45872 (2025). Ingrid Leary to the Minister of Immigration

45872 (2025). Ingrid Leary to the Minister of Immigration: What was the quickest amount of time in which residence was awarded, for applicants residing in New Zealand, in the year ending in December of 2024?

Hon Erica Stanford: There are a range of pathways to residence in New Zealand. These include Straight to Residence (Green List), Work to Residence (Green List) and Skilled Migrant Category (SMC). Other pathways include visa categories such as Parent Resident Category, Active Investor Plus, Parent Retirement and humanitarian pathways. Ministers can also exercise their absolute discretion to grant residence. For some categories, to determine whether a person was residing in New Zealand at the time an application was made, would require examination of thousands of individual applications. This would not be in the public interest. Below is the shortest time that an application or applications for residence was granted for the three main categories in 2024. Please note that this includes all applications in these categories, including applicants who reside outside of New Zealand. Green List: Straight to Residence – 5 working days Green List: Work to Residence – 19 working days Skilled Migrant Category – 4 working days