Former National MP calls for three-month visa waiver for Pasifika

Pacific community leader and former Member of Parliament, Lupematasila Lima Anae Arthur Anae, is calling on the Government to introduce a three-month visitor visa on arrival for citizens of Pacific nations, as the deadline for a petition nears.

In July, New Zealand extended the multi-entry visitor visa to two years. The $341 visa allows stays of up to six months per visit, with the option to study for up to three months. Applications are usually processed within two weeks.

Pacific travellers with a valid Australian visitor visa will soon be able to visit New Zealand for up to three months, provided they purchase an electronic travel authority for $17.

Speaking on PMN Tonga with John Pulu, Anae criticises the need for Pacific nations to apply for visas while citizens from many other countries can freely enter Aotearoa.

“For a long time, our people have had to apply for a visa to come to New Zealand,” Anae says. “We can't come for funerals. We can't come for anything. And they don't give a damn down there in Wellington.

“We identified 60 countries around the world that can arrive in a New Zealand airport and have a three-month visitor’s visa stamped into their passport, at no cost. And that total population is 1.65 billion people. The total population of our Pacific nations is less than 16 million… a fraction.”

Watch Anae Arthur Anae's full interview below.

Immigration New Zealand estimates that there are currently 20,980 overstayers in the country. From July 2023 to June 2025, Tonga had the highest percentage of overstayers, with 472 individuals out of 24,425 temporary visa arrivals. Sāmoa recorded 382 overstayers out of 23,075 arrivals.

Anae says concerns about overstaying are exaggerated and linked to historical injustices, such as the Dawn Raids of the 1970s, during which Pacific people were disproportionately targeted by law enforcement.

“They were hunted down by dogs and police in the middle of the night… and they didn't touch one of the 75 per cent who were already here as overstayers from other countries in the world. Where is the fairness of that?”

A group is calling for a visa-waiver for visitors from the Pacific. Photo/Unsplash

Anae blames Immigration New Zealand for creating issues around overstaying and calls for fair treatment of those currently in that situation.

“These poor people are paying fees and waiting patiently for an answer,” he says. “Meanwhile, they become overstayers, and then they are punished for five years before they come back.

“All these people today who are overstayers in New Zealand should be allowed to leave voluntarily now with a clean slate. Which means they can go home and reapply and come back.”

An alternative option

When the extended visa was announced in April, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford described the change as a “flexible and nuanced solution that simplifies the process for Pacific visitors by significantly reducing both cost and time”.

Anae proposes a strict but fair approach to a potential visa waiver.

“If a person doesn't return on the expiry date of those three months without an application for an extension, they will be deported for 10 years. One person is not going to destroy this for everybody else.

Visitors from Pacific nations must obtain a visitor visa before travelling to New Zealand. Photo/File

“After three months, if a person leaves New Zealand on that day, goes to Sydney, Fiji, or where, and comes back the same day or the next day, they get another three months’ permit without question.”

The petition advocating for the visa waiver will close on 7 November and has already gained 24,186 signatures.

“This is for all of us across the Pacific equally … We're running out of time, and irrespective of the number, whether it's one or a million and one, we are with this petition.”

Anae is confident the proposal will pass its first reading in Parliament, citing previous successes with the citizenship bill for elderly Sāmoans who had been stripped of their rights.

“We got past the first reading because Winston Peters, one of our strongest advocates, and David Seymour of the Act Party supported us. It made the National Party look like a bunch of idiots going against us… But at the end of the day, we got past the first reading.

There were a a record number of submissions on the Restoring Citizenship Removed by Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982. Photo/File

“Twenty-five thousand submissions, the first time the Sāmoan people's voices had been heard by politicians, and it left them in tears.

“Please, if you understand this, support us now. That is our message across the whole Pacific.”

There is no set date to deliver the petition to Parliament, but Anae aims to do this by end of November.

Anae was a list MP for the National Party from 1996 to 2002, and later became a councillor for Manukau, then Auckland from 2004 to 2016.

He was awarded a King’s Service Medal in May this year for services to the Sāmoan community.