New Zealand visas and immigration
Find out what actually applies to you
Immigration New Zealand publishes the rules. This site explains what they mean in practice: what each visa really requires, what it costs, how long it takes, and what commonly goes wrong.
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01
Work visas
What your employer has to do before you can apply, and what happens if the job ends.
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02
Residence pathways
How each route to staying permanently actually works, and what counts towards it.
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03
When it goes wrong
Declines, PPI letters, expired visas and appeals. What each one means, and the options.
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Covering Accredited Employer Work Visa, Skilled Migrant Category, Green List roles, Partnership visas, Student visas, Post-study work, Parent Resident Visa, Section 61 requests.
Who publishes this
Written by people who are accountable for it
This site is published by ProVisas, a licensed New Zealand immigration advisory practising since 2013. Everything here is reviewed by a licensed adviser, and the licence number in the footer links to the public register so you can check it yourself.
That matters more than it sounds. Anyone can publish immigration information. In New Zealand, only a licensed adviser or a lawyer can advise you on your own situation, and giving that advice unlicensed is a criminal offence.
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Checked against INZ
Every page carries a review date, and every figure we state carries a link to the Immigration New Zealand page it was read from and the date it was checked.
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No outcome promises
Nobody controls what INZ decides. Any site that guarantees a visa is misleading you.
What we cover
Guides for the situation you are actually in
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Student visas
Choosing a provider, what INZ asks for, and how study connects to work and residence afterwards.
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Partner & family
What INZ accepts as evidence of a genuine relationship, and how dependent children are included.
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Employers hiring migrants
Accreditation, job checks, and the wage and advertising rules before you can hire someone offshore.
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Choose your country
Moving to New Zealand from
What the process looks like from where you are: which documents your country issues, how qualifications are recognised, and what the whole move costs.
How it works
Three stages, and the one nobody controls
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Work out which visa applies
Start from your situation, not the visa name. Most people arrive not knowing which category they fall into.
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Gather what INZ asks for
Police certificates and medicals take the longest. Start those before anything else, not last.
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Submit your application
INZ decides. Nobody can promise an outcome, and anyone who does is telling you something untrue.
Who is behind this
Checkable, not claimed
Every number here can be verified independently. You will not find a success rate or an application count on this site, because those are either unverifiable or prohibited, and usually both.
- Licensed immigration advisers
- 6 Licensed immigration advisers
- Offices across the North Island
- 3 Offices across the North Island
- Practising since
- 2013 Practising since
Recent guides
The questions people actually ask
If you need more than information
Where to go next
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ProVisas
For readers who need advice on their own case from a licensed adviser.
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Target Language Academy
For readers who need a PTE or IELTS score for a visa or for study.
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StudentNZ
For readers choosing a course, or planning a study to residence pathway.
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Invest Visa NZ
For readers investing NZ$1m or more and seeking residence.