Indians top list of Kiwis applying for Parent Boost visa, but uptake lukewarm
Immigration minister Erica Stanford.
A much-anticipated long-term parent visa has yet to trigger the rush of applications that was predicted.
The demand for the new longer-term visa for parents has been the strongest among Indian migrants so far, though the uptake appears to be slower than what the government "guesstimated".
The Parent Boost Visitor Visa, launched September last year, allows parents of resident and citizens to live in New Zealand for long term on a temporary basis. They must meet income, sponsorship and insurance requirements.
By February 5, 2026, Immigration New Zealand (INZ) had received 724 applications and approved 235, while several others were still under consideration, officials told MPs during a meeting to review the agency's performance in 2024-25.
Of the total applications received, 275 were from India, followed by China (194), South Africa (59), Great Britain (48), Fiji (44), the Philippines (23), Sri Lanka (20), Vietnam (18) and the United States (17).
During the review before the education and workforce committee, Labour's immigration spokesperson pointed to the relatively fewer applications from Pacific countries.
"I guess the startling thing from that list is people from the Pacific," he said.
"Have you done any analysis of the extent to which those applicant communities will be disproportionately constrained by low incomes from applying?" he asked INZ officials.
That boiled down to the question of balance, pointed out Siân Roguski, INZ's general manager of employment, skills and immigration policy.
"It’s that balancing question around...this is a policy that kind of bridges quite a range between the resident and the current visitor one that we have," Roguski said.
"The base requirement is the median wage, so that’s the lowest, and that’s actually the requirement, in general, to access residence."
Insurance options
ACT's immigration spokesperson Parmjeet Parmar wondered whether the paucity of health insurance options still persisted.
"My understanding at that point (earlier) was that not many health insurance providers were willing to provide health insurance here," she said.
Roguski pointed out "we’ve seen there are a range of insurance providers in the market". Some were more expensive than others, she said.
"It doesn’t have to be a New Zealand insurer, it could be an overseas insurer...we are planning on a review of the settings in about a year’s time."
Slow uptake
Labour's Twyford also suggested the total number of applications seemed much lower than what the government was projecting.
But INZ defended its projections, saying the government’s estimate of between 2,000 and 10,000 applications annually had always involved substantial uncertainty.
Deputy chief executive Nic Blakeley described the estimate as a “guesstimate”.
Pressed by National MP Carl Bates on whether officials were retrospectively downgrading what had earlier been presented as a formal forecast, Blakeley insisted officials had been upfront from the start.
“It was not a forecast. We were clear in the Cabinet paper...where there was a lot of uncertainty around it," he said.
"So, you know, I’m being colloquial in using “guesstimate”. It was an estimate, but it was an estimate based on those reference points, as far as we could. But we were very clear; there was a lot of uncertainty."
Officials said their estimate had been pieced together using data from the existing parent residence queue, current parent and grandparent visitor visas, and comparable overseas schemes such as Canada’s.
Despite the uncertainty, officials indicated current numbers suggested the visa was tracking toward the lower end of the government’s projected range.
“If you project that out over a 12-month period, I wouldn’t be surprised if that gets up to around the 2,000 mark,” Blakeley said.
Officials also revealed only seven applications had been declined so far, mainly on health and financial grounds, while many more remained in processing or were awaiting further documentation.
