Interim visa is a visa for a temporary stay in New Zealand, which is automatically issued by Immigration NZ to applicants during the consideration of their application for a new type of visa.

What is important to know:

• There is no need to apply for an interim visa, it is issued automatically when the current visa expires.
• It is an electronic visa, it is sent to the email of the applicant or agent who applied for a new visa for you.
• Issued only to those who have applied from New Zealand and only for a temporary stay visa (not residency).
• It comes into effect from the moment the current visa expires. You can stay on it as a tourist, study or work – depending on the conditions.
• On an Interim visa, the applicant is not allowed to travel and re-enter New Zealand. If you nevertheless left the country, then you can return when you receive the main visa, for which you actually applied. That is, the Interim visa is designed only for staying in New Zealand.

Depending on the conditions of the current visa and the new visa, for which the applicant has applied, the conditions for Interim visa can be different.

For us, the conditions for a student visa are relevant. Imagine you are taking English courses and then entering your diploma program. Your current student visa expires in a week and you haven’t applied for a new visa yet. In this case, Interim Visa will be a way out.

Apply for a new student visa. While the application is pending at INZ, you will automatically receive an Interim visa. On it, you can already start studying under the diploma program. You can also work part-time if you had the right to work on your previous visa.

If you applied for Variation of conditions on a previous student visa, these assigned conditions will also apply for the duration of the Interim visa.

We hope that the information will be useful to you. We still advise you to take care of a new visa in advance and not delay the application.

Learn more about Interim Visa on the Immigration New Zealand website.