Kia ora Maria,
 
On behalf of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment I
acknowledge your email of 22/06/2025 requesting, under the Official
Information Act 1982, the following:
I am writing to request information under the Official Information Act
1982.

I am an undergraduate student enrolled in a 3-year program, but the
university only allows registration for one academic year at a time. Under
these circumstances, please disclose whether it is possible to obtain a
2-year student visa by prepaying the estimated tuition for two years (i.e.
twice the one-year fee).
If not, please provide any official guidance, policy documents, or
procedures that explain how a longer-term student visa can be issued
despite the one-year registration restriction.
 
We will endeavour to respond to your request as soon as possible, and no
later than 18/07/2025, being 20 working days after the day your request
was received. If we are unable to respond to your request by then, we will
notify you of an extension of that timeframe. If you have any enquiries
regarding your request feel free to contact us via email to
[1][MBIE request email].
 
Nāku noa, nā
Ministerial Services
Strategy and Assurance
Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment
15 Stout Street, Wellington 6011 |  P O Box 1473 Wellington 6140

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[MBIE request email]

Kia ora Maria,

 

Thank you for your request.

 

There are two avenues that may allow a student to obtain a student visa
for multiple years.

 

The first is our immigration instruction on the currency of student visas
([1]https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanua...), which advises
that, if the programme of study is based on the New Zealand academic year,
the visa may be granted for the academic year for which the student has
paid, to expire on 31 March of the following year. If you can begin at any
time during the year, the visa may be granted no more than one month after
the period for which the student has paid.

 

This means, that if you were to pay your student fees for a two-year
duration, provided you also hold the necessary maintenance funds
requirements for the full period ($20,000 per academic year) and all other
instructions, you could be granted a visa for the full two-years.
Universities do not usually do this because their tuition fees do change
each year, but potentially you could pay them and have your account in
credit, even though you could not enrol for more than one year at a time.
Your university would need to work with you on this and provide
confirmation on your tuition fee receipt that it is the equivalent tuition
fees for two years (for example).

 

The second option is through a Pathway visa
([2]https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanua...
[3]https://www.immigration.govt.nz/study/st...).
This option does depend on if your education provider is a pathway
provider, though all eight New Zealand universities are signed up so this
should not be a concern. Again, this does rely on your university
supporting this, as they would need to issue an offer of place for a study
pathway. This visa could then be granted for your whole programme of
study. You would only be required to pay tuition fees for the first year,
but show that you have the ability to fund the rest of the study, both for
tuition fees and maintenance funds.

 

In both cases, if for some reason you did not complete the full study
period that your visa was granted for, it would be up to your education
provider to notify us and terminate your enrolment, in which case we would
then contact you to advise you to depart or apply for a different visa
type. If your university does have any questions, they can also contact
this email address, and we can assist them.

 

Ngā mihi nui,

 

Candi Fletcher [4](she/her)

SENIOR ADVISOR EDUCATION

Chief Operating Officer Immigration Branch

Immigration New Zealand | Rōpū Manene

Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment | Hīkina Whakatutuki

 

 

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