New Zealand Visa Guide 2026

What changed in New Zealand immigration since 2023

Most New Zealand guides still online were written for a system that no longer exists. Three changes matter more than the rest, and each one invalidates a specific claim you will still read elsewhere.

1. The Skilled Migrant Category stopped being a points total. New Zealand rebuilt the category around a 6-point threshold with three separate pathways. The old ranking approach awarded points for age bands, years of experience, qualification level, partner qualifications and location bonuses, then compared your total against a selection mark that moved between draws. None of that survives. Immigration New Zealand's current visa page states that you need 6 skilled resident points claimed from one skill category, plus optional work-experience top-ups. If a calculator asks for your age or offers partner points, it is scoring the retired system. Any guide quoting a 160-point or 180-point target is describing a selection mark that no longer exists and cannot be compared with the current bar.

2. The AEWV median wage requirement was removed on 10 March 2025. Immigration New Zealand announced the change on 20 February 2025 and applied it from 10 March 2025. The department's own wording is direct: if you apply for an Accredited Employer Work Visa on or after 10 March 2025, you do not have to be paid at least NZD $29.66 an hour, the February 2023 median wage, or any lower amount that came from a sector agreement or wage exemption. Six sector agreements and the tourism and hospitality wage exemption ended on the same date. What replaced the test is a market-rate requirement plus the ordinary minimum wage, not a new immigration number.

3. The median wage itself moved twice. It sat at NZD $31.61, then NZD $33.56 from 18 August 2025, then NZD $35.00 from 9 March 2026, announced by Immigration New Zealand on 18 February 2026. Removing the AEWV floor did not detach the immigration system from the median wage. Green List pay rates, advertising exemptions, longer stays for lower-skilled roles and partner income thresholds all still move with it. Separately, the adult minimum wage rose to NZD $23.95 an hour from 1 April 2026 under Employment New Zealand settings, and that is the figure the AEWV floor now leans on.

Which New Zealand visa fits your situation?

Start from what you intend to do, not from which visa sounds closest. The table below maps the common goals to the route that actually delivers them, and names the first action for each.

Two traps sit inside that table. The first is treating residence and citizenship as the same queue: they are decided by different agencies on different clocks, covered in the day-count section. The second is assuming an employer-sponsored work visa is a step towards residence. An AEWV is a work visa. It only becomes a residence pathway when the occupation is on the Green List, or when you separately qualify for the Skilled Migrant Category.

Visa options and categories

NZeTA and Visa Waiver Visitor Visa. For passports from visa waiver countries, the NZeTA is the travel authority and the visitor visa is granted at the border. It permits visits of up to 3 months at a time, or 6 months on a United Kingdom passport, with a ceiling of 6 months in any 12-month period counted back from your intended departure date. The NZeTA costs from NZD $17, is valid for 2 years, and Immigration New Zealand asks you to allow 72 hours for a decision.

Visitor Visa. For everyone else, and for longer stays. It costs from NZD $441, with 80 percent of applications decided within 2 weeks. You can stay up to 6 or 9 months depending on what is granted, with a maximum of 9 months in an 18-month period. Multiple-entry visas allow a total of 6 months in each 12-month period, and require you to have been out of New Zealand for at least 9 months in the 18 months before you apply.

Fee Paying Student Visa. For study at an approved education provider. It costs from NZD $850, 80 percent are decided within 7 weeks, and it can be issued for up to 4 years. You must show NZD $20,000 for each year if you are studying for a year or more, plus tuition. Part-time work of up to 25 hours a week during study and full-time work in holidays is available where the conditions are granted.

Accredited Employer Work Visa. The main employer-sponsored work route. Your employer must be accredited and hold an approved job check for your job, the offer must be full-time at 30 hours a week or more, and pay must meet the market rate. It costs from NZD $1,540 with 80 percent decided within 5 weeks, and allows a stay of up to 5 years for most jobs or 3 years where the job is ANZSCO skill level 4 or 5. You cannot include a partner or dependent children in the application itself; they apply under their own categories.

Green List residence. Two tiers, two visas. Tier 1 roles lead to the Straight to Residence Visa, which costs from NZD $6,450 with 80 percent decided within 3.5 months. Tier 2 roles lead to the Work to Residence Visa after 24 months of qualifying work here, also from NZD $6,450.

Skilled Migrant Category. The points-based residence route for people with a qualification, an occupational registration or high pay, plus a skilled job or job offer from an accredited employer. It costs from NZD $6,450 and is open to applicants aged 55 or younger.

Partner of a New Zealander Resident Visa. For partners of citizens and residents who have lived together in a genuine and stable relationship for at least 12 months. It costs from NZD $5,360, with 80 percent decided within 7 months, and includes work and study rights.

Permanent Resident Visa. Available after two years in a row on a resident visa, and it removes the need to renew travel conditions. From NZD $315, 80 percent decided within 2 weeks.

Business, investor and parent categories. New Zealand also runs investor and business residence categories and a parent category, and all of them set capital and income bars far above the skilled routes. These settings have been reviewed repeatedly, and figures published under earlier policy versions no longer describe the categories as they stand, so read the business, investor and parent pages on Immigration New Zealand for the version in force on the day you apply instead of relying on a summary table.

If you are still narrowing the field, the visa reference checker filters these categories by purpose, and the tourist visa guide covers short-stay evidence in more depth.

The 6-point Skilled Migrant Category threshold

The Skilled Migrant Category is the route most often described incorrectly online, so it is worth stating plainly what the number measures. You need 6 skilled resident points. You claim them from exactly one skill category: a qualification, a New Zealand occupational registration, or your income. If your best category scores below 6, you may add up to 3 more points from skilled work experience in New Zealand. You cannot bolt a second category on. Qualifications plus income is not allowed, and registration plus qualifications is not allowed.

The income table is where the gaps are widest. With the SMC wage threshold at NZD $35.00 an hour for skilled work experience starting on or after 9 March 2026, 1.5 times the threshold is NZD $52.50 and 3 points, 2 times is NZD $70.00 and 4 points, and 3 times is NZD $105.00 and the full 6. There is no 5-point income rung, which means an applicant paid twice the threshold needs two experience points, not one.

There are three SMC pathways and you only need to meet one. The points-based pathway is the 6-point test above. The Skilled Work Experience pathway is for people without a degree: Immigration New Zealand's visa page asks for at least 5 years of directly relevant work experience, including at least 2 years of skilled work in New Zealand. The Trades and Technician pathway needs a relevant qualification plus post-qualification experience, and this is the one place where the department's own two pages state different numbers: the visa page says 4 years in total including 18 months in New Zealand, while the pathway explainer says 2.5 years plus 1.5 years here. Read both pages before you count, and treat the longer figure as the safe planning assumption.

Points decide nothing on their own. Every applicant also has to be 55 or younger, hold a skilled job or job offer from an accredited employer, and meet English, health and character requirements. The expression of interest is not the application, and the residence application itself starts from NZD $6,450.

How to work out your score without wasting a submission

1. Pick one skill category, based on the strongest evidence you already hold rather than the highest ceiling.
2. Score that category using the published tables, and note the rung you actually clear, not the rung you expect to reach.
3. Add New Zealand skilled work experience only if you are short, remembering that the experience must have been paid at the required rate throughout.
4. Check the non-points requirements, starting with age and the accredited employer job offer, because they sink more applications than arithmetic does.
5. Complete any International Qualification Assessment before submitting, since the assessment reference goes into the expression of interest itself.
6. Only then submit, and keep the evidence that supports each claimed point ready for the invitation to apply.

The SMC 6-point checker runs the three categories against your stated experience and shows which single category clears the bar with the least further work. Our New Zealand skilled migration guide covers what happens after the invitation to apply.

AEWV pay rules after 10 March 2025

There is no single "AEWV minimum wage" in 2026. Two rules exist, they were introduced on different dates, and one of them is closed. Which one governs your offer depends on when the application was lodged.

The distinction between the first two rows costs people money. The AEWV floor is a work visa condition: clear it and you can hold the visa. The Green List rate is a residence condition: clear it and, after 24 months in a Tier 2 role or immediately in a Tier 1 role, you can apply for residence. A rate can pass the first test and fail the second by a wide margin, which is why an offer that looks compliant to an employer can still be useless for residence.

One consequence of the March 2025 change catches employers out. A job check approved before 10 March 2025 can still be used to hire at a rate lower than the one approved, provided the new rate meets the market rate. The employer does not need to ask Immigration New Zealand to update the job check; the lower rate is assessed during the migrant's visa application instead.

Where the median wage still decides the answer

Removing the general requirement did not detach the system from the median wage. Immigration New Zealand's February 2026 announcement lists the settings that continue to move with it. At NZD $35.00 an hour from 9 March 2026, the arithmetic is fixed.

Two of those are routinely misread. The NZD $70.00 figure is not a wage you must pay to hire a migrant; it is an exemption that removes the advertising requirement because the pay level itself is treated as evidence of competition for the worker. The NZD $52.50 figure is a stay-length rule, not a visa floor: it is the point at which a skill level 4 or 5 role stops being capped at 3 years and can support 5. Anyone quoting either number as "the AEWV salary threshold" has confused a shortcut with a requirement.

The AEWV wage checker tests an hourly rate against both the work visa floor and the Green List residence rate, and never averages the closed rule with the current one.

Green List Tier 1 versus Tier 2

The Green List is not a points system and it is not a ranking. It is a list of occupations New Zealand has decided it needs, split into two skill tiers, and the tier decides one thing above all else: whether you have to work here before you can apply for residence.

The 24-month clock is not simply two years in the job. Immigration New Zealand counts 24 months of work inside the 30 months immediately before you apply, which leaves a maximum of six months of non-work time in the window, and the 24 months can be split across two stretches. Paid leave counts. A month does not count if the job was not a Tier 2 Green List job, if it was not full-time, if pay sat below the required rate for that occupation, or if you did not hold a work visa at the time.

Both tiers share conditions that have nothing to do with the occupation: the job must be with an accredited employer, permanent or fixed-term for at least 12 months, and full-time. Both lead to the same next step, a Permanent Resident Visa after two years on the resident visa.

The Green List checker returns your tier, the work period it requires and the earliest date a residence application could follow. It also explains why filing late can push your earliest months outside the 30-month look-back, which is a different failure from filing early.

Four New Zealand calculators

Four tools on this site handle the arithmetic in this guide. Each one states the rule it applies, the date it was checked, and what it cannot test.

Two related guides sit alongside these tools. The skilled migration guide follows the residence application itself, and New Zealand visas for Americans covers the NZeTA and visitor questions specific to United States passports. Canadians can check the short-stay position on whether Canadians need a visa for New Zealand, and the full tool directory is on the tools page and the free calculators page.

Fees and processing times

These are the government fees published on each Immigration New Zealand visa page on 29 October 2026. They are the starting figures, not the total cost: medicals, police certificates, translations, qualification assessments and courier costs sit outside them, and fees change.

NZeTA and Visitor Visa rules

Most tourists either request an NZeTA or apply for a Visitor Visa, depending on nationality. Visa waiver travellers request an NZeTA before departure: from NZD $17, cheaper through the mobile app than the online form, with most requests decided within 72 hours and approval valid for 2 years. The International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy is charged at the same time as the NZeTA request, so the amount you pay at checkout is the NZeTA fee plus the levy, and the NZeTA site shows both before you submit.

The stay rules are tighter than the two-year validity suggests. An NZeTA allows visits of up to 3 months at a time, or 6 months on a United Kingdom passport, and you can only be in New Zealand for up to 6 months within any 12-month period, counted back from your intended departure date. Visits can be split. Two three-month trips that fall inside the same 12-month window are fine; a third trip that pushes the total to seven months is not, even though each trip is individually short.

Travellers who need a visa apply for the Visitor Visa, which Immigration New Zealand prices from NZD $441 and decides for 80 percent of applicants within 2 weeks. The visa allows stays of up to 6 or 9 months, with a maximum of 9 months in any 18-month period, and applicants should show at least NZD $1,000 a month for living costs, or NZD $400 a month where accommodation is already paid for. A Visitor Visa also allows study of up to 3 months.

Remote workers should note the boundary carefully: a visitor visa does not authorise work for a New Zealand employer, although remote work for an overseas business is treated as an exception. Anyone planning to take a New Zealand job needs a work visa instead. Every traveller also completes a New Zealand Traveller Declaration, which can be submitted from 24 hours before the journey begins.

Compare short-stay strategy with our tourist visa guide, prepare the money evidence with the proof of funds guide, and check the return-ticket requirement on proof of onward travel. Current waits sit on our processing times tracker.

Study and partner routes

Student visas suit full-time study at an approved provider. The Fee Paying Student Visa costs from NZD $850, 80 percent of applications are decided within 7 weeks, and the visa can run for up to 4 years. Beyond tuition, you must show NZD $20,000 for each year if you are studying for a year or more, and the funds evidence has to be consistent across every statement you submit. Part-time work of up to 25 hours a week during study and full-time work in scheduled holidays is available where the conditions are granted, which is more generous than the 20-hour rule many older guides still quote. Immigration New Zealand advises applying at least 3 months before you travel, and notes that student processing is busiest between October and March.

Partner residence suits couples who have lived together in a genuine and stable relationship for at least 12 months, with both partners aged 18 or over. The Partner of a New Zealander Resident Visa costs from NZD $5,360, with 80 percent decided within 7 months, and it includes work and study rights. Evidence is the whole case: shared finances, shared address, correspondence, photographs and a completed partnership support form. After two years on that visa you can apply for a Permanent Resident Visa.

If you are weighing New Zealand against another destination, the best countries for immigration comparison and the Australia processing time guide put the decision in context.

Permanent residence and citizenship day counts

These two tests look similar and are not. Immigration New Zealand grants resident and permanent resident visas. The Department of Internal Affairs, through its Citizenship Office, grants citizenship by grant. Different agencies, different windows, different daily rates.

Passing the first test does not carry into the second. A pattern that clears 184 days comfortably can sit below the 240-day line in the same year: spend eight months in New Zealand and four abroad and you clear permanent residence with room to spare while landing close enough to 240 that one extra week away ends a citizenship application. The look-back length matters as much as the daily rate. Permanent residence reads two years; citizenship reads five, so a long absence in your first year of residence is invisible to a permanent resident application filed in year three and fatal to a citizenship application filed in year five.

The total is a separate hurdle. Five years at exactly 240 days is 1,200 days, which is 150 short of 1,350, so an even eight-months-a-year pattern clears every individual year and still fails overall. The Department of Internal Affairs also warns that being out of New Zealand for longer than 4 months in any 12-month period, or more than 15 months in total across the five years, may put the presence requirement out of reach. A single "days in New Zealand" number does not answer either question.

The five commitment routes to permanent residence

The PR and citizenship day counter converts a travel history into both verdicts and shows which of the two requirements decides your application date. If you are comparing jurisdictions, the Canadian 730-day calculator applies a different rule to a similar question.

Who is not eligible

Some of these routes are closed to particular applicants, and knowing that early saves a fee.

• Residence applicants over 55. The Skilled Migrant Category, Straight to Residence and Work to Residence visas all require you to be 55 or younger when you apply.
• NZeTA applicants who need a sponsor. If someone else must cover your costs in New Zealand, you do not meet the NZeTA requirements and must apply for a visa before travelling.
• Visitor Visa applicants who intend to work. A visitor visa does not authorise work for a New Zealand employer. Remote work for an overseas business is the exception, not the rule.
• Student visa applicants wanting to bring family in the same application. The Fee Paying Student Visa does not include a partner or dependent children; they need their own visas.
• AEWV applicants wanting to include family. The Accredited Employer Work Visa application cannot include a partner or dependent children, who apply separately.
• Skilled Migrant Category applicants claiming a non-degree qualification at Level 7 or below. Those qualifications score no points in the qualification category, and tradespeople should check the Trades and Technician pathway instead.
• Applicants who mix skill categories. If you claim qualification points, you cannot top up with registration or income points. Only New Zealand skilled work experience can be added.

Why applications get refused

Immigration New Zealand refusals most often trace to incomplete evidence rather than ineligibility: bank statements that do not cover the required period, funds that dip below the monthly threshold, a vague travel purpose, weak ties to the home country, or an undisclosed prior refusal or overstay. Medical and character issues cause a smaller but harder-to-fix share of declines.

Reduce the risk by submitting a complete file the first time, explaining every large deposit, aligning employment letters with payslips and bank credits, and declaring adverse history up front with a short factual explanation. For residence applications, the equivalent failure is claiming points you cannot evidence, which is why the expression of interest should never be treated as a rough estimate. There is no paid priority lane that overrides a weak file, so completeness beats speed.

Application checklist

The order of operations is fixed, and running the steps out of sequence is the most common way to lose months.

1. Confirm which route applies. Check your passport against the NZeTA and visa tool first, then your occupation, tier or points position if you are aiming at work or residence.
2. Test the numbers before you commit. Use the SMC, AEWV, Green List or day-count calculator for the route you have chosen, and read what each tool says it cannot check.
3. Fix anything that takes external time. An International Qualification Assessment, a police certificate or a chest X-ray can each add weeks, so start them before the application, not after.
4. Create or sign in to your Immigration Online account and select the correct form for your visa type. Applying under the wrong category is a decline, not a redirect.
5. Gather the core evidence: passport, photographs, funds evidence covering the full period, employment or enrolment letters, accommodation outline, and relationship proof where a partner is included.
6. Pay the correct fee and levy for your nationality and visa, and keep the receipt with your application records.
7. Respond to any request for more information quickly. Silence is the most common cause of avoidable delay.
8. Do not book non-refundable travel until the visa or NZeTA is granted, and re-check the processing estimate for your visa in the week you apply.

Frequently asked questions