How pay rates affected Essential Skills Work Visas
If you applied for an Essential Skills Work Visa, the requirements and conditions depend on the job offered and if it paid below the NZ median wage, or the NZ median wage or above. The Essential Skills Work Visa closed to new applications on 4 July 2022. If you have an existing visa, your individual conditions will remain until the visa expires.
How your pay rate affected your visa
Whether you are paid below the median wage or the median wage or above determined:
- how long your visa was granted for
- if there is a maximum time you can hold an Essential Skills visa
- if you can support a work visa for your partner
- if you will need to leave New Zealand for 12 months once you have been here for 3 years — this is called a stand-down period.
The NZ median wage up to 4 July 2022
The New Zealand median wage was NZD $27 an hour.
Updating essential skills pay rate thresholds
If you earn a salary, we calculate what your hourly rate is based on the hours you are contracted to work.
How we calculate your Essential Skills pay rate
If you earn the NZ median wage or above
If you applied for your visa on or after 27 July 2020 for work paying the median wage or above, you can support:
- work or visitor visas for your partner
- visitor or student visas for dependent children.
The maximum duration of your visa is 3 years.
Bringing family if you have a work visa
How long you can stay on an Essential Skills Work Visa
If you earn below the NZ median wage
If you applied for your visa on or after 27 July 2020 for work paying below the median wage, you can support:
- visitor visas for partners
- visitor or student visas for dependent children, as long as you meet the minimum income requirement, which is currently NZD $43,322.76 a year.
If you are granted a visa on or from 19 July 2021, the maximum duration of your visa will be 2 years.
If you work for an accredited labour hire company you may get a visa for up to 3 years (unless you are subject to the stand-down period).
Bringing family if you have a work visa
How long you can stay on an Essential Skills Work Visa
If you want to improve your skills
You can improve your skills as long as you still meet your visa conditions. You cannot change your job or occupation if your conditions only allow you to work in a specific job or occupation.
Check your visa conditions
While you hold your work visa you can do any training your employer needs you to do as part of your employment. You can do this training without changing your visa conditions.
You can also do more skilled tasks during your normal employment, as long as your employment still mostly matches the ANZSCO occupation you were granted your visa for.
If you start doing so many higher-skilled tasks that your occupation more closely matches a different ANZSCO occupation, you must apply for a variation of conditions to your current visa or for a new visa.