Accredited Employer Work Visa: a plain-English guide for NZ employers

The Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) is New Zealand's main temporary work visa for employers who want to hire a migrant worker for a specific role. It replaced several older work visa categories in 2022 and is administered by Immigration New Zealand (INZ).

The important thing to understand is that it is an employer-led visa. The process starts with your business, not the candidate. Before a migrant can apply, you must be accredited, and the specific job must have passed a job check. Only then does the worker apply for the visa itself.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Immigration settings change frequently, sometimes several times a year. Always confirm the current rules on the Immigration New Zealand website or with a licensed immigration adviser before making decisions.

One point of honesty about where we fit: RecruitNet places candidates who already hold the right to work in New Zealand. We do not sponsor visas or run migration processes. What we can do is tell you, before you go down the AEWV path, whether the skills you need actually exist in the local market. Often they do, and the search is faster and cheaper than you expect.

The AEWV has three gates. Each must be passed in order.

Step 1: Employer accreditation

You apply to INZ to become an accredited employer. Accreditation is about your business, not a particular role. INZ checks that you are a genuinely operating business, financially sound, compliant with employment and immigration law, and that key people have no history of non-compliance. You also commit to a set of obligations, such as paying for recruitment costs, giving migrant workers time to complete online settlement modules, and not passing on visa or accreditation costs to the worker.

There are different accreditation levels depending on how many migrant workers you intend to employ and whether you place workers with third parties (labour hire arrangements have a separate, more demanding category). Accreditation is granted for a set period and then needs renewing.

Step 2: Job check

Once accredited, you apply for a job check for the specific role. INZ confirms that the job is genuine, pays at least the required wage rate, meets the conditions of any relevant list or agreement, and, where required, that you have advertised the role to New Zealanders first. The job check covers a set number of positions for a set period, so if you want to hire three engineers you apply for a job check covering three positions.

Step 3: The worker's visa application

With an approved job check, the migrant applies for the visa. They must show they have the skills and experience for the role, meet health and character requirements, and in some cases meet English-language and qualification standards. Visa length depends on the role's skill level and wage.

Wage is central to the AEWV. Most roles must be paid at or above a threshold set by INZ, historically tied to the New Zealand median wage. Some sectors have had agreed exemptions with lower rates, and some higher-skilled or higher-paid roles get longer visas and easier pathways to residence.

We are deliberately not quoting dollar figures here, because they change. Check the current median wage threshold and any sector exemption on the INZ site before you set a salary. Advertising a role below the threshold and then trying to hire a migrant into it is one of the most common ways employers lose months.

Skill level also matters. INZ uses an occupation classification framework to group roles by skill level, and the level affects visa length, whether a labour market test is required and whether the person has a pathway to residence. Roles on the Green List get a streamlined route because the Government has already accepted they are in shortage. Many engineering, technical and trades roles have featured on it, which is directly relevant to Waikato manufacturers.

Processing times move with INZ workload and change from month to month, so treat everything below as a planning guide only and check INZ's published processing times.

• Accreditation: typically weeks rather than days once a complete application is lodged. Incomplete applications go to the back of the queue.
• Job check: usually faster than accreditation, but any advertising requirement must be completed first, and adverts generally need to run for a minimum period.
• Visa application: varies widely by the applicant's country, health and character checks, and whether further information is requested.
• Then relocation: notice periods overseas, flights, housing and family arrangements can add one to three months.

Add it up and an offshore hire through the AEWV commonly takes three to six months from the decision to start. Compare that with a local specialist search, which we typically complete in 6 to 12 weeks depending on seniority. If a role is urgent, the local market should be tested properly first. Our guide to how long recruitment takes covers the local side.

There are three layers of cost. Government fees for accreditation, the job check and the visa itself are published on the INZ website and change periodically. Then there are the costs you are obliged to carry as an accredited employer, which include recruitment expenses and often relocation support. Finally there is advice: many employers use a licensed immigration adviser or immigration lawyer, particularly for a first accreditation, and that is money well spent.

Remember that you cannot recover visa or accreditation costs from the worker. Doing so is a breach of your accreditation obligations and can result in accreditation being revoked.

• Not testing the local market properly. Employers advertise once on a job board, get poor applications, and conclude the skills do not exist in New Zealand. Frequently they do, but the people holding them are employed and not reading job boards. A direct search often finds them.
• Setting the salary before checking the threshold. If the budgeted salary is under the required rate, the whole process stalls at the job check.
• Writing the job description for the visa, not the job. The role you describe to INZ has to match what the person will actually do. Inflating titles or duties to hit a skill level creates compliance risk later.
• Underestimating the paperwork. Accreditation asks for financial evidence, employment agreements, policies and declarations. Businesses without tidy HR records struggle.
• Forgetting the ongoing obligations. Accreditation comes with commitments about settlement support, record keeping and reporting changes. Breaches can affect every migrant worker you employ.
• Treating the visa as the end. Migrant hires need onboarding, housing help and a realistic view of Waikato life. A good onboarding process matters even more when someone has moved countries.

The Waikato's manufacturing, food processing, agritech and engineering businesses have felt skills shortages more than most. For genuinely scarce skills, such as specialist automation engineers, certain trades and some quality and technical roles, the AEWV is a legitimate part of the answer, particularly when the role appears on the Green List.

But we would encourage a sequence. First, get the role right: scope, salary and structure. Second, search the New Zealand market properly, including people who are not actively looking. Third, if that genuinely fails, plan an AEWV hire with proper advice and realistic timelines. Skipping to step three is slower and more expensive than most employers expect.

If you would like an honest read on whether the person you need exists in New Zealand, talk to us. Our engineering and technical and quality networks are a quick way to find out.