Registration for Samoan Quota and Pacific Access Category opens on August 1

Registrations for the 2023 Samoan Quota (SQ) ballot and the Pacific Access Category (PAC) ballot will open on 1 August 2023 and close on 31 August at 1700 (NZ Standard Time) .
 
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.
 
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 each year to 2025
1,100 Samoan citizens each 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 for 2024 onwards is:
 
250 Fijian citizens each year
75 Kiribati citizens each year
250 Tongan citizens each year
75 Tuvaluan citizens each year.
 
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.