Immigration Categories > Family Categories > Partnership Policy
What is required?
You need to meet a number of requirements to have your residence application approved under the Partnership Policy.
You must be:- be sponsored by your New Zealand partner who is eligible to sponsor you.
- living together (and have been for a minimum of 12 months) in a genuine and stable relationship
- meet partnership requirements
- be in good health
- be of good character
- meet the requirements of the English Language policy
Eligible sponsor
An eligible sponsor is a New Zealand citizen or resident who
- provide evidence that New Zealand is their primary place of established residence at the time your application is made and assessed.
- has not previously supported or sponsored more than one other successful principal applicant under Partnership policy or
- has not supported or sponsored any other successful principal applicant under Partnership policy in the five years immediately preceding the date the current application is made
or - was not the perpetrator of an incident domestic violence which has resulted in the grant of a residence permit to a person under policy for victims of domestic violence.
Examples of evidence that New Zealand is primary place of residence can include original or certified copies of:
- correspondence addressed to your sponsor
- employment records
- records of benefit payments from the Ministry of Social Development (Department of Work and Income)
- banking records
- rates demands
- Inland Revenue Department records
- mortgage documents
- tenancy and utility supply documents
- documents showing that your sponsor’s household effects have been moved to New Zealand
Evidence of partnership
- marriage certificate (if married)
- civil union certificate (if in a civil union)
- proof of shared residence (such as joint mortgage or tenancy agreements of rent book)
- financial dependence or interdependence (proof of shared income or bank accounts, or accounts that show money transfers to or from your account to your partner’s account)
- birth certificates of your children
- any documents showing public or family recognition of your relationship
- correspondence (including post marked envelopes) to you and your partner at the same address
- photographs of you and your partner together
- evidence of the duration of your relationship
- the degree of commitment to a shared life
- evidence of communication between you both
- evidence of you being committed to each other emotionally and exclusively, such as evidence of joint decision making, an exclusive sexual relationship, and the sharing of household duties, parental responsibility, and spare time
If you have got this far, then you will have read the minimum criteria and consider that you meet the standards required. For your free assessment please email us.