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159: Deportation liability of resident if visa conditions breached
or “Residents might be sent home for breaking visa rules”
You could also call this:

“Resident visa holders may face deportation if new character information emerges within 5 years”

If you have a residence class visa, you could be sent back to your home country if new information about your character comes to light. This can happen within 5 years from when you first got your residence class visa. The new information must be about what kind of person you are, and it must have been important when you got your visa. If the Minister decides that you wouldn’t have been allowed to get the visa if they had known this information back then, you might have to leave New Zealand.

The new information could be about whether you should have been allowed into the country, or if you met the rules about good character when you applied for your visa.

If you’re told you have to leave because of this new information, you have 28 days to appeal. You can tell the Tribunal why you think the facts are wrong, or why you should be allowed to stay for humanitarian reasons.

The 5-year period starts from when you first got your residence class visa. There are special rules for working out this date, which you can find in section 161(5).

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Next up: 161: Deportation liability of residence class visa holder convicted of criminal offence

or “Residence visa holders can be deported for certain crimes”
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Part 6 Deportation
Liability for deportation

160Deportation liability of residence class visa holder if new information as to character becomes available

  1. A residence class visa holder is liable for deportation if, not later than 5 years after the date the person first held a residence class visa,—

  2. new information becomes available that—
    1. relates to the character of the person; and
      1. was relevant at the time the visa was granted; and
      2. the Minister determines that the person would not have been eligible for the grant of the visa under this Act or immigration instructions if that information had been available at the time the visa was granted.

        1. For the purposes of subsection (1), the new information may relate to whether the person was, or should have been, an excluded person, or to rules and criteria relating to character contained within immigration instructions.

        2. A person liable for deportation under this section may, not later than 28 days after the date of service of a deportation liability notice, appeal to the Tribunal both on the facts and on humanitarian grounds against his or her liability for deportation.

        3. For the purposes of subsection (1), the date that a person first held a residence class visa must be calculated in accordance with section 161(5).