Immigration law for employers

Employers who breach immigration law can be fined, imprisoned, lose their accreditation status and be placed on a stand-down list.

Complying with immigration and employment law

Employers must comply with Immigration law

Employers who do not comply with immigration law can face consequences such as:

  • loss of accreditation status
  • being prevented from hiring migrants, by being placed on a stand-down list
  • infringement fees
  • fines, and
  • imprisonment.

These consequences apply to all employers who hire migrants, and are not limited to accredited employers.

Immigration employment infringements

Employers can be issued an infringement notice for each infringement offence with an NZD$1,000 fee for individuals, or NZD$3,000 for body corporates if they:

  • employ someone who is not allowed to work in New Zealand, or
  • employ someone in a manner that is not consistent with the work-related conditions on their visa.

Employers can also be issued an infringement notice for each infringement offence with an NZD$1,000 fee for individuals and body corporates if they:

  • fail to provide specified employment documents when asked to by an immigration officer, immediately or if not practicable - within 10 working days.

Convictions for more serious Immigration Act offences will result in further penalties.

Paying an infringement fee

You must pay an infringement fee within 28 days after receiving it. Information about how to pay is on your infringement notice.

If you pay the infringement fee in full, we will not take any further enforcement action.

If you do not pay on time

If you do not pay an infringement fee on time we may consider taking further enforcement action. This can include referring the infringement to the Ministry of Justice for collection.

About Fines — Ministry of Justice

Further action you can take

If you have received an infringement notice you also have the option to:

  • ask us to consider any matter relating to the circumstances of the alleged offence
  • deny liability for the alleged offence and request a court hearing, or
  • admit liability for the alleged offence, but have a court consider written submissions as to penalty or otherwise.

You can find a full description of further action you can take, including what can happen if the infringement is referred to court, on your infringement notice or reminder notice.

If you want to take any further action, you must send us a letter within 28 days after receiving an infringement notice, unless we allow more time. This letter must be signed by you.

When writing to us you must include:

  • the date of the alleged infringement offence
  • the infringement notice number, and
  • your full name and address for replies.

Information about where to send your letter is available on your infringement notice.

Breaches of immigration law can mean you will not be able to recruit migrant workers

If you receive an infringement notice or are convicted for breaching immigration law you may be placed on an immigration stand-down list.

This means that you will be unable to support visa applications for a set period of time. Serious immigration offences may result in you being unable to support visa applications permanently.

The Immigration stand-down list is maintained by Immigration New Zealand, and will be available on our website soon.

This is in addition to the list of non-compliant employers maintained by the Labour Inspectorate, for employers who breach employment law. You can be stood-down from employing migrants if you breach either immigration law or employment law.

Employment law

If you are subject to a stand-down, your existing migrant employees will be able to continue their employment for the duration of their visas. However, you will not be able to support any further visas for these employees or any new migrant employees. You will also be unable to get an immigration employer status such as Employer Accreditation.

The rules and criteria for stand down periods are available in appendix 18 of our Operational Manual.

Stand-down periods

Immigration employment infringements

  • 6 months for a single infringement notice
  • 12 months for multiple infringements notices

The maximum stand-down for multiple infringement notices issued at once is 12 months.

Other Immigration Act offences

For the following Immigration Act offences, your stand-down period is determined by the fines you are given in court.

  • Making a statement or giving information that is false or misleading — Section 342 (1) (a) of the Act.
  • Helping someone to stay in New Zealand who is here illegally or does not meet their visa conditions — Section 343 (1) (d) of the Act.
  • Resisting or obstructing an Immigration Officer — Section 344 (d) of the Act.
  • Publishing or knowingly providing false or misleading information — Section 347 of the Act.
  • Allowing someone to work for you when they are not entitled to — Section 350 (1) of the Act.

Immigration Act - Part 10 Offences, penalties, and proceedings — New Zealand Legislation

Note

If you deny liability for an infringement offence and are subsequently issued a fine for that offence by a court, your stand-down period is also determined by the fine you are given in court. This may result in a longer stand-down period.

Fine

Stand-down period

Up to and including NZD$1,000

6 months

Over NZD$1,000 but less than NZD$10,000

12 months

Over NZD$10,000 but less than NZD$25,000

18 months

NZD$25,000 or more

24 months

Accredited employers

If you are an Accredited Employer you will also lose your accreditation status, in addition to being stood-down from hiring migrants.

Regaining accreditation

After the stand-down period has ended you must show you have addressed the non-compliance issue and taken steps to make sure it does not happen again. A business with compliance failures cannot be closed and opened again under a new name to avoid those failures. We still take the compliance issues of the previous business or key people into account.

Permanent bans for serious immigration offences

You will be permanently banned from supporting work visas if you are convicted and sentenced to prison or home detention for either of the following Immigration Act offences:

  • helping someone to stay in New Zealand who is here illegally or does not meet their visa conditions — Section 343 (1) (d) of the Act.
  • resisting or obstructing an Immigration Officer — Section 344 (d) of the Act.

You will also be permanently banned from supporting work visas if you are convicted, regardless of the penalty, under the Immigration Act for offences including:

  • supplying information to an immigration officer or refugee and protection officer that is false or misleading — Section 342 (1) (b) of the Act.
  • helping someone to remain in New Zealand unlawfully or to breach their visa conditions for your material benefit — Section 343 (1) (a) of the Act.
  • forging or misusing immigration or identity documents — Section 345 of the Act.
  • altering forms — Section 348 of the Act.
  • exploiting temporary workers - or migrants who are not allowed to work in New Zealand — Section 351 of the Act.

Immigration Act - Part 10 Offences, penalties, and proceedings — New Zealand Legislation

You will also be permanently banned, from supporting work visas if you are convicted, regardless of the penalty, under the Crimes Act for:

  • slavery — Section 98 of the Act.
  • smuggling or trafficking migrants — Section 98C and Section 98D of the Act.

Crimes Act - Sections 98 to 98D — New Zealand Legislation

The rules and criteria for permanent bans are available in appendix 18 of our Operational Manual.