Apply for an AEWV accreditation

How to apply for Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) accreditation, what you must agree to when you apply, and when you can change accreditation types.

Accreditation for the AEWV

1. How much accreditation costs

You pay a different fee depending on the type of accreditation you decide to apply for.

Paying for AEWV employer accreditation and Job Checks

2. Check you are ready to apply

Check your business meets our rules to be accredited and make sure you have all the information and documents you need to apply.

Before you apply for accreditation

Note

You may be asked to provide evidence to show your business is viable and genuinely operating. You can upload your evidence when you apply to avoid delays when we process your application..

Financial evidence for your accreditation application

3. Apply online

If you have everything you need to apply, start your application.

During your application, you must make a number of declarations and commitments. If you fail do to so, or you do not meet your commitments, your accreditation may be revoked.

4. Commitments you make when you apply

During the application you must declare the company, the employer and those running the company are all compliant with New Zealand employment laws and standards, and with the Immigration Act 2009.

We check that you have met your commitments when you renew your accreditation. We may also carry out checks during your accreditation.

Complying with immigration and employment law

Requirement to check an applicant is suitably qualified

You must commit to take reasonable steps to check each person you intend to support for an AEWV:

meets the AEWV skill requirements we set
has the skills, work experience and qualifications for the job.

If you use a third party to recruit, you must check they are confirming each applicant is suitably qualified and meets the AEWV skill requirements.

You must keep records of the steps you or the third party took to check each applicant.

Check your migrant is suitably qualified

Training for recruiters

You must commit to ensuring everyone making recruitment decisions about hiring a worker with an AEWV, will complete Employment New Zealand's online employer modules. This could include hiring managers, human resource managers, sole traders and partners.

Employment learning modules — Employment New Zealand

You must complete these modules once each accreditation period.

If you applied for accreditation before 4 July 2023 and your accreditation period was extended from 12 to 24 months, this does not count as a new accreditation period. You do not need to complete the modules again until your next accreditation period.

Recruitment and employment costs

You must commit to paying all recruitment costs in and outside New Zealand, and not pass costs on to your AEWV employees.

This includes:

advertising costs
recruitment agency fees
employer accreditation fees and Job Check application fees
trade testing
tools you own, and
training and induction.

You must not charge fees outside New Zealand which would be illegal if charged in New Zealand, including:

payment to secure a job
bonding agreements illegally binding workers to a business
deductions that are unreasonable or not agreed in writing.

Note

You do not need to pay the employee's airfares.

Training for AEWV employees

You must commit to giving AEWV employees time during paid work hours to complete all of Employment New Zealand's online employee modules. They must have this time within 1 month of them starting work for you.

Employment learning modules — Employment New Zealand

You must keep records of the modules being completed — we may ask to see them.

Supporting workers to settle

You must commit to giving your migrant workers specific information about working and living in New Zealand including the community services in their local area.

You need to complete these settlement activities within 1 month from the day the AEWV employee starts their employment contract.

Employer requirements to help settle AEWV employees in New Zealand

Notify INZ if an AEWV employee stops working for you

You must commit to notify us within 10 working days if an AEWV employee stops working for you.

You do not need to let us know if they leave within 1 month of their visa expiry date.

Notify INZ if key people in your business change

You must commit to notify us within 10 working days if the key people in your business change.

Commitments for controlling third party accreditation

If you are placing migrants with a controlling third party there are extra requirements you must meet.

Extra requirements for controlling third party accreditation

5. How we assess an accreditation application

We assess most applications based on your declarations and our automated checks against publicly available information, or information held by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

We contact you if we are not satisfied you meet the requirements or if we want more information to help us assess your application.

6. Sharing an application

In the enhanced Immigration Online, organisations who work with visa applicants, can create ‘networks’ of people to work on their client's application. This means that licensed immigration advisers (LIAs) and other users can create networks to work on visa applications.

Sharing your online application

How an accredited employer shares a record

In Immigration Online system, employers can share information about their organisation, accreditations, Job Checks and migrant workers at various levels.

This means LIAs and other users can work on accreditations and Job Checks together.

Refer to section 6.1 'Sharing accredited employer details' of the following user guide.

Enhancements to Immigration Online — User Guide PDF 5MB

How to share a record with a third party

Employers can share their Immigration Online records with a third party acting on their behalf. This can be with, for example, an LIA, immigration lawyer or recruitment company.

Share within an organisation

Within their organisation, employers can also:

create a network of staff working on employer accreditation or Job Check applications
share those applications (and associated documents) to the network.

Sharing an online application

Employers can share their Immigration Online records with other users or networks, at various levels. Check the Enhanced Immigration Online user guide for more information about these levels:

Enhancements to Immigration Online — User Guide PDF 5MB

Removing access

All users who have access to employer records can remove their own access.

7. Administrator rights

One user can also have administrator rights and view and manage the access of all other users who have access to the employer records.

Our short video guides you on how to manage access on enhanced Immigration Online.

Video — Employer guidance on how to manage access on enhanced Immigration Online

How to hand over administrator rights

The administrator can pass their rights to another user.

If the administrator wants to remove their own access, they must nominate another user to pass the administrator rights on to.

Here to help

INZ has administrator users who can share employer records or assign administrator rights to the correct user.

You can ask for help from an INZ administrator by calling our Customer Service Centre. Our employer line is open between 08:00 and 18:00, Monday to Friday.

Freephone from New Zealand landlines: 0508 558 855

8. After your accreditation is approved

The next step to employing workers on an AEWV is to advertise your roles and apply for a Job Check.

How to apply for a Job Check

9. Changing your accreditation type

With standard accreditation you have a quota of up to 5 jobs you can offer at any one time to people from overseas or in New Zealand. Other types of accreditations have no quota limit.

If you reach your quota limit and need to hire more migrant workers you can upgrade to high-volume accreditation.

If you want to change or downgrade your accreditation type, for example from standard or high-volume accreditation to controlling third party accreditation, you must renew your accreditation and pay the full accreditation fee. When you renew your accreditation, you can choose the right accreditation type for your organisation.

Renew your employer accreditation

Getting help to apply

Our employer line is open between 08:00 and 18:00, Monday to Friday.

Freephone from New Zealand landlines: 0508 967 569