Employers

Home Employers

We help employers

A Work Visa will give you the opportunity to work and live in New Zealand, allowing you to enjoy New Zealand’s world class work conditions, entitlements, wages and great career opportunities. New Zealand offers a variety of temporary work visas, with some potentially leading to residence.

If you have an Essential Skills work visa based on a skilled job, you may qualify for residence under the Skilled Migrant Category or a Work to Residence visa. All temporary work visa holders may study for up to three months per visa or three months in every 12-month period and there is a number of options for your family or partners to join you.

By connecting thousands of potential migrant workers currently in our database, that are onshore and offshore.

By providing accurate and cost-effective immigration advice to your current workforce.

By supporting employers to meet their business needs and staying legal on top of all the current immigration changes.

Employer accreditation

The Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) includes three accreditation levels, each with their own specific requirements. All New Zealand employers wanting to hire a foreign worker will be required to be accredited. From 2022, six existing temporary work visas, including the Talent (Accredited Employer) Work Visa, will be replaced with a single temporary work visa. The Talent Accredited Employer scheme will be replaced by a new process for accrediting employers which means that if you want to hire a migrant worker on the new visa, you must be accredited in the new process first.

There will be 3 types of accreditation, depending on how many migrants you employ in a 12-month period.

Standard accreditation — if you employ between 1 and 5 migrants in 12 months
High-volume accreditation — if you employ more than 5 employer-assisted migrant workers in 12 months
Labour hire employer accreditation.

All New Zealand employers wanting to hire a foreign worker will be required to be accredited. We recommend employers are well prepared for these changes. Connect with our expert team today about how we can streamline this process for you and your business

Update for Employers – July 2021

On 16 July 2021 the Government announced that the introduction of the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) will be deferred from 1 November 2021, until mid-2022. A specific date is yet to be confirmed. We will endeavour to keep you up to date as we receive more information about the Government’s changing plans. If you would like to speak with one of our team, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

What visas work best for your business?

With a wide range of visas available, it is crucial to establish what type of visas are best for your needs and for the needs of your employees. Dependent on the profile of the employees and the business type, most applicants would be seeking a: Working Holiday Visas (Including SSE Visas); Essential Skills Work Visas; Specific Purpose Work Visas; Work to Residence Visas

Employers can also save time and streamline the immigration process by:

Gaining an Approval In Principle, which provides for pre-approved visas for specific positions.
Becoming an Accredited Employer, which will allow you to recruit talented foreign workers without going through the whole immigration process every time.
Our Visa Safe System, which supports employers, by reviewing your current workforce, verifying all employees visa status and supporting any adjustments to make sure you comply with Immigration Law.

Explore Immigration offers three key visa options at competitive prices. These include:

Group Applications starting from $430 per application
Approval In Principle & Employer Accreditation form $1420
Visa Safe System starting from $220 per employee

Can employers give immigration advice?

If you are an employer, you cannot legally provide immigration advice unless you are licensed by the Immigration Advisers Authority or exempt from licensing (such as an Immigration New Zealand staff member for instance).