Visitor visa for a Korean property vendor

[Applicant A] is a South Korean citizen who bought a house in Christchurch back in 2014, when offshore buyers did not need a New Zealand bank account or IRD number. Ten years later she agreed to sell the property to her sister, [SPONSOR]. By then the rules had changed: registering the sale now required the seller to have an IRD number, which in turn required a New Zealand bank account, which required her to be in the country to verify her identity in person.

We lodged a nine-month specific-purpose work visa with full supporting documents, including letters from her conveyancing lawyer and her sister, the sale agreement and property records, the 2014 settlement statement linking her to the property, and the bank and IRD paperwork showing why she needed at least six months on her visa. We also explained the contact-centre guidance she had relied on and noted that we held a recording of that call. When the officer responded that the work-visa category was not met and offered to convert the application to a General Visitor Visa, we negotiated by email, first securing assurance on the nine-month duration that was the whole point of the trip, before agreeing to the switch.

The Visitor Visa was granted with the length she needed, allowing her to open a bank account, obtain an IRD number, and complete the sale. Securing the duration before agreeing to the category change was what made the visa actually useful.

Contact-centre guidance is helpful but not binding. The operator suggested a specific-purpose work visa, but the officer who actually assessed the application, with all the evidence in front of them, took a different view, and the officer’s view governs.

For unusual purposes, a general Visitor Visa is often the cleaner route. Completing a property sale as the seller does not fit a work-visa template, and the Visitor Visa rules are written broadly enough to cover most lawful, non-work reasons to be here.

When Immigration offers to switch your application to another visa, the length of the replacement is the thing to settle first. A six-month visa would have defeated the whole purpose here, because the bank step itself needed at least six months left on the visa, so we secured the nine-month duration before agreeing.

Offshore visitor applications still need full evidence of genuine intent, even for low-risk nationalities. We documented the return flight, the family ties, the business in Korea, and the funds, so there was no doubt the visit was genuine and temporary.

Keeping a record of phone advice from Immigration is good practice. It does not bind Immigration, but it protects the client and the adviser if there is ever a question about what advice was given and whether it was followed in good faith.