The Government of New Zealand has designed theNew Zealand Residence Program or the NZRP with certain residence goals to fulfill the current skills need and humanitarian commitments of the country. There are many places available for the immigrants under the NZRP reviewed by the Cabinet periodically.

At present, the overall NZRP is set at 135,000 to 150,000 permitted places between the period of July 2011 and June 2014. They are:

• The Business or Skilled Stream (about 80,700 to 89,925 places),

• The Capped Family Stream, it includes the Adult Child and Sibling categories (about 14,850 to 16,500 places),

• The Uncapped Family Stream which includes Partner and Dependent Child categories ( about 29,700 to 32,100 places for New Zealand’s immigration planning purposes), and

• The Humanitarian/ International Stream (9,750 to 11,475 places).

To become a resident of the country, the applicant has to meet at least the requirements of one residence category available in the latest residence program. Though each category has its own unique criteria, meeting the health and character requirements becomes compulsory for all the applicants, including spouses and dependent children.

By assessing against the available residence policies, the applicants can check-out the residence category that may best apply to them.

If you want to know more about the NZPR Program and its basic criteria, you can either check through some of the reliable immigration websites that provide authentic information, or can approach an immigration expert, who has an extensive knowledge on the NZ Permanent Residency.