to apply is issued won’t be accepted.
