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Most people planning a move to New Zealand are not moving alone. Once you know a visa is possible, the next question is almost always whether your partner and children can come with you, and on what visa. This post explains who Immigration New Zealand (INZ, the government department that decides visas) counts as a partner and as a dependent child, how family is included in a residence application, and which visas the family of a work-visa or student-visa holder can apply for.
You are the person applying on your own job, qualifications or points, and you want to know whether your partner or children can come with you. If you are the partner of someone already in New Zealand, our post on New Zealand partner visas covers your own visa. The same question for Canada is answered in bringing your spouse and children to Canada.
INZ does not talk about a "spouse". It talks about a partner: a person you live with in a genuine and stable relationship, married or not. For a temporary visa such as the Partner of a Worker Work Visa, INZ says you must be living together when you apply, and it asks for evidence of the relationship: how long you have been together, shared money and responsibilities, and whether others recognise you as a couple. For residence, INZ looks for a longer, established period together; our partner visas post walks through the evidence.
A dependent child is a child who still relies on you, rather than an adult living an independent life. The age limit depends on the visa. For the Skilled Migrant Category resident visa, INZ says you can include your partner and "dependent children aged 24 or younger", and you must show a genuine relationship with them.
For the temporary visas the bands are narrower. The Dependent Child Student Visa is for a child aged 19 or younger: a child aged 17 or younger is treated as dependent, while a child aged 18 or 19 must have no children of their own and must rely on you for financial support. The Child of a Worker Visitor Visa covers a child aged 17 or younger, a child aged 18 to 19 with no children of their own, or a child aged 20 to 24 who is included in an eligible residence application.
A residence visa lets you live in New Zealand indefinitely. The Skilled Migrant Category (SMC, the main points-based route for skilled workers) is one application for the whole family: you as the main applicant, your partner, and your dependent children aged 24 or younger. Everyone included must meet the health and character requirements (explained below), and your partner and any child aged 16 or older must also be able to speak and understand English, per the SMC resident visa page.
INZ's English language requirements for skilled residence visas page says there is no English requirement for children younger than 16. For your partner and any child aged 16 or older, there are three ways:
That third option matters: a partner without the test score is not a reason to leave them out of the application.
If you are coming on a work visa, such as the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV, the main employer-supported work visa), your family does not ride on your visa. Each family member applies for a visa of their own, supported by yours.
The Partner of a Worker Work Visa gives your partner open work rights: INZ's words are that they "can do any work, in any job, anywhere in New Zealand". It lasts as long as your own work visa. It cannot include dependent children; they apply separately.
Most current work visas can support a partner, but INZ lists the ones that cannot: a visa of six months or less, the Working Holiday Visa, the Recognised Seasonal Employer Limited Visa, the Supplementary Seasonal Employment Work Visa, the Fishing Crew Work Visa, the Domestic Staff of a Diplomat Work Visa, the Skilled Migrant Category Job Search Visa, and lower-skilled AEWV roles.
That last one catches people. INZ groups jobs by skill level. If your AEWV job is at one of the lower skill levels, you can support a partner only if you earn at least a pay rate INZ sets well above the New Zealand median wage, or you are in a Green List job (INZ's list of shortage occupations) paid at or above a lower threshold INZ sets, or you are in a care workforce or transport sector role that meets that sector's work-to-residence requirements. For jobs at a higher skill level, the pay floor INZ sets is below the median wage. The current figures are on the Partner of a Worker Work Visa page, and they change. A partner who cannot be supported this way needs a visa on their own merits.
A school-age child of a work-visa holder applies for the Dependent Child Student Visa. INZ says the child "may be treated as a domestic student", which means you "do not pay tuition fees for them to go to school". The visa lasts as long as yours. The work visas that cannot support a partner cannot support a child either, and for AEWV holders INZ says eligibility depends on your income and the type of job you do.
A child not going to study, or in the older age bands, applies for the Child of a Worker Visitor Visa. It also lasts as long as your work visa, and INZ says a child on it can go to school for up to three months; longer study needs the student visa.
INZ supports a student's family only for some courses. Your partner can apply for the Partner of a Student Work Visa if you are studying towards a qualification at level 9 or 10 of the New Zealand qualifications framework (a master's degree or a doctorate), or a level 7 or 8 qualification (a bachelor's degree or a postgraduate qualification) that INZ names for a Green List role or lists as eligible for a Post Study Work Visa. The partner can work, the visa lasts as long as your student visa, and INZ asks for at least NZD $4,200 to live on, per that page. It cannot include children.
Your children can get a Dependent Child Student Visa on the strength of your student visa only in narrow cases: INZ names a government-approved student exchange scheme, a PhD programme, or a Manaaki New Zealand Scholarship.
Every family member, whether included in your residence application or applying for their own visa, is checked for health (a medical examination and, for older children and adults, a chest X-ray) and character (police certificates showing their record). The SMC resident visa page sets it out: family members aged 15 or older need a medical examination and a chest X-ray, children aged 11 to 14 need both, children aged 10 or younger need only the medical unless INZ asks for an X-ray, and everyone aged 17 or older provides police certificates less than six months old. For temporary visas the checks depend on the length of stay. Our post on New Zealand police certificates and medical exams explains where to get each document.
The HowToMoveTo questionnaire asks whether you have a partner and whether you have dependent children. On your report, each New Zealand route states where your partner and dependent children can be included in the same application. The partner visas themselves (the Partner of a New Zealander Resident Visa, the Partner of a Worker Work Visa and the Partner of a Student Work Visa) are assessed as pathways of their own, as our partner visas post explains. The report explains and computes; it does not tell you whether a family member will be approved.
See what the report covers on our New Zealand page, then answer the free questionnaire, family included: start the questionnaire.
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