Work to Residence Visa

Prove your identity by providing:

• 1 acceptable photo, and
• a scan of the personal details page of your passport or certificate of identity.

Acceptable photos for a visa or NZeTA

After you apply, we let you know if we need to see your original passport.

Providing your passport for online applications

If you, or anyone else included in your application, are aged 17 or older you must provide a police certificate from:

• all the countries you are a citizen of, and
• any other country you have stayed in for 12 months or more over the last 10 years, even if it was not all in the same stay.

How to get a police certificate

Good character for residence visas

You, and your partner if they are included in your application, need to show us you have an acceptable standard of health.

Acceptable standard of health criteria for visa approvals

This means you, and anyone else included in your application, must complete a chest X-ray and medical examination.

Who needs an X-ray or medical examination

The panel physician will prepare a medical certificate detailing the results of the examination and send it to us. It must be no more than 3 months old when you apply for your visa.

Getting an X-ray or medical examination

Health of your children

Dependent children aged 24 or younger included in your application must get a full general medical examination, but if they are:

• aged 10 or younger, they 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 years old, they 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.

We check your identity documents — for example, your passport — to confirm your age.

Provide documents — like marriage and birth certificates — that prove your relationship to your partner and dependent children aged 24 or younger.

Partnership

Dependent children

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

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

• taking English language tests, or
• providing documents that show you already speak and understand English.

The results of your English language test must be acceptable to us and no more than 2 years old when you apply.

English language test results for resident visas

If you already speak and understand English, provide documents that show you speak and understand English because of:

• your citizenship, or
• where you studied and the qualifications you gained.

English-speaking background

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

Taking a test

They can take English language tests. The results must be acceptable to us and no more than 2 years old when you apply.

English language test results for residence visas

Speaking English

You can provide evidence that they already speak and understand English. This depends on their citizenship, or where they studied and qualifications they gained.

English-speaking background

Paying for lessons

If your partner and dependent children do not speak English, they can learn in New Zealand. You must pay us for English language classes before we approve your visas.

Learning English after you come to New Zealand

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

• 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.

Visas that allow you to work

Critical Purpose Visitor Visa

Interim Visa

Green List in-demand role

For this visa, you must have worked full time in a role that is in Tier 2 on our Green List of in-demand roles. Search the Green List to:

• confirm your role is Tier 2, and
• find the documents you need to provide with your application.

If your Green List role is removed from the list after you start working, your time in that role still counts towards your 24 months of work.

Green list roles

Qualifications not gained in New Zealand

If the qualifications you need for your role were gained in another country, you may need to have them assessed by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). NZQA assesses overseas qualifications to confirm they are equivalent to New Zealand qualifications.

Getting overseas qualifications recognised by NZQA — NZQA

You do not need to get an NZQA assessment for some qualifications.

24 months' work

Documents you can provide include:

• your employment agreement and job description
• a letter from your employer that describes your role, hours of work and length of employment — especially if your pay and conditions have changed since you applied for your work visa.

Things an employment agreement must contain — Employment New Zealand

Calculating 24 months' work

You must have been working in your role for at least 24 months in the 30 months before you apply. To make up the 24 months you can:

• have been working in Green List roles for 24 months
• work for some of the time in a role that is not on the Green List, but, for that work, your pay must be twice the median wage or more
• count annual, bereavement or other leave you are legally entitled to, such as parental leave
• complete it in several stretches — for example, you could work for 2 lots of 12 months with a gap of 6 months in between.

Level of pay on your work visa

Documents you can provide to show what you have been paid during your 24 months' employment include:

• payslips or full bank statements showing your salary payments
• a summary of income from Inland Revenue.

Request a summary of income — Inland Revenue

Check the Green list to find out what your level of pay should be. You must have been paid the median wage or at a specific rate for the role you have worked in.

Green list roles

Your Green List role is paid at least the median wage

For the full 24 months before you apply for this visa, and at the time you apply, you must have been paid at least the median wage.

There is an exception. If you applied for your work visa or Critical Purpose Visitor Visa before 29 September 2023, you only need to be paid the median wage at the time you apply for your residence visa. This exception does not apply if your work visa is an Accredited Employer Work Visa.

Your Green List role has a specific pay rate

For the full 24 months before you apply for this visa, and at the time you apply, you must have been paid at least the rate specified for your Green List role.

Wage rate requirements for visas

Documents you can provide include:

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

Things an employment agreement must contain — Employment New Zealand

Your job

Your job with an accredited employer must be:

• full time
• on Tier 2 of the Green List of in-demand roles, and
• permanent or fixed-term for at least 12 months.

Check if an employer is accredited

You must also have the qualifications, registration, level of pay or other requirements needed for your Green List role.

Green List roles