{
  "title": "The Special Category visa (subclass 444)",
  "description": "The visa granted on arrival to any New Zealand citizen, allowing indefinite residence and work in Australia. No expiry, no cap, and outside the migration program's planning levels.",
  "url": "https://mindiam.com/figures/special-category-visa",
  "dataUrl": "https://mindiam.com/figures/special-category-visa/data.json",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "Mindiam",
    "url": "https://mindiam.com"
  },
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "lastRevised": "2026-10-06",
  "measurementType": "stock",
  "holders": {
    "value": 732887,
    "asAt": "31 August 2026",
    "source": "Department of Home Affairs BP0019"
  },
  "residenceYearsForNzCitizenshipByGrant": 5,
  "mechanism": [
    {
      "claim": "A Special Category visa (subclass 444) is granted on arrival to any New Zealand citizen, and allows them to live and work in Australia indefinitely. It has no expiry and no cap.",
      "source": "Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement; Special Category visa, subclass 444"
    },
    {
      "claim": "It is available on the basis of citizenship alone, however that citizenship was acquired. It is not limited to people born in New Zealand, and it is not available to New Zealand permanent residents.",
      "source": "Special Category visa eligibility, subclass 444"
    },
    {
      "claim": "New Zealand citizenship by grant generally requires five years of residence in New Zealand. The pathway is therefore a multi-year one rather than a transfer.",
      "source": "New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, citizenship by grant requirements"
    },
    {
      "claim": "No Australian planning level governs the number of people who arrive this way. The migration program sets levels for the Skill, Family and Humanitarian streams; the Special Category sits outside all of them.",
      "source": "Department of Home Affairs, migration program planning levels"
    }
  ],
  "composition": [
    {
      "claim": "Of more than 92,000 New Zealand nationals holding a Special Category visa who applied for Australian citizenship between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2025, 48 per cent were born outside New Zealand.",
      "source": "Australian Department of Home Affairs, reported by RNZ, 2025",
      "url": "https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/567964/nearly-half-of-kiwis-applying-for-australian-citizenship-born-elsewhere"
    },
    {
      "claim": "An estimated 141,000 Special Category visa holders in Australia were born outside New Zealand to parents also born outside New Zealand, on 2021 Census data adjusted to the Estimated Resident Population.",
      "source": "ANU Migration Hub, New Zealanders in Australia, Insights 25/3",
      "url": "https://migration.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/2025-11/New%20Zealanders%20in%20Australia%20Report%20.pdf"
    },
    {
      "claim": "35 per cent of New Zealand citizens who migrated to Australia in 2024 were born overseas, against about 29 per cent of New Zealand's resident population being overseas-born.",
      "source": "Stats NZ, international migration",
      "url": "https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/international-migration-september-2025/"
    },
    {
      "claim": "In 2024, 5,777 of the 39,914 people granted New Zealand citizenship were born in India, the largest single country of birth, ahead of South Africa (4,132) and the Philippines (3,920).",
      "source": "New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, citizenship statistics 2024",
      "url": "https://www.dia.govt.nz/Services-Citizenship-Citizenship-Statistics"
    }
  ],
  "limits": [
    "These figures describe the composition of a visa category. They do not establish why any individual acquired New Zealand citizenship, and no published source reports that.",
    "The 48 per cent figure covers people who went on to apply for Australian citizenship, which is a subset of Special Category holders and not the category as a whole.",
    "Country-of-birth data for New Zealand citizenship grants is published by New Zealand, and does not record whether, or when, any of those people subsequently moved to Australia."
  ],
  "relationToHeadlineFigure": {
    "note": "All Special Category holders are EXCLUDED from the temporary visa headline figure, which is what makes that figure conservative.",
    "allTemporaryVisaHolders": 2878973,
    "headlineExcludingNzVisitorsCrew": 1825403,
    "asAt": "31 August 2026",
    "url": "https://mindiam.com/figures/temporary-visa-population"
  }
}