Work to Residence Visa (2024)

What you need to apply

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

View All Evidence

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

Tips

You must also provide your Kartu Keluarga.

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

You must also provide a copy of your livret de famille.

If you cannot provide a copy of your birth certificate, we can accept your identity card as proof of your identity, as long as you did not provide your birth certificate because of the cost or how long it would take to get.

If you are a Filipino citizen leaving the Philippines, your passport must be valid for 6 months after the date you plan to leave. This is a departure requirement in the Philippines.

Also provide your:

Hukou (household registration book)
Chineseidentity card.

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

Tips

Police certificates must be less than 6 months old at the time you apply.

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 are applying 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 – through:

your citizenship, where you studied and the qualifications you gained
English language tests.

The results of your English language test must:

meet the minimum score we set
be no more than 2 years old when you apply.

Find out about the citizenship requirements, the evidence needed for study and qualifications, or the test results required:

English language requirements for skilled residence visas

Note

When we assess your application, we may ask for more evidence of your ability to speak and understand English. If we do, you may have to sit a test and send us the results.

Green List in-demand role

Search for your role on our Green List of in-demand roles. For the Work to Residence Visa, you must:

be in a role that is Tier 2
be working full time in your role
provide documents you meet your Green List role's requirements.

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 and requirements

Qualifications not gained in New Zealand

You may need an International Qualification Assessment (IQA) for your overseas qualification.If you need an IQA, you must apply and include the results in your visa application.

Not all international qualifications need to be assessed, such as the Washington or Sydney Accord qualifications.

Check if you need to apply for an International Qualification Assessment

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.

Note

You can start counting your 24 months' work any time on and after 29 September 2021.

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.

Visas applied for before 29 September 2023

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 (AEWV).

AEWV granted after 28 February 2024

If your AEWV was granted after 28 February 2024, you must be paid at least the median wage. You will not gain work experience if you are paid NZD$29.66 an hour (the February 2023 median wage).

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

Note

If you provided these documents with your most recent work visa application only provide them again if you are working in a new role or if your pay and conditions have changed since you applied for your work visa.

Your job

Your job with an accredited employermust 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