Govt says it will extend visas of those stuck in NZ due to war
Wednesday, 4 March 2026
Immigration Minister Erica Stanford says the Government will extend the visas of anyone who can’t travel home to the Middle East but have visas set to expire.
She has described this as similar to the extension the last Government made for Ukrainians in 2002, but the Greens say this extension was automatic - and say the Government’s rhetoric have not yet been matched by policy changes on the Immigration NZ website.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon had to correct the record in Parliament late on Tuesday night after giving an incorrect answer on the matter earlier that day.
Stanford said there were about 130-140 Iranians currently in New Zealand with visas set to expire in the next eight weeks.
“The very best thing we can do right now, while we’re still in a phase of gathering information, is to say to anyone who is affected, uh, as we did with Ukraine in the first two weeks, we will prioritise you,” Stanford said.
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She had asked Immigration New Zealand to set up a special desk to deal with such claims and they would be done on a case-by-case basis for now.
“We will expedite people's requests so that they don't have to go through the normal system, so that they will find that they have quicker response and quicker submitting process and application process,” Stanford said.
She said many of the Iranians in New Zealand might actually live somewhere else where they could get to.
“There's a number of Iranians living around the world, so that number could be much, much, much lower. But that's why taking a case by case basis and having that dedicated team will help.”
She was not sure how many migrants had visas set to expire from other countries in the region where it impossible to fly right now.
Green MP Ricardo Menendez March made the point that despite Stanford’s language the Immigration New Zealand website offered only two options - applying for an existing temporary visa if still here legally or applying for a special case request under Section 61, which is explicitly not guaranteed.
He said this was essentially the status quo.
“It's either just find another visa if you can, or become illegal, and then file a section 61 this is not feasible for people that are seeing their homelands ravaged by war,” Menendez March said.
“Erica Stanford needs to give certainty to communities affected that the government will look at a blanket extension in the same way that was done for Ukrainians around a couple of weeks after the war started in Ukraine.”
Luxon corrects record, Greens say he is still wrong
Luxon had to correct the record in Parliament on Tuesday night after suggesting a similar automatic extension as with Ukraine was in place.
“To be perfectly clear, Immigration New Zealand has a well-established process for international conflicts and will facilitate and take a pragmatic approach to visa renewal when people are unable to return home. This was not an automatic process in the context of the invasion of Ukraine, and decisions will continue to be taken on individual visas,” Luxon said.
The Green Party have argued that he was still incorrect in this assertion, as the extension was automatic for Ukrainians.
Luxon said on his way into the House on Tuesday that he had been advised it wasn’t automatic in the case of Ukraine either.
Stanford said in her view the Ukraine system was not automatic as it required the Immigration Minister naming specific individuals.