Apply for 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

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

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

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.

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 each 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 AEWV holders 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 holders

You must commit to giving AEWV workers 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 a month from the day the AEWV employee starts their employment contract.

Employer requirements to help settle AEWV employees in New Zealand

Notify Immigration New Zealand (INZ) if an AEWV holder stops working for you

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

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

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

If we request further information

When we request for further information (RFI) the link we provide with the RFI will only allow up to 5 documents to be uploaded at once. If you have more than 5 documents to upload in response to our request, you can follow the instructions in our Enhanced Immigration Online user guide under section ‘4.4 Correspondence’.

Enhanced Immigration Online - User Guide

There is also a maximum file size limit of 10 MB per file. Make sure that your documents are within the maximum file size limit. If you have issues uploading a document you can try:

reducing the file size of the document, or
splitting the document into multiple smaller documents.

How we assess your application

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

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

Sharing your application

In the enhanced Immigration Online system, organisations who work with applicants can create ‘networks’ of people to work on their clients’ applications. This means that LIAs and other users can create networks to work collaboratively on visa applications.

Sharing your online application

Note

If you are unable to use the ‘remove’ access function, you can call our Customer Service Centre who can stop sharing an application on your behalf. You can also request a call back.

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

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 accreditation 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 NZ landlines: 0508 967 569