Parent Resident Visa woes: How parent visa changes will put most applicants in a queue
More than 12,000 people are caught in the Parent Resident Visa pool. From today , a system based on luck will largely shift to a queue. Rafaella Melo speaks to Canterbury families about the emotional and financial toll of the wait.
For two years, a Canterbury man has faced an anxious wait to bring his 83-year-old mother to New Zealand while she remains in South Africa without close family support amid concerns for her safety.
Jacques Botha, a New Zealand citizen who lives in Pegasus with his wife and two daughters, entered the Parent Resident Visa process hoping his mother could join the family permanently.
But like thousands of others hoping to reunite with their parents in Aotearoa, the first step depended on chance: his expression of interest (EOI) had to be randomly pulled from a ballot before he could even apply for the visa.
“It’s really nerve-racking,” Botha told the Herald.
“You just don’t know what’s going to happen.”
After about two years in the pool, Botha’s EOI was finally selected in May. He lodged his mother’s residence application at the end of August and is now waiting for a decision.
The family has spent about $7000 so far, including the application and the immigration adviser.
But for Botha, the biggest cost has been the uncertainty.
His mother is staying with friends in Johannesburg and, he said, has no close family support.
“She’s literally living minute by minute, just waiting to be told that she can come.”
Botha said the unknown had created “so much anxiety and emotions”, particularly given his concerns about crime in South Africa.
He said he had been the victim of violent crime while living there, including being held at gunpoint.
With his family growing and a first grandchild born in New Zealand, Botha said having his mother here became even more important.
“Families aren’t meant to be split up.”
He also described the paperwork as onerous and believed the process could be simpler.
“You’ve just gone through the process of residency, permanent residency, then citizenship. So, all the documentation is fresh on their desk.”
Botha is among thousands of New Zealand families to have navigated the Parent Resident Visa system, which allows citizens and residents who meet sponsorship requirements to bring their parents to live in the country permanently.
From today , how expressions of interest are selected will change.
About 90% will be selected in the order they were submitted, creating a queue, while about 10% will continue to be selected randomly.
For Christchurch couple Izabela Merencio and Guilherme Maia, the change could end a cycle they have already experienced once.
The couple applied in July 2024 to bring Merencio’s mother, Ilcilene da Silva, from Belem do Para, Brazil, to live closer to her children and grandchildren.
But after two years without being selected, their EOI expired and they had to pay to enter the ballot again.
Maia described the experience as frustrating and said the uncertainty had caused “anguish”.
While waiting, the family turned to the Parent Boost Visitor Visa, which allows eligible parents to stay in New Zealand for up to five years at a time, but does not provide a pathway to residence.
Da Silva has been living with the family under the visa since November last year, spending time with her grandchildren and helping care for them.
Maia estimated the family spent nearly $5000 on the Parent Boost application, two Parent Resident Visa EOIs, medical examinations and travel within Brazil, excluding flights to New Zealand.
The family also pays about $7000 a year for her required health insurance, and he fears the cost will rise each year as she ages.
“It’s absurd. Not everyone can afford that kind of money, and it puts enormous financial pressure on families.”
Despite knowing they could still face a lengthy wait, Maia said the move towards a queue had brought a sense of “relief”.
“Before, your name was in a bowl with all the other names, and it could be selected or not.
“It was like a lottery, so it felt extremely unfair. Someone who applied after you could be selected before you, even though you had already been waiting.
“Now, you know it might take time, but it will happen.”
As of September 23, Immigration New Zealand said there were about 8288 EOIs in the pool, representing about 12,459 people.
Under the new system, EOIs will no longer automatically expire after two years, and applicants will no longer have to pay to re-enter the ballot.
From today , all EOIs will move into a single pool.
People who resubmitted within 90 days of an earlier EOI expiring can retain their original submission date when their position in the new queue is calculated.
Immigration NZ director visa Emily Sanders said the first selection round under the new settings will take place on November 10.
“All EOIs in the pool will be eligible for selection through either the queue or the ballot. Once an EOI is selected and an Invitation to Apply (ITA) is issued, it will be removed from the pool,” she said.
“The hybrid model balances greater fairness and certainty for people who have been waiting longer with an opportunity for newer applicants to be selected earlier.”
Immigration NZ said wait times would depend on demand and annual approvals, and EOI holders could track their queue position, while demand is expected to continue exceeding the 2500 places available each year.
The fee to submit an online Parent Resident Visa EOI is $450. If an EOI is selected and the applicant is invited to apply for residence, the application fee is $5810.
Fees are lower for applications lodged from Pacific countries.
Immigration lawyer Kera Wang said the changes would make the process more predictable, but not faster.
“The changes affect the order of selection, rather than create more places, so long waits may continue, particularly for newer applicants,” she said.
Wang said being selected also did not guarantee residence, with applicants and sponsors still required to meet the same visa criteria.
She advised applicants to check which submission date would determine their place in the queue, keep their contact details updated and remember they must confirm every two years that they want to remain in the pool.
For Waldineia Moreira, the ballot delivered a positive experience.
Moreira and her two brothers have lived in New Zealand for more than seven years.
Their mother, 67-year-old Wilma Moreira, remains in Rondonia, Brazil, while her three children and seven grandchildren are here.
Moreira said her mother had struggled with anxiety and depression for years before visiting her children in New Zealand for the first time in 2024.
The nine-month visit, she said, was a turning point.
“She didn’t want to leave,” Moreira said.
“She loved New Zealand so much that, after her visit, her health improved enough for her to stop a depression treatment she had undergone for 20 years.
“She’s been a completely different person ... She had a new desire to live.”
The siblings decided to try to bring their mother to New Zealand permanently.
Unlike families who have spent years waiting, their EOI was selected just four months after entering the ballot.
Wilma is due to return to New Zealand in November, in time for the whole family to spend Christmas together.
Moreira knows their experience was unusual.
Despite her own family benefiting from the random draw, she believed moving towards a queue was fairer.
“We’re happy because the ballot worked in our favour, but at the same time we feel for the families trying to bring their parents here who haven’t been so lucky.”
Rafaella Melo is a multimedia journalist with more than 10 years’ experience in Brazil. She spent two years reporting for Hawke’s Bay Today before joining the NZ Herald’s Christchurch team in 2026.