Supporting a worker's Recognised Seasonal Employer Limited Visa application

Supporting workers during the visa application process

When a worker accepts your employment offer, you need to ensure they, or the recruitment agent acting on your behalf, is fully supported for the Limited Visa application.

As an employer you must support workers by:

• ensuring the work offered is planting, maintaining, harvesting or packing crops
• providing the worker with a written employment agreement
• complying with the requirements set out in your Agreement to Recruit (ATR)
• letting the worker know in writing what their agreed voluntary deductions are
• sending the worker their New Zealand flight details
• letting the worker know their insurance information.

Helping workers with their visa application

Workers may need help with their visa application, such as arranging their medical certificates, medical insurance and police certificates.

The people who can help a worker with their visa application are:

• you, if you are in the worker's country
• the Labour Sending Unit
• the visa application centre, or
• the recruitment agent acting on your behalf.

It is important that the worker's visa application clearly shows your ATR number.

If the worker is part of a , the application must show the ATR numbers for both employers in the agreement.

If one of the ATR numbers is missing from the visa application, this may mean a worker is given a visa for only part of the time they were meant to work in New Zealand. This will mean they are illegally in New Zealand over that time period.

How long a worker can be in New Zealand

Workers are issued visas with conditions. This includes work conditions that say who their employer is, how long they can work for them, and what region of New Zealand they can work in.

We use your ATR to work out the how long the worker's visa will be for.

• The visa lets them stay in New Zealand for up to 7 months over an 11-month period.
• If the workers are from Kiribati and Tuvalu, they can stay up to 9 months over an 11-month period.

RSE workers who stay in New Zealand after their RSE Limited Visas expire may be deported.

If you stay in New Zealand after your visa expires

Recognised Seasonal Employer Limited Visa

Checking visa conditions

When you receive an RSE worker's visa, you need to check that the:

• dates cover the whole time you want them to work
• date the worker must fly to New Zealand is still valid. If this date has passed, they will not be able to board their flight.