Immigration New Zealand will accept registrations for the 2023 Samoan Quota (SQ) and Pacific Access Category (PAC) ballots from 1 August 2023 to 5pm 31 August 2023. These annual programs enable individuals from Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Kiribati, and Fiji to go into a lottery for residence in New Zealand.
They were closed for a number of years due to Covid 19 until 2022.They re-opened from 2022 with double the normal numbers for 2022 and 2023. They are now up from 75 to 150 Kiribati citizens, 75 to 150 Tuvaluan citizens, 250 to 500 Tongan citizens and from 250 to 500 Fijian citizens. The Samoan quota is open for the same period and has an increase on its usual numbers to1650. You can put yourself and your family in the ballot for multiple years.
What Are The Requirements?
The basic requirements are as follows:
- Aged 18 to 45 years
- Good health and character
- Have a full-time ongoing job offer in New Zealand (with sufficient income to support your family)
You do not need all of these things at the time you put in your registration, but it is important to include all members of your family including any partner because if you did not mention them at this time, you may not be able to sponsor them in future.
You can be either outside or inside New Zealand when you register and it does not matter at that time whether you had a lawful visa however if your name is drawn you must be on a lawful visa, will be back in your home country and eligible to apply (not subject to deportation exclusion or on a limited Visa) in order to be able to apply.
If you are invited to apply, you will have 8 months to obtain a job offer in New Zealand and lodge a full residence application.
What Does It Cost?
The fees to register for the PAC are:
- NZD$85.00 — first registration
- NZD$35.00 — if you have registered before.
Birth certificated must be included for each family member with registration.
Registration details can be found here https://www.immigration.govt.nz/formshelp/pac-sq-registration
It is a lottery with many thousands of people potentially putting their name for each country. But if you qualify you just might be lucky.
If your name is drawn from the ballot and you have a job offer, contact us, we’d be delighted to assist you to apply for residence. Our contact details are here: https://pacificlegal.co.nz/contact/
This article is co-authored by:
Richard Small
Director | richard.small@pacificlegal.co.nz
Diana Bell
Associate | diana.bell@pacificlegal.co.nz
