Will NZ Residents Have to Stay in the Country? ACT's Proposal in Plain English

News · 2026-09-01 · 3 min read

Many workers dream of New Zealand permanent residence. If that is your goal, or you already hold it, there is a new idea from the ACT Party you should know about. It does not change visa fees, points thresholds or occupation lists. Instead, it asks a bigger question: what should the word "permanent" really mean?

Today's rule: no need to live there

Dr Parmjeet Parmar is ACT's immigration spokesperson. She points to something she sees as a strange gap in the system. At the moment, permanent residents of New Zealand do not have to live in New Zealand. After the visa is granted, the holder keeps the right to enter and leave without limits or conditions. It does not matter how long they stay away.

The party's proposal would change this in a big way if ACT enters government.

A new shape for the Resident Visa

The plan would remove the separate Permanent Resident Visa category completely. The standard Resident Visa would then be redesigned. Here is how it would work:

The current two-year initial travel condition would go. Holders would get a five-year travel facility instead.
In any rolling five-year window, the holder would need at least 730 days in New Zealand. That is two cumulative years of being physically in the country.
The days would not have to be in a row, so people could still travel in and out. But the open right to leave and come back without ever living in the country again would end.

Put simply, people would keep their residence by actually living there over time. Getting the status once and then relying on it forever would no longer work.

People who would not be affected

ACT knows that many migrants have good reasons to spend time abroad. So the plan includes some exemptions. They would cover people who are:

serving overseas in the military
married to, or the partner of, a New Zealand citizen
working abroad for a New Zealand-based employer
travelling as a family member with a person in that situation
dealing with compelling humanitarian circumstances

These exceptions are important. They show the policy is not trying to punish normal travel. It is trying to close a loophole, where someone keeps residence only on paper with no real, ongoing link to New Zealand.

The reason behind the plan

Parmar says the aim is to bring "balance" back to the system. She wants residence to show a real and lasting connection to the country. It should not be a backup status that a person can hold from anywhere in the world. She also says the change would make a clearer difference between residence and citizenship. Right now, these two statuses can look very similar once someone has unconditional PR.

How to plan calmly

There is no reason to panic, but there is a good reason to plan. If an idea like this becomes law, some choices could matter more than they do now. These include where you live, how long you spend outside New Zealand and when you apply for citizenship. If you are thinking about moving to New Zealand, or you already have residence but live mostly overseas, keep watching this proposal as the election gets closer.

While you look for sponsored jobs New Zealand for Indonesian workers, keep your papers organised too. Prepare an English-language CV, and get any Indonesian-language documents translated into English when the visa rules ask for it. Good preparation will help you respond quickly if the rules change.

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