To renew or not to renew, that is the question!
 

Hello folks,

I was wondering what other people might do in my position.

I can’t decide whether to renew my RV (with travel conditions) now or wait until we have new British passports.

My husband and I arrived in NZ in Sept 2008 and spent the first 2 years on Work to Residency Visas.

In Jan 2011 we got our RV which expired in Jan 2013.

This means of course that we cannot travel overseas until it is renewed.

Our British passports expire in March and July 2014 so do we wait until we have new British passports before we renew the RV?

I suppose this depends of whether we can manage without an overseas holiday in that time and if we can then we just hope that no emergency call us back to the UK in that time either.

Can anyone tell me how much it costs to renew your RV please and if we did renew it now would we have to do it again in 2014 when we renew our British passports or are the RV’s transferred?

Many thanks in anticipation!

Re: To renew or not to renew, that is the question!
 

If you've spent enough time in NZ in the last two years then you would apply for a Permanent Resident Visa.

I would renew your passport first and then apply. You don't have a lot of time left on your passports and it would mean extra costs if you applied using you current PPs.
It costs $180 for an application for a PRV. It then costs $105 to transfer a visa into a new PP [which is what you would end up spending in a few months time].

You can renew a British PP early and the time remaining [up to 9 months] will be added onto the duration of your new PP. If you renew now you will both have PPs with a duration of 10y9m. With passports that expire in March and July next year you would lose only 2months on one and 6months on the other PP. Not worth it when you take into account the transfer fee and the fact that you're good to go if anything happens abroad! You'll then have shiny new passports and visas and can go on holiday if you wish...:thumbsup:

Personally I would always plan on having a current passport and visa, as you said you never know when an emergency may happen meaning you need to go abroad suddenly.

Re: To renew or not to renew, that is the question!
 

That's great advice, thanks Persephone!

That's exactly what we will do!