If you are unlawfully in New Zealand (NZ) you are under a legal obligation to leave and the following applies:
- You are not allowed to work or study and you will not be allowed to access healthcare
- You are at risk of being detained and deported even if you intend or have requested a visa because you think you have special circumstances (see below)
- If you remain in New Zealand for longer than 42 days after your visa has expired it is likely to affect your ability to travel to NZ in the future
You place other people at risk, especially family members, if they help you to remain in New Zealand unlawfully because it is an offence under the immigration act and it could affect their own immigration status.
The longer you remain, the higher the risk you run of being deported and of being declined visas in the future.
Making a Request under Section 61 of the Immigration Act
We may consider granting you a visa under section 61 of the Immigration Act 2009 but only in special cases.
A request from a person who does not hold a visa is not assessed like a visa application. An immigration officer handling a request:
- has no obligation to consider the request
- does not have to provide any reasons for their decision to grant or refuse
- is not obligated to make any enquiries about the information the person has provided in support of the request, or about other information INZ may hold about the person independently of what was provided
- is not obligated to grant a visa of the type or length requested (for example, they can grant a visitor visa instead of a work visa), and
- is not obligated to grant a visa even if the person requesting it appears to meet the criteria for a visa under a certain category.
Each request is handled by a senior immigration officer at the INZ Manukau Area Office. There are no processing timeframes for requests.
Anyone in NZ without a current visa is unlawful and needs to use Section 61 to become lawful again.
If your temporary (work, study, visitor) visa expires and you have not yet left New Zealand or received a new visa then technically you are unlawfully in New Zealand.
Because it is a discretionary power, it is very important that you put the strongest argument forward to INZ as to why you should be allowed to remain in New Zealand.
There is no limit to the amount of applications you can make, so even if you have already been declined, you can lodge another request before a deportation liability notice is issued.