Samoan Quota and Pacific Access Category Registrations Opening
Registrations for the 2023 Samoan Quota (SQ) and the Pacific Access Category (PAC) ballots will open on 1 August 2023 and close at 1700 (NZST) on 31 August.
The SQ and PAC schemes allow people from Samoa and Tonga, Tuvalu, Kiribati and Fiji to become permanent residents in New Zealand.
Both schemes operate through an annual ballot. The ballots will be drawn in early October 2023. People who are successful in the ballot will be invited to apply for a resident visa in late October.
Pacific Access Category Resident Visa details
Samoan Quota Resident Visa details
Ballot space reallocation
The PAC and SQ Resident Visa schemes were suspended for 2020 and 2021 when New Zealand’s international border closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unused ballot places from 2020 and 2021 have been reallocated over future years.
Samoan Quota
The maximum number of SQ visas available is:
- 1,650 Samoan citizens per year from 2023 to 2025
- 1,100 Samoan citizens per year from 2026 onwards
Pacific Access Category
The maximum number of PAC visas available for 2023 is:
- 500 Fijian citizens
- 150 Kiribati citizens
- 500 Tongan citizens
- 150 Tuvaluan citizens
The maximum number of PAC visas available per year from 2024 onwards is:
- 250 Fijian citizens
- 75 Kiribati citizens
- 250 Tongan citizens
- 75 Tuvaluan citizens
Invitation to apply
People who are successful on the ballot and are invited to apply for a PAC or SQ resident visa will have eight months to submit their application. These will be processed by INZ’s Pacific offices.
