What is an interim visa in New Zealand?

INZ says that to be considered for an Interim Visa you must:

• have a current temporary visa — this could be a work visa, student visa, visitor visa or other temporary visa
• have applied for another temporary visa
• be in New Zealand
• have not already been given a Skilled Migrant Category Interim Visa or 2021 Interim Visa.

The deadline that matters: INZ must receive your new visa application and accept it for processing before your current visa expires. To be accepted for processing, the application must include all the documents INZ asks for. A late or incomplete application can leave you without one.

INZ says your Interim Visa starts the day after your current visa expires and lasts up to 6 months while it decides your new application. If INZ approves the new visa, it starts immediately and replaces the Interim Visa. If INZ declines the new application, the Interim Visa expires 21 days after the decline.

It depends on two things: the visa you had before and the visa you have applied for. INZ says an Interim Visa takes the conditions of one or the other, and in many combinations that means visitor conditions, which do not allow work. If you are applying for an AEWV and already hold an AEWV, another work visa, or a student visa with term-time work rights, you keep the work rights of the AEWV you applied for.

INZ's Interim Visa conditions page sets out each combination. Read across from the visa you had to the one you applied for:

• Any visa → AEWV. With a current AEWV, a work visa, or a student visa that allows term-time work: the same work rights as the AEWV you applied for. With any other visa, such as a Visitor Visa or a student visa without term-time work: no work.
• Visitor Visa → visitor or work visa. Visitor Visa conditions. INZ's own example: on a Visitor Visa, applying for a partnership-based work visa, *you cannot work until you have a work visa*.
• Visitor Visa → student visa. Student visa with open conditions: any course, any provider, anywhere in New Zealand.
• Student visa → visitor or work visa. Visitor Visa conditions.
• Student visa → another student visa. Open student conditions, and if your expired student visa had work conditions, the same work conditions carry over.
• Work visa → Visitor Visa. Visitor Visa conditions.
• Work visa → student visa. Student visa with open conditions.
• Employer-specific work visa → new work visa, same employer, job and location. The same conditions as your current work visa, so you keep working.
• Employer-specific work visa → different employer, job or location, or an open work visa. Visitor Visa conditions. INZ's example is an AEWV holder applying for a partner-based open work visa: *not allowed to work until we approve your application*.
• Open work visa → the same type of open work visa. The same conditions as your current visa.
• Open work visa → a different open work visa or an employer-specific work visa. Visitor Visa conditions.
• Varied conditions → the same student visa, the same work visa or a Guardian Visitor Visa. Your varied conditions carry over.

An open-conditions student Interim Visa does not make you a domestic student. INZ notes you still pay international fees unless you meet the domestic-student definition. Which of these lines applies to your own case is a question for INZ or a licensed immigration adviser.

It can. INZ says time spent on an Interim Visa with work rights may count towards the maximum continuous stay on an AEWV, and that whether it does depends on the visa you held when you applied for the AEWV.

Two residence routes have their own interim visa. INZ says that if you applied for a Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa from 9 October 2023 and did not apply for another temporary visa, it will process a Skilled Migrant Category Interim Visa that starts the day after your current visa expires; its conditions depend on the visa you hold now. For a 2021 Resident Visa, INZ processes a 2021 Interim Visa when your current visa expires within 7 days: work and visitor visa holders keep their current conditions, and student visa holders get open student conditions.

No. INZ's alert is plain: if you leave New Zealand your Interim Visa will expire. You would then need a visa to come back in, and your application may be affected.

An application for a resident visa does not by itself lead to an Interim Visa. INZ says that if you have applied for residence and think your current visa may expire before a decision, you should also apply for a new temporary visa to work, study or visit, so that you are eligible for an Interim Visa if you need one.

INZ says it will email you a couple of days before your visa expires to tell you whether you will be given an Interim Visa, and that it is issued as an eVisa, with no label in your passport. If you do not receive an email, INZ suggests checking your spam folder before contacting it.