Pitched as restoring the principle that immigration is "a privilege, not a right" and putting more value on New Zealand citizenship, NZ First's package would curb non-essential immigration and tie more rights and services to being a citizen.

📋 NZ First: Immigration Reform Policies, September 2026 →

What it does

• Limits automatic citizenship at birth to children of New Zealand citizens, doubles the qualifying period for citizenship from five years to at least 10, and extends the qualifying period for permanent residence from two years to five.
• Makes non-citizens ineligible for Jobseeker Support, the Accommodation Supplement and other benefits during their first 10 years in New Zealand, and gives citizens first call on social housing.
• Holds a referendum on a legislated annual cap of 20,000 resident visas, alongside linking immigration settings to infrastructure capacity and drawing up a 30-year population plan.
• Widens deportation liability to any offence that can carry a prison sentence, with automatic deportation for those convicted of violent or sexual crimes, fraud, money laundering, migrant exploitation or taking part in an organised criminal group.
• Offers overstayers a 24-month amnesty to leave without restrictions on applying to return, plus a 24-month clemency period for Pacific overstayers to apply for a valid visa. Overstayers found after that would be deported and permanently barred from any visa.
• Makes protected-person status temporary, removes automatic work rights for international students and raises citizenship and residence application fees. NZ First says one of its ministers must hold the Immigration portfolio in the next government. The package sits alongside its earlier citizens-only voting and NZ Super policies.

The debate

• Peters said governments had relied on immigration to drive headline growth and cheap labour, adding to pressure on housing, infrastructure and public services, Interest.co.nz reported.
• Immigration Minister Erica Stanford (National) said National and NZ First were "very aligned" on immigration, but criticised the NZ First and Green amnesties for Pacific overstayers, saying such approaches "do not work", and said parties seeking big cuts needed to explain who would be turned away, RNZ reported.
• Green spokesperson Ricardo Menendez March said none of the country's big challenges were caused by migrant workers or would be fixed by "throwing dog whistles", while Labour's Phil Twyford criticised right-wing populists he said were demonising migrants and set out Labour's own plan, including extending the residence qualifying period from two years to four.