Transport Work to Residence Visa

A Transport Work to Residence Visa lets you stay in New Zealand indefinitely.

After you have had this visa for 2 years in a row, you can apply for a Permanent Resident Visa that lets you travel in and out of New Zealand indefinitely.

Check the 'While you are in New Zealand' section for more information.

While you are in New Zealand

To apply for this visa, you must:

• be aged 55 or younger
• work in, or have a job offer for, an approved transport job
• meet the work experience requirements, including having worked in New Zealand for at least 24 months
• have gained 24 months of skilled work experience in New Zealand within the 30 months immediately before submitting your residence application
• meet the current work requirements, including having a job, or job offer, with an accredited employer
• be in good health
• be of good character
• have a genuine relationship with your partner and dependent children, if including them
• speak and understand English.

Age

You must be aged 55 or younger when you apply.

We check your identity document to confirm your age.

Your work visa

For at least 2 years (24 months) before you apply, you must have a visa that allows you to work in New Zealand.

We check our records to confirm that, for the full 24 months before you apply, you had:

• 1 or more work visas
• a Critical Purpose Visitor Visa that allowed you to work, or
• an Interim Visa which we gave you when you applied for:
  
  • another work visa, or
  • a Critical Purpose Visitor Visa that allowed you to work.

Interim Visa

Your current job or job offer

You must currently be working in, or have a job offer for, a job that is:

• an approved transport job
• paid at least NZD $35.00 an hour (the current median wage), unless you are:
  
  • a bus driver — you must be paid at least NZD $28 an hour, or
  • a truck driver — you must be paid at least NZD $31.61 an hour
• permanent or fixed-term for at least 12 months
• for an employer who is accredited under the Accredited Employer Work Visa policy.

Check if your employer is accredited:

Accredited employer list

Approved transport jobs

The following jobs are approved work to residence transport jobs.

You must provide evidence with your application showing you meet any income, work experience, or qualifications required for your job.

Ship's Master

ANZSCO code: 231231

On the day you apply for your Transport Work to Residence Visa you must:

• be currently working for, or have a job offer from, a New Zealand employer as a Ship's Master
• have been working for at least 24 months as a Ship's Master
• be paid at least NZD $35.00 an hour (the current median wage)
• have been paid at least the median wage for 24 months — check the section 'How to calculate 24 months of work experience' for more information about the median wage you can use
• hold either:
  
  • the Skipper Restricted Limits qualification with 500GT or 3000GT endorsement, or
  • a Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) certificate for duties of a Ship's Master on a vessel that is 500 gross tonnes or more (as recognised by Maritime New Zealand).

Deck Hand

ANZSCO code: 899211

On the day you apply for your Transport Work to Residence Visa you must:

• be currently working for, or have a job offer from, a New Zealand employer as a Deck Hand
• have been working for at least 24 months as a Deck Hand
• be paid at least NZD $35.00 an hour (the current median wage)
• have been paid at least the median wage for 24 months — check the section 'How to calculate 24 months of work experience' for more information about the median wage you can use
• hold either a:
  • Qualified Deck Crew Certificate of Proficiency (CoP), or
  • Deck Watch Rating (DWR) Certificate of Proficiency (CoP) that entitles the holder to perform the duties of Deck Hand (as recognised by Maritime New Zealand).

Evidence of your approved transport job

Documents you can provide include:

• an employment agreement
• a fixed-term contract
• a letter offering you a job and describing your job, hours of work, length of employment and what you will be paid.

You must include evidence showing you meet the requirements for your approved transport job. For example, your Skipper Restricted Limits Certificate of Competency (CoC) with 500GT or 3000GT endorsement.

Your employment agreement must include all the clauses required by New Zealand employment law. Check the section 'What an employment agreement must include' for more information about what must be in your employment agreement.

Creating an employment agreement  — Employment New Zealand

Work experience requirements

You must have worked in New Zealand in an acceptable transport job for at least 24 months out of the last 30 months before you apply. This means that only the work experience that is within the last 30 months immediately before you apply is counted.

Your work experience must be in a job that meets our requirements.

You can complete the 24 months in several stretches within the 30-month period. For example, you could work for 2 lots of 12 months with a gap of 6 months in between.

You must provide documents proving you meet the work experience requirements.

What counts as work experience

To make up the 24 months you can:

• count time working in approved transport jobs from the past 24 months
• count annual, bereavement or other leave you are legally entitled to, such as parental leave
• work for some of the time in a job that is not an approved transport job, but it must be a job that is either:
  
  • Tier 2 on the Green List — this is a list of jobs that are in-demand in New Zealand, or
  • on the list of jobs that can apply for a Care Workforce Work to Residence Visa, or
  • paid at least twice the median wage at the time.

Green List roles — jobs we need people for in New Zealand

Care Workforce Work to Residence Visa

How to calculate 24 months of work experience

You can start counting your 24 months of work any time on and after 29 September 2021.

You can start counting your work experience when you start your job if you are getting the required pay rate. If you are not getting the required pay rate when you start, you can start counting your work experience later when your pay is increased to the required pay rate.

During your work experience, you must have been paid at least:

• the median wage rate in place at the start of your 24 months, or
• NZD $28 an hour, if you are a bus driver.

For previous median wage rates, check table 3 in the 'Transport Work to Residence Visa' section:

Wage rate requirements for visas

If you change jobs or your pay decreased, you may need to meet a new hourly rate.

You must also be paid at least the current median wage when you apply for the visa.

If you changed jobs during your 24 months of work experience

You can continue to count work experience as long as your new job pays at least the median wage that is in place when you change jobs.

You will stop counting work experience towards your 24 months if your new job pays less than the median wage in place when you change jobs.

You can start to count work experience again if your pay increases and you now earn the current median wage.

You must also be paid at least the current median wage when you apply for the visa.

If your pay decreased during your 24 months of work experience

You will stop counting work experience towards your 24 months if:

• your pay decreases, and
• your pay is now below the median wage in place when you change jobs.
• You can start to count work experience again if your pay increases and you now earn at least the current median wage.

Evidence of your work experience

Include any documents that show:

• the work you did
• how much you were paid
• when you did the work
• how many hours a week you worked (on average)
• the locations you did the work in
• the contact details of your employers.

Examples of documents you can provide include:

• employment agreements or contracts
• letters offering you the job
• job descriptions, payslips and letters of long service
• a summary of earnings or tax statements from Inland Revenue.

Documents from your employers should be on official company letterhead and signed by an authorised person.

We may ask for more evidence, such as bank statements or pay slips showing your salary payments.

What an employment agreement must include — Employment New Zealand
Request a summary of income — Inland Revenue

Health

You, and anyone else included in your application, must be in good health.

Why you may need to provide evidence you are in good health

You, and anyone else included, must complete a chest X-ray and medical examination.

Who needs an X-ray or medical examination

How to get an X-ray or medical examination

If you have provided medical certificates to us before and those certificates were issued within the last 3 years, you may not need to provide them again.

Health of your children aged 14 or younger

Dependent children included in your application and aged:

• 10 or younger, must get a medical examination, but do not need a chest X-ray unless we or your panel physician ask for one
• 11 to 14, must get a medical examination and a chest X-ray, but only need a blood test if we or your panel physician ask for one.

Character

You, and anyone else included in your application, must be of good character.

If you, and anyone else included, are aged 17 or older, you must provide police certificates that are less than 6 months old when you apply.

If you have a criminal conviction, or are a security risk to New Zealand, we might not give you a visa.

Good character for residence visas

You must get police certificates from:

• countries you are a citizen of, and
• countries where you have spent 12 months or more in over the last 10 years — even if those 12 months were not all in one stay.

Police certificates must show any criminal records you have had at any time in any of these countries — not only in the last 10 years.

If we ask for a new police certificate when processing your application, you will need to send us a new one.

Police certificates

Partner and dependent children

If you include your partner and dependent children in your application, you must have a genuine relationship with them.
You need to provide documents — like marriage and birth certificates — that prove your relationship to your partner and dependent children aged 24 or younger.

Partnership and how to prove it

Bringing children

If your partner or dependent children already have, or are applying for, a work, student or visitor visa based on their relationship to you, you must include them in your residence application.

English language

You must speak and understand English.

There are 2 ways to show us you speak and understand English – through:

• your citizenship, where you studied and the qualifications you gained
• English language tests.

The results of your English language test must:

• meet the minimum score we set
• be no more than 2 years old when you apply.

English language for family

Your partner and dependent children aged 16 or older must speak English or pay for classes to learn English in New Zealand.

There are 3 ways your partner and dependent children aged 16 or older can show us they speak English:

• their citizenship, where they studied and the qualifications they gained
• English language tests
• paying for English language lessons.

The results of their English language test must:

• meet the minimum score we set
• be no more than 2 years old when you apply.

Find out about the requirements around citizenship, study and qualifications, the test results required, and how to buy English language lessons:

English language requirements for skilled residence visas

When you apply

When you apply, you will need to provide:

• a copy of your passport or
• 1 acceptable photo
• evidence of a chest X-ray
• evidence of a medical examination
• police certificates from any country you are a citizen of, or any country that you have spent more than 12 months in the last 10 years
• evidence that you can speak and understand English
• evidence that you have worked in an approved transport job for 24 months
• evidence you have a job offer or already work in an approved transport job with an accredited employer
• translated versions of all your documents if they are not in English.

If you are including your partner and dependent children, provide:

• documents to show your relationship with them
• proof of their identity and acceptable photos
• police certificates, if they are aged 17 years or older
• evidence of medical examinations
• evidence of chest X-rays, if they are aged 11 years or older
• evidence they can speak English or have paid for English language lessons.

Providing your passport for an online application

Visa and NZeTA photos

After you apply

After you apply, we may contact you and ask for:

• your original passport
• more evidence such as bank statements or pay slips showing your salary payments
• more evidence of your ability to speak and understand English.

Your visa conditions are recorded in your eVisa.

Travel

You can travel in and out of New Zealand as many times as you like until your travel conditions expire.

Your travel conditions expire 2 years from:

• the date you first arrive in New Zealand as a resident, or
• the date your visa is issued, if you are already in New Zealand.

To travel after that, you need to:

• get a Permanent Resident Visa, or
• extend your travel conditions, which would let you return to New Zealand at a later date.

Permanent Resident Visa

Check or change your resident visa conditions

With a Permanent Resident Visa, you can travel in and out of New Zealand indefinitely, as long as you keep your visa in a valid passport.

If your passport expires, you must apply to transfer your visa to a new passport before you can travel.

Transferring a visa to a new passport

Work

You can work in any job for any employer in New Zealand.

Study

You can study anywhere in New Zealand for any length of time.

Getting a Permanent Resident Visa

After you have had a Transport Work to Resident Visa for 2 years in a row, you can apply for a Permanent Resident Visa.

With a Permanent Resident Visa, you can travel in and out of New Zealand indefinitely, as long as you keep your visa in a valid passport.

Becoming a permanent resident of New Zealand

Permanent Resident Visa

Getting citizenship

For most people, after 5 years of living in New Zealand as a resident, you may be able to get New Zealand citizenship. You do not need a Permanent Resident Visa first.

Requirements for NZ citizenship — New Zealand Government