Marriage Is Not the Test - Twelve Months of Living Together Is, and a Couple Who Have Never Met Cannot Be Recognised at All
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Australia on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
195 exceptions recorded across 74 countries · none match Australia to New Zealand · Residency through marriage
The Partnership Category treats a marriage certificate as evidence rather than as a qualification. Instruction F2.5 requires the applicant to provide sufficient evidence to satisfy an immigration officer that they have been living together for 12 months or more in a partnership that is genuine and stable with a New Zealand citizen or resident. 'Partnership' means a legal marriage, a civil union or a de facto relationship, and the three are interchangeable for this purpose - the instruction asks the same twelve months of cohabitation of a married couple as of an unmarried one. The onus is expressly on the applicant and their New Zealand partner. The instruction then lists six grounds on which an application must be declined, and the third is the twelve months: an application will be declined if the applicant and the New Zealand partner have not lived together for 12 months or more at the time the application is lodged. The fourth is bigamy in either direction - if either the applicant or the New Zealand partner is already married to or in a civil union with someone else, the application is declined even if the twelve months are met. Instruction F2.15 adds the minimum conditions for a partnership to be recognised at all: both parties aged 18 or over when the residence application is lodged, or 16 to 17 with the support of their parents or guardians and not under a dedicated partnership-based visa category; the couple must have met before the application is made; and they must not be close relatives, which the instruction defines by reference to the prohibited degrees in Schedule 2 of the Marriage Act 1955 and Schedule 2 of the Civil Union Act 2004, and their de facto equivalents. A separate instruction, F2.15.1, effective 25 September 2026, says that under dedicated partnership-based visa categories, evidence of the partnership is only recognised from the date both the applicant and the supporting partner were 18 or older.
At a glance
- Time living together
- 12 months or more, at the time the application is lodged
Instruction F2.5(a) and F2.5(d)(iii). It is cohabitation that is counted, not the length of the marriage.
- What counts as a partnership
- A legal marriage, a civil union, or a de facto relationship
Instruction F2.5(b). The twelve-month requirement is the same for all three.
- Minimum age
- 18 at the time the residence application is lodged, or 16 to 17 with parental or guardian support outside a dedicated partnership-based category
Instruction F2.15(a) and (b). Under instruction F2.15.1, evidence in a dedicated partnership-based category counts only from when both were 18.
- Couples who have never met
- Cannot be recognised
Instruction F2.15(c) requires the couple to have met before the application is made. The Culturally Arranged Marriage route at V3.35 is a visitor visa and a different instruction.
- An existing marriage on either side
- The application must be declined
Instruction F2.5(d)(iv) applies where either the New Zealand partner or the principal applicant is already married to or in a civil union with another person.
- Close relatives
- Excluded, by reference to the prohibited degrees in Schedule 2 of the Marriage Act 1955 and Schedule 2 of the Civil Union Act 2004
Instruction F2.15(d) and its note, which extends the two schedules to equivalent de facto relationships.
Requirements
- A New Zealand citizen or resident partner who is eligible to support the application
- Twelve months or more living together at the time the application is lodged
- A partnership that is genuine and stable, which the applicant and the partner must prove
- Both parties 18 or over, or 16 to 17 with parental or guardian support outside a dedicated partnership-based category
- The couple must have met before the application is made
- Neither party already married to or in a civil union with someone else
- Health and character requirements under instructions A4 and A5
In detail
The certificate is evidence, not the answer
A reader whose question is 'does marrying a New Zealander get me residence' will find the instruction answers a different question. What F2.5 asks about is living together for twelve months in a partnership that is genuine and stable; a legal marriage, a civil union and a de facto relationship are three ways of being in such a partnership and none of them shortens the twelve months. The consequence is that a couple married last month is in the same position as a couple who have lived together for eleven months and are not married, and both must wait.
Two things that stop the application before the twelve months matter
Instruction F2.15 is a gate in front of F2.5. If the couple have never met in person, or if either is a close relative of the other within the prohibited degrees in Schedule 2 of the Marriage Act 1955 or Schedule 2 of the Civil Union Act 2004, the partnership is not recognised for the purposes of the instructions at all, so the quality and length of the relationship never come to be assessed. The same is true of bigamy under F2.5(d)(iv), which bars the application whichever party is already married or in a civil union elsewhere.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Australia
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«To be granted a residence class visa under Partnership Category applicants must provide sufficient evidence to satisfy an immigration officer that they have been living together for 12 months or more in a partnership that is genuine and stable with a New Zealand citizen or resident.»About this source
The Operational Manual is where New Zealand's immigration instructions are actually published, and publishing them here is a statutory duty rather than a courtesy: section 25(1) of the Immigration Act 2009 says 'The chief executive must publish immigration instructions', and the Manual's own first page says 'By publishing the Operational Manual, INZ meets its requirements under section 25 of the Immigration Act 2009 to publish Government instructions on granting visas.' Instructions are certified by the Minister under section 22; section 22(8) says they 'are statements of Government policy', and section 72(1) makes a residence decision one that 'must be made in terms of the residence instructions applicable at the time the application was made'. Each instruction topic carries its own 'Effective DD/MM/YYYY' date and, where it has been replaced, a list of the previous instructions under 'PREVIOUS IMMIGRATION INSTRUCTIONS'.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Policy, not law. The Manual says so itself: it 'is not ... a replacement for the legislation that governs INZ operations', the summaries of statute inside it 'are declaratory only', and where a summary conflicts with the legislation 'the interpretation of the legislation is decisive'. It also warns that 'some chapters of these sections do not constitute Government immigration instructions as described in section 22' - that disclaimer covers the Border Entry, Compliance, Refugees and Protection, Administration and Appendices sections, so a Y-, D-, C- or A-coded page may be an internal operational instruction rather than a certified instruction. It is not evidence of what the Immigration Act says, only of what the Minister has certified and the chief executive has published. The address matters. https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/ and /opsmanual/index.htm are a JavaScript shell and return 208 characters of 'Loading...' to any fetcher. The readable table of contents is https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/toc.htm (340,787 characters), which links every instruction topic as its own small page at /opsmanual/<number>.htm. Firecrawl returned HTTP 500 for those numbered pages on 11 October 2026; `pnpm sources:fetch --direct` read every one of them first time.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«the applicant and New Zealand citizen or resident partner have not lived together for 12 months or more at the time the application is lodged; or»One of six grounds on which the instruction says an application will be declined.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Operational Manual is where New Zealand's immigration instructions are actually published, and publishing them here is a statutory duty rather than a courtesy: section 25(1) of the Immigration Act 2009 says 'The chief executive must publish immigration instructions', and the Manual's own first page says 'By publishing the Operational Manual, INZ meets its requirements under section 25 of the Immigration Act 2009 to publish Government instructions on granting visas.' Instructions are certified by the Minister under section 22; section 22(8) says they 'are statements of Government policy', and section 72(1) makes a residence decision one that 'must be made in terms of the residence instructions applicable at the time the application was made'. Each instruction topic carries its own 'Effective DD/MM/YYYY' date and, where it has been replaced, a list of the previous instructions under 'PREVIOUS IMMIGRATION INSTRUCTIONS'.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Policy, not law. The Manual says so itself: it 'is not ... a replacement for the legislation that governs INZ operations', the summaries of statute inside it 'are declaratory only', and where a summary conflicts with the legislation 'the interpretation of the legislation is decisive'. It also warns that 'some chapters of these sections do not constitute Government immigration instructions as described in section 22' - that disclaimer covers the Border Entry, Compliance, Refugees and Protection, Administration and Appendices sections, so a Y-, D-, C- or A-coded page may be an internal operational instruction rather than a certified instruction. It is not evidence of what the Immigration Act says, only of what the Minister has certified and the chief executive has published. The address matters. https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/ and /opsmanual/index.htm are a JavaScript shell and return 208 characters of 'Loading...' to any fetcher. The readable table of contents is https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/toc.htm (340,787 characters), which links every instruction topic as its own small page at /opsmanual/<number>.htm. Firecrawl returned HTTP 500 for those numbered pages on 11 October 2026; `pnpm sources:fetch --direct` read every one of them first time.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Partnerships will only be recognised for the purposes of these instructions if:»Effective 25/09/2026.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Operational Manual is where New Zealand's immigration instructions are actually published, and publishing them here is a statutory duty rather than a courtesy: section 25(1) of the Immigration Act 2009 says 'The chief executive must publish immigration instructions', and the Manual's own first page says 'By publishing the Operational Manual, INZ meets its requirements under section 25 of the Immigration Act 2009 to publish Government instructions on granting visas.' Instructions are certified by the Minister under section 22; section 22(8) says they 'are statements of Government policy', and section 72(1) makes a residence decision one that 'must be made in terms of the residence instructions applicable at the time the application was made'. Each instruction topic carries its own 'Effective DD/MM/YYYY' date and, where it has been replaced, a list of the previous instructions under 'PREVIOUS IMMIGRATION INSTRUCTIONS'.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Policy, not law. The Manual says so itself: it 'is not ... a replacement for the legislation that governs INZ operations', the summaries of statute inside it 'are declaratory only', and where a summary conflicts with the legislation 'the interpretation of the legislation is decisive'. It also warns that 'some chapters of these sections do not constitute Government immigration instructions as described in section 22' - that disclaimer covers the Border Entry, Compliance, Refugees and Protection, Administration and Appendices sections, so a Y-, D-, C- or A-coded page may be an internal operational instruction rather than a certified instruction. It is not evidence of what the Immigration Act says, only of what the Minister has certified and the chief executive has published. The address matters. https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/ and /opsmanual/index.htm are a JavaScript shell and return 208 characters of 'Loading...' to any fetcher. The readable table of contents is https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/toc.htm (340,787 characters), which links every instruction topic as its own small page at /opsmanual/<number>.htm. Firecrawl returned HTTP 500 for those numbered pages on 11 October 2026; `pnpm sources:fetch --direct` read every one of them first time.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«the couple have met prior to the date the application under these instructions is made; and»About this source
The Operational Manual is where New Zealand's immigration instructions are actually published, and publishing them here is a statutory duty rather than a courtesy: section 25(1) of the Immigration Act 2009 says 'The chief executive must publish immigration instructions', and the Manual's own first page says 'By publishing the Operational Manual, INZ meets its requirements under section 25 of the Immigration Act 2009 to publish Government instructions on granting visas.' Instructions are certified by the Minister under section 22; section 22(8) says they 'are statements of Government policy', and section 72(1) makes a residence decision one that 'must be made in terms of the residence instructions applicable at the time the application was made'. Each instruction topic carries its own 'Effective DD/MM/YYYY' date and, where it has been replaced, a list of the previous instructions under 'PREVIOUS IMMIGRATION INSTRUCTIONS'.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Policy, not law. The Manual says so itself: it 'is not ... a replacement for the legislation that governs INZ operations', the summaries of statute inside it 'are declaratory only', and where a summary conflicts with the legislation 'the interpretation of the legislation is decisive'. It also warns that 'some chapters of these sections do not constitute Government immigration instructions as described in section 22' - that disclaimer covers the Border Entry, Compliance, Refugees and Protection, Administration and Appendices sections, so a Y-, D-, C- or A-coded page may be an internal operational instruction rather than a certified instruction. It is not evidence of what the Immigration Act says, only of what the Minister has certified and the chief executive has published. The address matters. https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/ and /opsmanual/index.htm are a JavaScript shell and return 208 characters of 'Loading...' to any fetcher. The readable table of contents is https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/toc.htm (340,787 characters), which links every instruction topic as its own small page at /opsmanual/<number>.htm. Firecrawl returned HTTP 500 for those numbered pages on 11 October 2026; `pnpm sources:fetch --direct` read every one of them first time.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
Instruction F2.30, which tells officers how to decide whether a partnership is genuine and stable, and F2.20 and F2.25 on evidence and verification, were not read. What an officer actually looks for is therefore not stated here.
Instruction F2.40, the general rules of the category, was stored but not read.
The partner work and visitor visas - the temporary routes that usually come before the residence application - are in the WF and V3.15 instructions and were not read.
Schedule 2 of the Marriage Act 1955 and Schedule 2 of the Civil Union Act 2004 were not read, so the prohibited degrees are named here rather than listed.
- issuesINZ Operational Manual, F2.5 How do partners of New Zealand citizens and residents qualify for a residence class visa?
Immigration New Zealand, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
About this source
The Operational Manual is where New Zealand's immigration instructions are actually published, and publishing them here is a statutory duty rather than a courtesy: section 25(1) of the Immigration Act 2009 says 'The chief executive must publish immigration instructions', and the Manual's own first page says 'By publishing the Operational Manual, INZ meets its requirements under section 25 of the Immigration Act 2009 to publish Government instructions on granting visas.' Instructions are certified by the Minister under section 22; section 22(8) says they 'are statements of Government policy', and section 72(1) makes a residence decision one that 'must be made in terms of the residence instructions applicable at the time the application was made'. Each instruction topic carries its own 'Effective DD/MM/YYYY' date and, where it has been replaced, a list of the previous instructions under 'PREVIOUS IMMIGRATION INSTRUCTIONS'.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Policy, not law. The Manual says so itself: it 'is not ... a replacement for the legislation that governs INZ operations', the summaries of statute inside it 'are declaratory only', and where a summary conflicts with the legislation 'the interpretation of the legislation is decisive'. It also warns that 'some chapters of these sections do not constitute Government immigration instructions as described in section 22' - that disclaimer covers the Border Entry, Compliance, Refugees and Protection, Administration and Appendices sections, so a Y-, D-, C- or A-coded page may be an internal operational instruction rather than a certified instruction. It is not evidence of what the Immigration Act says, only of what the Minister has certified and the chief executive has published. The address matters. https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/ and /opsmanual/index.htm are a JavaScript shell and return 208 characters of 'Loading...' to any fetcher. The readable table of contents is https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/toc.htm (340,787 characters), which links every instruction topic as its own small page at /opsmanual/<number>.htm. Firecrawl returned HTTP 500 for those numbered pages on 11 October 2026; `pnpm sources:fetch --direct` read every one of them first time.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- issuesINZ Operational Manual, F2.15 Minimum requirements for the recognition of partnerships
Immigration New Zealand, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
About this source
The Operational Manual is where New Zealand's immigration instructions are actually published, and publishing them here is a statutory duty rather than a courtesy: section 25(1) of the Immigration Act 2009 says 'The chief executive must publish immigration instructions', and the Manual's own first page says 'By publishing the Operational Manual, INZ meets its requirements under section 25 of the Immigration Act 2009 to publish Government instructions on granting visas.' Instructions are certified by the Minister under section 22; section 22(8) says they 'are statements of Government policy', and section 72(1) makes a residence decision one that 'must be made in terms of the residence instructions applicable at the time the application was made'. Each instruction topic carries its own 'Effective DD/MM/YYYY' date and, where it has been replaced, a list of the previous instructions under 'PREVIOUS IMMIGRATION INSTRUCTIONS'.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Policy, not law. The Manual says so itself: it 'is not ... a replacement for the legislation that governs INZ operations', the summaries of statute inside it 'are declaratory only', and where a summary conflicts with the legislation 'the interpretation of the legislation is decisive'. It also warns that 'some chapters of these sections do not constitute Government immigration instructions as described in section 22' - that disclaimer covers the Border Entry, Compliance, Refugees and Protection, Administration and Appendices sections, so a Y-, D-, C- or A-coded page may be an internal operational instruction rather than a certified instruction. It is not evidence of what the Immigration Act says, only of what the Minister has certified and the chief executive has published. The address matters. https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/ and /opsmanual/index.htm are a JavaScript shell and return 208 characters of 'Loading...' to any fetcher. The readable table of contents is https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/toc.htm (340,787 characters), which links every instruction topic as its own small page at /opsmanual/<number>.htm. Firecrawl returned HTTP 500 for those numbered pages on 11 October 2026; `pnpm sources:fetch --direct` read every one of them first time.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source