Meeting your AEWV accredited employer obligations
Once you are an accredited employer, you must continue to meet these obligations or your accreditation may be revoked.
Your obligations as an Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) employer
To get and keep your accreditation, you must:
- meet the commitments you made during your application to be an accredited employer
- comply with New Zealand employment laws and standards, and with the Immigration Act 2009
- tell us of any changes to your organisation or if a migrant stops working for you.
Commitments you make when you apply
You and key people in your business must not have:
- employed a migrant who did not have the right visa or visa conditions to work in that role
- provided false or misleading information to us
- been involved in immigration breaches in other businesses
- been banned from acting as a director
- been subject to a stand-down period for breaching minimum employment standards or committing immigration offences
- been permanently banned from sponsoring work visas for committing serious immigration offences.
We may complete inspections, either desk-based or through site visits, to confirm you are meeting your obligations as an AEWV employer.
How to tell us of a change
The process to tell us if something has changed depends if the change is:
- to the key people in your organisation
- a migrant with an AEWV stops working for you.
If your key people change
You must let us know within 10 working days if key people in your organisation change. If you do not let us know, you will not be meeting your obligations and your accreditation may be revoked or suspended.
Call our employer line if your situation changes or if you are unable to meet your obligations.
Employer line: 0508 967 569
If a migrant with an AEWV stops working for you
If your current employer accreditation was approved, renewed, or upgraded on or after 7 April 2024, you must tell us within 10 working days if a migrant worker with an AEWV leaves your employment.
You only need to let us know if they have left your employment and they have at least 1 month left on their AEWV.
If you do not let us know, you will not be meeting your obligations. Your accreditation may be suspended or revoked.
If your current accreditation was approved or renewed before 7 April 2024
You can let us know but it is not an requirement. You will only have to meet this requirement after the next time you apply for, renew or upgrade your accreditation.
How to tell us a migrant with an AEWV has left your employment
Complete a Confirmation of Changes form and email it to AEWVEmployerDeclarations@mbie.govt.nz.
Confirmation from Accredited Employers that an AEWV holder has left their employment PDF 151KB
You can call our employer line if you have any questions.
Post-accreditation checks
We check a proportion of accredited employers each year. These checks are to make sure you are continuing to meet your obligations.
We may ask you to provide information as part of our checks. If you do not give us the information we ask for, your accreditation may be revoked.
Guide to post-accreditation checks
If you are not meeting your employment obligations
We expect accredited employers to take their responsibilities seriously and comply with AEWV requirements.
If we believe you are not meeting your obligations, we send you a letter outlining our concerns and ask you for your feedback.
We then assess your feedback and decide if any further action is required. The further action required depends on the significance of our findings.
We may revoke your accreditation if you are not meeting your obligations. If the issue is minor, we may give suggestions for improvement. Major issues can result in losing accreditation status, a stand-down period, infringement notices and fees or prosecution and a permanent ban from supporting visas for other migrant workers.
From 7 April 2024, employers being actively investigated for any breach of accreditation may have their accreditation suspended.
If you have concerns about an accredited employer
Anybody with concerns about employers who are not complying with the law can help us take action.