SkillFinder

SkillFinder is a free online tool that connects New Zealand employers with skilled workers overseas who have expressed an interest in living and working in New Zealand.

SkillFinder database

There are over a million people in the SkillFinder database – most of whom have skills in demand by New Zealand employers.

You can filter the database by occupation, level of academic qualification, country of residence and years of experience. Once your vacancy is registered, Immigration New Zealand will send a job alert email to people in the database who match your requirements.

Who can use SkillFinder?

SkillFinder is for any New Zealand employer looking for overseas talent to fill a specific role, and the:

  • role pays the median wage or above
  • hiring employer holds current Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) accreditation.

Accreditation for AEWV

Before using SkillFinder, you should test the New Zealand job market to see if there is a New Zealand resident who can do the job.

How to use Skillfinder

  1. Register your vacancy.
  2. Preview draft SkillFinder email and submit.
  3. INZ reviews email and sends to prospective candidates matching your criteria — within 7 working days.
  4. Receive enquiries and CVs from prospective candidates — after the email is sent.
  5. INZ sends survey to measure your results — 6 weeks.

If you are advertising a vacancy for the same occupation and the same employer, please only place SkillFinder requests once every 3 months.

What is SkillFinder?

Video — What is SkillFinder?(1:17)
View transcript

Having trouble finding people in skilled roles? We know finding qualified and motivated candidates can be hard. Especially if you’re looking overseas.

But we can help make the world a smaller place.

Our SkillFinder database, contains hundreds of thousands of people from around the world, with experience in a range of skilled roles.

They’ve all pre-registered their interest in bringing those skills to New Zealand, so we know they’re much more likely to make the move here, than people who aren’t pre-registered.

There’s an easy way to access this unique pool of talent. Introducing our SkillFinder job matching tool.

This is a free service for employers and recruiters that matches your job vacancy with relevant candidates in our database.

It lets you email the right people for your role, receive C.V.s and create connections to help you find your ideal candidate.

Our SkillFinder database can help you search for people, build relationships and create a talent pipeline.

So, whenever you’re looking for talent abroad, let us help you make the world a little bit smaller.