Essential Skills Work Visa

This visa was for people who had a job offer for a role that could not be filled by New Zealanders. It closed on 4 July 2022.

Length of stay
Up to

3 years

Cost
From
NZD $700
Processing time
80% within
4 weeks
With this visa you can
  • Work in New Zealand for an employer who has offered you a full-time job.
  • Study for up to 3 months in any 12 month period, or do any study required as part of your employment.
Things to note
CLOSED

This visa closed permanently on 4 July 2022.

What you need to apply

Check if you are eligible to apply for this visa and what supporting documents and information you need to provide.

View All Evidence
  • 1 acceptable photo if you apply online, or 2 photos if you use a paper application form.
  • your passport or certificate of identity.

Acceptable photos

If you apply online, you must upload a copy of your passport when you apply. We will let you know if you need to send your passport after you have applied.

Providing your passport for online applications

If you submit a paper application, provide your original passport or a certified copy.  We can usually process your application faster if you provide your original passport.

Tips

Your passport must be valid for at least 3 months after you plan to leave New Zealand.

You must also provide your Kartu Keluarga.

If you are not a French national, you must provide a copy of your carte d’assuré.

You must also provide a copy of your livret de famille.

If you are a Filipino citizen leaving the Philippines, your passport must be valid for 6 months after the date you plan to leave. This is a departure requirement in the Philippines.

Also provide a copy of your Identity card.

Also provide your:

  • Hukou (household registration book)
  • Chinese identity card.

If you are a citizen of China and you submit a paper application form in China, you must also complete a supplementary form.

Supplementary form for Chinese citizens (INZ 1027) PDF 338KB

If you are submitting a paper application form, you must provide a supplementary form for Hong Kong and Macao visitors, workers and students.

Supplementary form for Hong Kong and Macao visitors, workers and students (INZ 1220) PDF 240KB

If you have a criminal conviction or are a security risk to New Zealand we may not be able to grant you a visa.

Good character for temporary visas

You must provide police certificates if your total time in New Zealand will be 24 months or longer across all visits. This includes any time you have spent in New Zealand in the past on other visas, even if you have been out of the country since then.

You also must provide police certificates if we ask for them.

If you are 16 years old or younger you do not need to provide police certificates.

Providing police certificates

How to get a police certificate

If you have already sent us Police Certificates with a previous visa application and they are less than 24 months old, you do not need to send them again.

Police certificates must be less than 6 months old when you submit your application. They must be from any country you are a citizen of, or have spent more than 5 years in since you turned 17.

Tips

If you are applying for an Essential Skills work visa on or after 19 July 2021, and you have previously provided a police certificate with a visa application, then you do not need to provide another police certificate with your Essential Skills visa application.

If you provide a police certificate that is not in English, you must provide an English translation.

This includes police certificates that record no convictions.

The acceptable character certificate for the Philippines is the NBI clearance.

We may ask you to have a chest x-ray, a medical examination or both as proof of your good health.

If you are staying less than:

  • 6 months you do not normally need a chest x-ray. 
  • 12 months you do not normally need a medical certificate. 

Who needs an x-ray or medical examination

When we process your application we let you know if we need you to have a chest x-ray or medical examination.

Acceptable standard of health criteria for visa approvals

Please only provide medical certificates if requested

Tips

You must provide a chest x-ray completed in the last 3 months, even if you've provided one to us previously, if:

  • you have spent 6 consecutive months in China since the last x-ray certificate was issued, and
  • you are now coming to NZ for more than 6 months.

When we decide if your intentions are genuine, we consider all the information:

  • you provide to support your application
  • we have about your personal circumstances, and
  • you provided in any previous applications.

Genuine intentions to visit, study or work in NZ

Your job offer must:

  • be current at the time you apply for your visa
  • be for full-time work

You must provide a copy of your employment agreement as evidence of your job offer. The employment agreement must include:

  • your employer’s name and contact details
  • your name and contact details
  • your job title
  • the address for your place of work 
  • the kind of work you’ll be doing and your responsibilities at work
  • details of any necessary qualifications or work experience
  • information about whether you’ll need New Zealand registration to do the work
  • how long the work will be for
  • how long you have to take up the job offer
  • pay and work conditions that comply with New Zealand employment law.

Your employment agreement must be with an employer who has a history of compliance with immigration and employment law. We won’t normally grant a visa if your employer is included on the list of non-compliant employers maintained by the Labour Inspectorate.

Employment agreements and rights

List of non-compliant employers

Tips

Job offer scams are common in India and South Asia, ensure your job offer is genuine.

How to determine how realistic the job offer is

Your employer can’t pay you less than they’d have to pay a New Zealander to do the work.

Your job offer can’t be for work planting, maintaining, harvesting or packing crops in the horticulture or viticulture industries.

If a labour hire company has offered you work in the construction sector in Canterbury, the labour hire company must be accredited.

See a list of accredited labour hire companies

Your dependent children can apply for visas to study in New Zealand if you will be earning at least $43,322.76.

You must provide an ‘Employer Supplementary Form’ completed by your employer

Employer Supplementary Form (INZ 1113) PDF 388KB

NOTE

We update this form often. Check that your employer provides you with the latest version of the form.

Your employer must also provide evidence they have made genuine attempts to recruit New Zealanders, unless:

  • you have been offered a job on one of the Essential Skills in Demand Lists and you meet the qualification and work experience requirements listed for your occupation
  • you are applying to keep working in your current role and have been invited to apply, or have applied, for a Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa based on your current employment, or
  • you are applying for a visa to work in your current full-time role, with the same employer and in the same region, and you have a work visa (including a Working Holiday Visa), a student visa to study Masters or PhD degree (which has unlimited work rights), or a Critical Purpose Visitor Visa either for a critical health worker, or for more than 6 months as an ‘other critical worker’.

Your employer’s evidence can include:

  • website and newspaper advertisements
  • records of engaging with a recruitment company 
  • a Skills Match Report from Work and Income New Zealand — your employer must supply this if the work they are offering you will pay below the median wage
  • the outcome of their recruitment efforts.

 

Skill shortage list check

You need to show that you meet the skills, qualifications, work experience and other requirements of the job you have been offered. Evidence of qualifications can include:

  • original or certified copies of your qualifications
  • evidence the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) recognises your qualification.

Evidence of experience can include documents that show:

  • the work that you did
  • the dates you did the work
  • how many hours a week you worked (on average)
  • the contact details for your employer or employers
  • how your work experience relates to the work you’ve been offered in New Zealand.
Tips

You can check the specific qualifications and experience you need by searching ANZSCO for your occupation. 

ANZSCO Version 1.2 | Australian Bureau of Statistics

If you need to provide evidence of relevant work experience in Eastern Europe, you should provide a copy of your official workbook from that country.

If you need to provide evidence of work experience in a European country but are not a citizen of a Schengen member state, you should provide evidence of your right to work in that country.

Evidence of your right to work is a copy of your Schengen visa for the time you were working.

Evidence of work experience includes employment certificates, employment contracts, payslips, Social Security System (SSS) records, PhilHealth records and income tax returns (with receipts).

Employment certificates should be on the employer’s official letterhead and include the company’s contact details. A CV or resume is not sufficient.

Certificates of employment must be complete and independently verifiable. The certificate must indicate as a minimum: the positions you held, the periods of your employment, your employer’s address and contact details

If you have worked overseas, you should provide a copy of your work visa and Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC) issued by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) or an e-Receipt and copies of your job descriptions.

If you are a citizen of Brazil you should provide your work book as evidence of your work experience.

If registration is required to work in your occupation in New Zealand, you must provide either:

  • a certified copy of your full or provisional New Zealand registration
  • confirmation from the appropriate registration body that you’re eligible for New Zealand registration.

Occupational registration

Tips

You do not have to provide these if you are applying for an Essential Skills visa to work in the same full-time role you currently hold, with the same employer and in the same region, and you make a declaration in your visa application form (INZ 1266) that you hold the required registration.

You cannot be granted a visa to do work paid below the median wage if you are subject to a stand-down period.

Note

The stand-down period policy has been deferred until mid 2022.

You may be subject to a stand-down period if you have spent 3 years working in lower-skilled or below median wage employment in New Zealand on an Essential Skills Work Visa. The only way to satisfy the stand-down requirement is to spend 12 consecutive months outside of New Zealand.

Being subject to a stand-down period does not prevent you from being granted an Essential Skills Work Visa for work paid at or above the median wage, or any other kind of visa that you qualify for.

Visas applied for before 28 August 2017 are not considered when calculating the time spent working in lower-skilled employment.

How pay rates affect essential skills Work Visas

Process and costs

The information below will help you understand the process, timeframes and costs involved in applying for this visa, so you can plan ahead and have the best chance of submitting a complete application.

1
You are offered full-time work in New Zealand

You must provide an ‘Employer Supplementary Form’ completed by your employer describing the work you have been offered.

Note

We update this form often. Check that your employer provides you with the latest version of the form.

Your employer must also provide evidence they have made genuine attempts to recruit New Zealanders, unless:

  • you have been offered a job on one of the Essential Skills in Demand Lists and you meet the qualification and work experience requirements listed for your occupation
  • you are applying to keep working in your current role and have been invited to apply, or have applied, for a Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa based on your current employment, or
  • you are applying for a visa to work in your current full-time role, with the same employer and in the same region, and you have a work visa (including a Working Holiday Visa), a student visa to study Masters or PhD degree (which has unlimited work rights), or a Critical Purpose Visitor Visa either for a critical health worker, or for more than 6 months as an ‘other critical worker’.

2
Apply for a work visa

Apply online, upload your documents and pay applicable fees.

Immigration costs
NZD $ 700

Application cost – This is the charge for Immigration New Zealand to process your application. We do not refund application costs if we decline your application. A non-refundable immigration levy is charged and is included in the cost.

3
We make a decision about your application

If there is anything else you need to do, we will be in touch.

If you are in New Zealand, and your current temporary visa expires before your new visa is granted, we will normally issue you an interim visa to let you stay in New Zealand lawfully.

Interim Visa

Timeframes - Processing
80% within 4 weeks

80% of applications are currently completed within this time.

How to submit

Payment methods and receiving centre details if applicable.

Applying online

Payment methods

Online

Credit Card
You can pay by Visa, MasterCard or UnionPay credit card.

Debit Card
You can pay by Visa, MasterCard or UnionPay debit card.

Hours

Phone enquiries
Monday to Friday
06:00 to 22:00

Closed Saturday and Sunday

Other notes

After you apply online, you do not need to send us your passport, or any other documents unless we ask for them.

Conditions

These are the conditions that you must meet once you have your visa.

Entry permission

You must apply for entry permission when you arrive in New Zealand. You can do this by completing a paper arrival card or a digital traveller declaration. If you are completing a paper arrival card you will be given this on the way to New Zealand.

New Zealand Customs and Biosecurity also check that you meet their entry requirements.

Arriving in New Zealand

Notes

You can be refused entry permission if:

  • you don’t meet our character requirements
  • your circumstances have changed since you were granted a visa
  • you refuse to let us to take your photo, or provide us with your fingerprints or an iris scan, if we ask you for them.

Travel

If you want to travel in and out of New Zealand, you must have valid multiple entry travel conditions to return to New Zealand.

Varying the conditions of a work visa

Notes

If applying from inside New Zealand, we will normally give multiple entry travel conditions when we grant a visa.

If there are no multiple entry travel conditions and you leave New Zealand the visa will expire.

The travel conditions will be listed on the visa label or in a visa letter.

Work

You may work only in the specific occupation, for the employer and in the location specified on your visa.

Notes

You must be paid at or above the New Zealand median wage for work that is assessed as paying at or above the New Zealand median wage.

You must provide evidence of the payment of remuneration if requested by an immigration officer.

Study

You can study for up to 3 months in any 12-month period.

Notes

You may be able to do other study if it’s required by your employer as part of your employment.

Visa expiry

You must leave New Zealand before your visa expires.

Notes

You can stay up to 3 years depending on the pay level of the job you are offered.

How long you can stay on an Essential Skills Work Visa

Visa expiry dates are printed on a visa label or included in a visa letter.