Dreaming of Settling in New Zealand? Here Is What ACT's Presence Rule Proposal Says About PR

News · 2026-09-01 · 4 min read

For many OFWs and other migrants, New Zealand is the place they hope to finally settle with family. If you already have New Zealand permanent residence, or you are working your way towards it, a proposal from the ACT Party deserves a few minutes of your time. It leaves visa costs, points and occupation lists completely alone. What it questions is the meaning of the word "permanent" itself.

Living in the country, not only holding the visa

Dr Parmjeet Parmar, who speaks for ACT on immigration, points to something she sees as a structural oddity. Under the rules today, a person with permanent residence in New Zealand does not actually have to live there. Once the visa is granted, the holder keeps unconditional rights to enter and leave for an unlimited time, no matter how many years they have spent away.

ACT says this would change if the party becomes part of government.

The proposed setup, step by step

The Permanent Resident Visa would no longer exist as a separate category. The regular Resident Visa would then be reshaped like this:

The two-year initial travel condition used now would be replaced with a five-year travel facility.
During any rolling five-year period, the holder would have to be physically in New Zealand for at least 730 days, which adds up to two cumulative years.
Those days can be spread out and do not have to come in one long stretch. You could still travel back and forth, but you could no longer stay away for good and keep an open-ended right to return.

Put simply, your residence would depend on you continuing to spend real time in the country, rather than being secured once and then kept forever without effort.

Time overseas that would still be allowed

ACT accepts that many migrants have good reasons to be away for a while, so the proposal includes exemptions for anyone who is:

posted abroad to work for an employer that is New Zealand-based
a family member travelling with a person in that position
doing military service outside the country
the husband, wife or partner of a New Zealand citizen
dealing with compelling humanitarian circumstances

For those of us used to working far from home, this is reassuring. The target is not normal travel or legitimate work overseas, but residence kept alive only on paper by people with no real ongoing link to New Zealand.

The thinking behind the plan

Parmar describes the aim as bringing "balance" back into the system, so that residence shows a real and lasting connection to New Zealand instead of being a back-up status someone can hold while living anywhere on the globe. She also presents the change as a way to draw a clearer line between residence and citizenship, which at the moment can look very much alike once a person has unconditional PR.

Plan ahead, kabayan

There is no need to worry, because this is still only a proposal. It is, however, a good reason to plan carefully. If something like it ever becomes law, choices such as where you base yourself, how long you stay outside New Zealand and when you go for citizenship could matter more than they do now. If you are thinking of moving there, or you already hold residence but spend most of your time overseas, keep watching this proposal as the election gets closer.

Whether you are working in the Middle East or back home in the Philippines, the takeaway is simple: keep good records of your time in and out of the country, and confirm details with official sources before big decisions.

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