Immigration law for employers
Employers who breach immigration law can be fined, imprisoned, lose their accreditation status and be placed on a stand-down list.
Employers must comply with Immigration law
Employers who do not comply with immigration law can face consequences such as:
- loss of accreditation status
- being prevented from hiring migrants, by being placed on a stand-down list
- infringement fees
- fines, and
- imprisonment.
These consequences apply to all employers who hire migrants, and are not limited to accredited employers.
Immigration employment infringements
Employers can be issued an infringement notice for each infringement offence with an NZD$1,000 fee for individuals, or NZD$3,000 for body corporates if they:
- employ someone who is not allowed to work in New Zealand, or
- employ someone in a manner that is not consistent with the work-related conditions on their visa.
Note
Employers are responsible for making sure migrant workers are employed in line with all work-related visa conditions. An infringement notice may be issued if these conditions are not met, even if the employer was unaware of the breach. Conditions may include who the migrant can work for, their job, work location, hours of work and pay.
Employers can also be issued an infringement notice for each infringement offence with an NZD$1,000 fee for individuals and body corporates if they:
- fail to provide specified employment documents when asked to by an immigration officer, immediately or if not practicable - within 10 working days.
Convictions for more serious Immigration Act offences will result in further penalties.
- ask us to consider any matter relating to the circumstances of the alleged offence
- deny liability for the alleged offence and request a court hearing, or
- admit liability for the alleged offence, but have a court consider written submissions as to penalty or otherwise.
- the date of the alleged infringement offence
- the infringement notice number, and
- your full name and address for replies.
You must pay an infringement fee within 28 days after receiving it. Information about how to pay is on your infringement notice.
If you do not pay within 28 days we will send you a reminder notice. You will have a further 28 days from receiving your reminder notice to pay your infringement fee in full.
If you pay the infringement fee in full, we will not take any further enforcement action.
If you do not pay on time
If you do not pay an infringement fee on time we may consider taking further enforcement action. This can include referring the infringement to the Ministry of Justice for collection.
If you have received an infringement notice you also have the option to:
Note
If you ask us to review an infringement notice and we decide it was issued correctly, we cannot remove or reduce the infringement fee or any stand-down period. Infringement offences are strict liability offences, which means they can be issued even if there was no intention or knowledge.
Your infringement notice or reminder notice explains these options and what can happen if the infringement is referred to court.
If you want to take further action, you must send us a signed letter within 28 days after receiving the infringement notice or reminder notice. If you have already paid the infringement fee we will not carry out a review.
When writing to us you must include:
Your infringement notice tells you where to send your letter.
Breaches of immigration law can mean you will not be able to recruit migrant workers
If you receive an infringement notice or are convicted for breaching immigration law you may be placed on an immigration stand-down list.
This means that you will be unable to support visa applications for a set period of time. Serious immigration offences may result in you being unable to support visa applications permanently.
This is separate from the list of non-compliant employers maintained by the Labour Inspectorate for employers who breach employment law. You can be stood down from employing migrants if you breach immigration law or employment law.
During a stand-down period, migrant workers who already hold valid visas can continue working for you while their visas allow them to. However, you cannot support another visa for an existing worker or a visa for a new migrant worker. You also cannot apply for an immigration employer status, such as employer accreditation.
Stand-down periods
Immigration employment infringements
- 6 months for a single infringement notice
- 12 months for multiple infringements notices
The maximum stand-down for multiple infringement notices issued at once is 12 months.
If an employer gets another infringement notice in the future, the stand-down period for the new infringement notice will overlap with the current one, so they will apply at the same time.
Example
An employer is issued 3 6-month infringement notices on 1 January 2026, so their stand-down period ends on 1 January 2027 (12 months is the maximum period an employer can be stood down for multiple infringement notices issued at a time). On 1 September 2026, they receive another infringement notice for 6 months. This stand-down period ends on 1 March 2027 – meaning the 2 stand-down periods overlap from 1 September 2026 to 1 January 2027.
Other Immigration Act offences
For the following Immigration Act offences, your stand-down period is determined by the fines you are given in court.
- Making a statement or giving information that is false or misleading — Section 342 (1) (a) of the Act.
- Helping someone to stay in New Zealand who is here illegally or does not meet their visa conditions — Section 343 (1) (d) of the Act.
- Resisting or obstructing an Immigration Officer — Section 344 (d) of the Act.
- Publishing or knowingly providing false or misleading information — Section 347 of the Act.
- Allowing someone to work for you when they are not entitled to — Section 350 (1) of the Act.
Immigration Act - Part 10 Offences, penalties, and proceedings — New Zealand Legislation
Note
If you deny liability for an infringement offence and are subsequently issued a fine for that offence by a court, your stand-down period is also determined by the fine you are given in court. This may result in a longer stand-down period.
| Fine | Stand-down period |
|---|---|
| Up to and including NZD $1,000 | 6 months |
| Over NZD $1,000 but less than NZD $10,000 | 12 months |
| Over NZD $10,000 but less than NZD $25,000 | 18 months |
| NZD $25,000 or more | 24 months |
Accredited employers
If you are an Accredited Employer you will also lose your accreditation status, in addition to being stood-down from hiring migrants.
Your accreditation may also be suspended while we investigate an alleged immigration employment infringement, consider a review request, or while related court proceedings are underway.
Regaining accreditation
After the stand-down period has ended you must show you have addressed the non-compliance issue and taken steps to make sure it does not happen again.
After your stand-down period ends, you must show that you have:
- fixed the issue that led to the stand-down
- taken steps to prevent it happening again
- met the requirements for employer accreditation.
A business with compliance failures cannot be closed and reopened under a new name to avoid those failures. We still take into account the compliance issues of the previous business or its
Permanent bans for serious immigration offences
You will be permanently banned from supporting work visas if you are convicted and sentenced to prison or home detention for either of the following Immigration Act offences:
- helping someone to stay in New Zealand who is here illegally or does not meet their visa conditions — Section 343 (1) (d) of the Act.
- resisting or obstructing an Immigration Officer — Section 344 (d) of the Act.
You will also be permanently banned from supporting work visas if you are convicted, regardless of the penalty, under the Immigration Act for offences including:
- supplying information to an immigration officer or refugee and protection officer that is false or misleading — Section 342 (1) (b) of the Act.
- helping someone to remain in New Zealand unlawfully or to breach their visa conditions for your material benefit — Section 343 (1) (a) of the Act.
- forging or misusing immigration or identity documents — Section 345 of the Act.
- altering forms — Section 348 of the Act.
- exploiting temporary workers - or migrants who are not allowed to work in New Zealand — Section 351 of the Act.
Immigration Act - Part 10 Offences, penalties, and proceedings — New Zealand Legislation
You will also be permanently banned, from supporting work visas if you are convicted, regardless of the penalty, under the Crimes Act for:
- slavery — Section 98 of the Act.
- smuggling or trafficking migrants — Section 98C and Section 98D of the Act.
Crimes Act - Sections 98 to 98D — New Zealand Legislation
The rules and criteria for permanent bans are available in appendix 18 of our Operational Manual.