Essential Skills Work Visa

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

Identity

You must provide proof of your identity:

• 1 acceptable photo if you apply online, or 2 photos if you use a paper application form
• your passport or

Visa and NZeTA 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.

Sending your passport for an online visa application

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.

Citizens of China applying from China

Also provide your:

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

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

Applicants from Hong Kong or Macao applying within Hong Kong or Macao

Also provide a copy of your identity card.

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

Citizens of Indonesia

If you are a citizen of Indonesia, also provide your .

Applicants applying from French Polynesia or Wallis and Futuna

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

Applicants applying from New Caledonia

Also provide a copy of your livret de famille.

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

Filipino citizens applying from the Philippines

Filipino citizens departing the Philippines must have a passport that is valid for 6 months after the intended date of departure. This is to meet the exit requirements in the Philippines.

Character

You must be of good character.

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

Character requirements for New Zealand 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.

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.

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

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.

Applicants from the Philippines

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

Health

You must be in good health.

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.

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

Applicants from China, Hong Kong or Macao applying within China, Hong Kong or Macao

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

• you have spent 6 months in a row in China since the last X-ray certificate was issued, and
• you are now coming to New Zealand for more than 6 months.

Genuine intentions

You must genuinely intend to meet the conditions of your visa.

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
• you provided in any previous application.

Genuine intentions to visit, study or work in New Zealand

New Zealand job offer

You must have an offer of full-time work.

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 will be doing and your responsibilities at work
• details of any necessary qualifications or work experience
• information about whether you will 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 will not normally grant a visa if your employer is included on the list of non-compliant employers maintained by Employment New Zealand.

Employment agreements and rights — Employment New Zealand

Employer stand-down list — Employment New Zealand

Availability of New Zealanders

There must be no New Zealanders available to do the work you have been offered.

You must provide an 'Employer Supplementary Form' completed by your employer.

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 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 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.

Qualifications and experience

You must be qualified to do the work you have been offered.

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 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 have been offered in New Zealand.

Citizens of Brazil applying from Brazil

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

Applicants from Eastern Europe

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

Applicants from Europe applying from within Schengen member states

If you need to provide evidence of work experience in a European country but are not a citizen of a , 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.

Filipino citizens applying from within the Philippines

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

Providing a CV or resume is not sufficient.

Employment certificates should be on the employer's official letterhead. They must be complete and be independently verifiable.

The certificate must show 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 POEA Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC) or e-Receipt, along with a copy of your job descriptions.

Occupational registration

You may need New Zealand registration.

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

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

Check if you need occupational registration for your job  

Stand-down period

You must not currently need to spend time outside of New Zealand as part of a stand-down period.

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

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.

Entry permission

You must apply for permission to enter New Zealand. You do this by completing a New Zealand Traveller Declaration (NZTD) form.

You can start your digital declaration any time, but the earliest you can submit it is 24 hours before starting your travel to New Zealand.

A paper declaration form is available for travellers who cannot complete it online.

New Zealand Traveller Declaration

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

Arriving in New Zealand

These are the conditions that you must meet once you have your visa. Your visa conditions are recorded in your eVisa.

Travel

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

Check or change your work visa conditions

Work

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

Study

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

Visa expiry

You must leave New Zealand before your visa expires.