Skilled Migration 
New Zealand

This has now been replaced by the Accredited Employer Work Visa.

An Essential Skills Work Visa could be granted if you had the necessary qualifications and experience in a particular field, and have obtained a full time (at least 30 hours per week) job in NZ. This was usually under the condition that your employer has previously made efforts to find local workers to fill the same position prior to your employment through a labour market test.

However, if your occupation was found on a shortage list (national or regional), your qualifications and experience make you a suitable candidate, then your employer wouldn’t have needed to provide evidence for attempting to hire local NZ skilled workers for the position.

There were multiple skills in demand lists, including:

• Long term skill shortage list
• Regional skill shortage list
• Construction and Infrastructure skill shortage list

Obtaining an AEWV is for most a three step process:

1. The New Zealand employer has to apply to become ‘accredited’ with the Immigration Department. This is supposed to take around two weeks.
   
   
2. The New Zealand employer then submits a ‘job check’ which is essentially recent evidence they have advertised the role and could not find a suitably qualified New Zealander to fill it. This is supposed to also take around two weeks.
   
   
3. The successful candidate files their work visa.

These three steps must be done sequentially.

The ESWV/AEWV allows you to stay in NZ for up to 3 years depending on salary.

If your salary falls below the national median then you are entitled to stay up to 24 months.

This visa also allows you to support visa applications for your partner and dependent children, as long as you meet the income requirements.

Is broken into several ‘sub categories’ but all allow skilled migrants to stay in New Zealand indefinitely. Migrants in this category can live, work and study in NZ without limitation.

To access this visa category, migrants must be below the age of 56 and must:

1. Submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) which describes their qualifications, experience and proposed future employment in NZ. Only successful applicants will be invited to apply for this visa category. This is a points based system pitting migrant against migrant; OR
   
   
2. Have a job in NZ on the ‘Green List’ of occupations which provides a non points based pathway to a Resident Visa; OR
   
   
3. A sub list of the ‘Green List’ occupations provide a non points based two year pathway to a Resident Visa; OR
   
   
4. Have a permanent job in NZ that pays (by salary, not package) twice the median salary. This creates a non-points based pathway to residence.

The SSE Work Visa (Supplementary Seasonal Employment Work Visa) is a visa that allows students and visitors already in NZ to apply for seasonal work. Seasonal work opportunities are typically in the horticulture or viticulture industries.

The SSE Visa can allow you to extend your stay in NZ by 6 months.

The Post Study Work Visa, sometimes also referred to as the Temporary Graduate Visa, allows you to stay and work in NZ after completing your qualifications. To qualify, it’s imperative that you completed your qualifications in New Zealand.

This visa type allows you to stay and work for any employer in NZ for 1-3 years, and do almost any type of work depending on the qualification that you came to New zealand to study.

This Visa allows an individual to join their NZ partner, who is already working in NZ. The Partner of a New Zealander Work Visa may allow you to work in NZ as well as study up to 3 months.