Section 61 Requests: Asking for a Visa When You Are Unlawful
A section 61 request asks Immigration New Zealand to grant a visa in special circumstances while you are unlawfully in New Zealand. It is not an appeal and not a reconsideration. It is made by email to [email protected], there is no fee to make it, and there is no published timeframe. It cannot succeed once a deportation order has been issued.
Quick Facts
| What it is | A discretionary request to INZ for a visa while you are unlawfully in New Zealand |
| What it is not | An appeal · a reconsideration · a review of the decision that declined you |
| Who it is for | People in New Zealand whose visa has expired or who otherwise have no lawful status |
| How to make it | Email [email protected] with your personal details, your circumstances and supporting documentation |
| Fee to make the request | None |
| Fee if granted in principle | NZ$640 temporary entry class visa · NZ$1,510 residence class visa |
| Processing time | No set timeframe published |
| Does it stop deportation | No — "Making a section 61 request does not automatically stop deportation" |
| Hard limit | "You cannot be granted a visa under section 61 if a deportation order has already been issued to you" |
| Number of attempts | No published limit |
INZ published information and INZ 1028 (May 2026), checked 20 August 2026.
Say the three things first
Most of what is written about section 61 online gets at least one of these wrong. All three are on INZ's own pages.
One: it is not an appeal. A section 61 request does not review a decision. It does not ask anyone to reconsider a decline. It is a separate mechanism that asks INZ to grant something new, in special circumstances, to a person who currently has no lawful status. If you are looking for a review of a declined visa, this is not that — see reconsideration of a declined temporary visa or appealing to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal.
Two: it is not free overall. There is no fee to make the request. That is where most descriptions stop, and it is where they mislead. INZ 1028 (May 2026) sets out the fee payable if INZ decides in principle to grant: NZ$640 for a temporary entry class visa, or NZ$1,510 for a residence class visa. Budget for the second number, not the absence of the first.
Three: it does not stop deportation. INZ's wording is "Making a section 61 request does not automatically stop deportation." Filing a request is not a shield.
Who section 61 is for
Section 61 exists for one situation: you are in New Zealand and you do not hold a valid visa.
The most common route into that position is a visa that expired — while an application was being processed, after a decline, after a change in circumstances, or simply because a date was missed. Once your visa has expired, INZ's position is that you are in New Zealand unlawfully and must leave immediately. See overstaying a visa in New Zealand.
It matters that this is the group section 61 serves, because it is exactly the group that every other mechanism excludes:
- Reconsideration requires that you hold a valid visa, including an interim visa. Once your visa expires, reconsideration is closed to you.
- A tribunal appeal exists only for residence class declines, deportation liability and protection decisions — not for a temporary visa decline, and not as a general remedy for unlawful status.
Section 61 is the only published mechanism for obtaining a visa while unlawfully in New Zealand.
How a request is made
INZ publishes the channel: email [email protected], including:
- your personal details,
- your circumstances, and
- supporting documentation.
That is the entirety of what INZ publishes about form and content. There is no application number, no online portal step, and no published template.
What INZ does not publish is what makes a request succeed — the criteria, the weighting, what counts as "special circumstances", or what evidence carries weight. This site does not invent that material. Preparing a section 61 request for a named person is regulated immigration advice, and the people who do it professionally do it because the assessment genuinely depends on the individual facts.
The two hard limits
Limit 1 — a section 61 request does not stop deportation
"Making a section 61 request does not automatically stop deportation."
Filing does not create a pause. Deportation processes can continue while a request sits unassessed, and there is no published timeframe within which INZ must respond.
Limit 2 — a deportation order closes the door permanently
"You cannot be granted a visa under section 61 if a deportation order has already been issued to you."
This is the distinction that catches people. Deportation liability and a deportation order are different stages. A person can be liable for deportation and still be within reach of section 61. Once an order has actually been issued, section 61 can no longer produce a visa.
If you have received a document from INZ, the first thing to establish is which of the two it is. See deportation liability notice — what now and deportation liability explained.
The fee, precisely
This is the part most often reported incorrectly, so here it is set out in full.
| Stage | Cost |
|---|---|
| Making the section 61 request | Nothing |
| If INZ decides in principle to grant a temporary entry class visa | NZ$640 |
| If INZ decides in principle to grant a residence class visa | NZ$1,510 |
INZ 1028 (May 2026), checked 20 August 2026.
INZ describes it as "a fee if approved, but you pay only after the government decides to grant the visa in principle". So the sequence is: request, assessment, decision in principle, fee, visa.
Never repeat "section 61 is free" without that qualification. It is free to ask. It is $640 or $1,510 to receive.
There has been no general fee or levy increase across the New Zealand visa system in 2025 or 2026 — INZ's fee page still carries the "as of 1 October 2024" stamp.
How long it takes
There is no set timeframe. INZ publishes processing measures for most visa products — 80% within a stated number of weeks — and publishes none for section 61.
That absence is itself information. It means you cannot plan around a date, cannot chase against a published standard, and should not assume that a long silence signals anything in either direction.
What is not published about section 61, and what this page will not claim
It is widely stated online that section 61 is an absolute discretion: that there is no right to apply, that INZ is under no obligation to consider a request, and that no reasons need be given.
That is the well-known statutory position, and it may well be correct. We did not verify it against the Immigration Act 2009 itself, and so we do not state it here as fact. Publishing a statutory characterisation that has not been read against the statute is exactly the failure mode this site exists to avoid, and on a page read by people with no lawful status the cost of being wrong is high.
If the legal nature of the discretion matters to your situation — and in some cases it will — that is a question for a New Zealand lawyer, who can read the section and advise on what it means for you.
Equally, this page publishes no re-entry ban durations. INZ publishes wording about a minimum period of unlawful stay after which a person may be banned from returning; the specific ban lengths, and how they scale with the length of the overstay or with whether departure was voluntary, could not be verified against a primary source. Those figures circulate widely and confidently online. We do not repeat them. INZ's own wording, and the checked-on date, is quoted on overstaying a visa in New Zealand.
Step 1: Establish exactly what your status is today
Has your visa expired, and if so, on what date. Do you hold an interim visa. Have you received a deportation liability notice, or a deportation order. Those are different positions with different available mechanisms, and the answer changes what is possible.
Step 2: Check whether a deportation order has been issued
Because section 61 cannot produce a visa after one. If you are not sure which document you have received, that is a question for a lawyer or a licensed adviser, urgently.
Step 3: Gather your own documentation
INZ asks for personal details, circumstances and supporting documentation. What that means in a particular case is a judgement about that case. What can be said generally is that identity documents, records of your immigration history, and evidence about your circumstances are the raw material.
Step 4: Get licensed help before you send anything
Preparing a section 61 request for a named person is immigration advice under the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007. Giving it without a licence carries penalties of up to NZ$100,000 and seven years' imprisonment, and the Act applies "whether or not for gain or reward" — being unpaid is not a defence.
There is a further reason to be careful about who helps you. INZ publishes that helping someone stay in New Zealand unlawfully is a criminal offence under the Immigration Act 2009. That is a separate offence from unlicensed advice, and it is a reason to deal only with people who are lawfully entitled to act.
Who can lawfully act:
- Licensed immigration advisers — verify them on the Immigration Advisers Authority register at app.mbieregisters.govt.nz/iaa/ui/start/searchForAnOccupationalRegistration
- New Zealand lawyers with a current practising certificate, exempt from IAA licensing
- Community Law Centre employees and volunteers, exempt where a lawyer is on the employing body or supervising the work
See how to check an adviser's licence and who is exempt from immigration adviser licensing.
Step 5: Send the request to the published address, and nowhere else
[email protected]. That is the channel INZ publishes. Any third party who tells you there is a faster channel, a priority queue, or an internal contact is describing something that does not exist. New Zealand has no paid expedited processing at any price. See immigration scams to avoid.
Section 61 compared with the other routes
| Section 61 | Reconsideration | IPT appeal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nature | Discretionary request to INZ | Internal INZ review | External judicial appeal |
| Requires lawful status | No — it exists because you have none | Yes | No |
| Applies to | Any visa class, while unlawful | Declined temporary entry class visas | Residence class declines, deportation liability, protection decisions |
| Fee | Free to make; $640 or $1,510 if granted in principle | NZ$220 | NZ$964, or free for refugee and protection appeals |
| Published timeframe | None | 80% within 5 weeks | Residence 10–12 months; non-resident deportation 8–10 months |
| Is it an appeal | No | No | Yes |
The three are compared in more detail on reconsideration vs IPT appeal vs section 61.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a section 61 request in New Zealand?
A request asking INZ to grant a visa in special circumstances while you are unlawfully in New Zealand. It is made by email to [email protected] with your personal details, circumstances and supporting documentation. It is not an appeal, and it is not a reconsideration.
Is a section 61 request free?
Making the request is free. If INZ decides in principle to grant a visa, the fee then payable is NZ$640 for a temporary entry class visa or NZ$1,510 for a residence class visa, per INZ 1028 (May 2026). Descriptions that say "section 61 is free" and stop there are only half correct.
My visa expired and I am still in NZ — what can I do?
INZ's published position is that you are unlawfully in New Zealand and must leave immediately, and that departing voluntarily before deportation is preferable because deportation negatively affects future visa eligibility. The only published mechanism for obtaining a visa while unlawful is a section 61 request. Because both paths carry serious consequences, this is a situation for a licensed immigration adviser, a lawyer or a Community Law Centre rather than a website.
Does a section 61 request stop deportation?
No. INZ states: "Making a section 61 request does not automatically stop deportation."
Can I make a section 61 request after a deportation order?
No. INZ states: "You cannot be granted a visa under section 61 if a deportation order has already been issued to you." A deportation liability notice and a deportation order are different documents at different stages — establish which one you have.
How long does a section 61 request take?
INZ publishes no set timeframe for section 61 assessments, unlike most visa products where it publishes an 80% measure.
How many section 61 requests can I make?
INZ publishes no limit on the number of requests. What it does publish is the hard limit: no visa can be granted under section 61 once a deportation order has been issued.
What is the difference between section 61 and a special direction?
They are separate mechanisms with separate fee lines. INZ publishes how a section 61 request is made and what it cannot do. INZ does not publish the mechanism, grounds or process for a special direction, whose fee appears in INZ 1028 (May 2026) at NZ$260 Band A. See special directions and ministerial intervention.
