The Refugee Quota Family Reunification residence category: Family of UNHCR-mandated refugees

INZ Operational Manual: Residence, S4.20

If you were granted a Resident Visa as a UNHCR-mandated refugee, you may be able to sponsor family members to join you in New Zealand. You can’t do this if you were sponsored by a community organisation under the Community Organisation Refugee Sponsorship (CORS) scheme.

For those who are eligible, sponsoring family members under the Refugee Quota Family Reunification category can be a quicker process than using the Refugee Family Support category. However, it is important to note that it is more restrictive in terms of who you can sponsor and you also need to be able to provide a good reason for why you were separated from the family member.

You can only sponsor immediate family members, such as your partner or child. If you are a dependent child, you can sponsor your parent. You can’t sponsor aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins, grandparents, or other relatives.

You need to have an interview with an immigration officer to decide if you are an appropriate sponsor.

The family member you want to sponsor will have to show:

• they are of good character
• they are healthy enough
• there is a good reason you were separated
• they were declared to be a family member on your original Residence Application for Mandated Refugees form and can prove the family relationship
• their arrival will help you, their sponsor, to settle in New Zealand
• they have a good chance of settling into life in New Zealand.

Anyone who is granted a Resident Visa under the Refugee Quota Family Reunification category won’t be able to then sponsor someone else under the same category (as they were not themselves granted a New Zealand visa on the basis of being a UNHCR-mandated refugee).