NZ Student Loan?

Find out your student loan requirements when living in Australia.

First serious point is if you’re going overseas for 6 months or more your New Zealand student loan won’t be interest free.

Short trips (less than 6 months)

Interest-free student loans

Your loan will remain interest-free if you’re going overseas for 183 consecutive days or less (about 6 months) and you’ve have been living in New Zealand for at least 183 consecutive days prior to leaving. You’ll still see interest being applied but this is automatically written off.

Please note: if you travel overseas for less than 6 months on a regular basis, your loan will remain interest-free as long you’re back in New Zealand for 32 days or more before you leave again.

Student loan repayments while you’re overseas

If you’ll earn New Zealand salary or wages while you’re away, you’ll still be required to have student loan repayments deducted from this income.

If you earn any other income from New Zealand and/or overseas income while you’re away, you’ll need to let us know after the end of the tax year (31 March). This is because you’re still a New Zealand- based borrower and your repayments are based on your worldwide income.

If you have any other repayment obligation due while you’re away, or would like to make voluntary repayments, there are a number of ways you can make a payment.

Find out more about what payments you have to make to your NZ Student Loan.

Longer trips (6 months or more)

When you go overseas:

You need to let us know if you’re going to be overseas for 184 days (about 6 months) or more. The easiest way to do this, if you also want to apply for a repayment holiday, is to complete the form in your myIR Secure Online Services account.

• Login to myIR Secure Online Services
• Register for myIR Secure Online Services

Otherwise send us secure mail through your myIR account or call us on 0800377778 (+64 3 951 2020 from overseas).
You need to include:

• your departure date
• how long you intend to be away, and
• any repayment holiday information.

You’ll become an overseas-based borrower if you’ll be overseas for 184 days or more. This means you’ll have different repayment obligations and your loan will no longer be interest-free. Interest applies to your student loan from the day after you leave New Zealand.

Find out more about interest and how it’s calculated.

Interest-free student loans while you’re overseas

There are certain situations where you may still qualify for an interest-free loan while you’re overseas.

In most cases you won’t qualify for an interest-free loan if you go overseas for 184 days (about 6 months) or more. However you may still qualify for your existing loan to remain interest-free if you meet the conditions for one of the following situations:

• Studying overseas
• Living in Niue, Cook Islands, Tokelau or Ross Dependency
• Working overseas for the New Zealand Government
• Working for a New Zealand company overseas
• Working as a volunteer overseas
• Accompanying your partner overseas

There are two additional circumstances where you may still qualify for your existing loan to remain interest-free:

• Unexpected delay returning to New Zealand
• Unplanned absence

Repayment holiday

You can apply for a repayment holiday if you’re going overseas for 6 months (184 days or more), which means you won’t have an overseas-based repayment obligation to pay for up to the first year (365 days) of being overseas. A repayment holiday is optional but you’ll need to apply if you want one.

The following conditions apply to repayment holiday applications:

• You’ll need to apply before you leave New Zealand or within the first 183 days (6 months) of being overseas.
• You’ll need to provide the name and address of a person based in New Zealand, who is willing to act as an alternative contact person in case we need to get in touch with you about your loan.

If you don’t meet these conditions your application may be declined.

Please note: