New Zealand Employer Accreditation

Learn all about the New Zealand Employer Accreditation process. The new Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) began on 4 July 2022 and all employers wishing to hire migrant employees on and AEWV must be accredited with Immigration New Zealand.

Key points to know;

• Employers who only employ migrants holding open work visas (eg: post-study, partnership, working holiday) do not initially require to become accredited to continue to employ these workers (but this may change in 2023)
• Accreditation is only required to support new AEWV applications, and accreditation is not required to continue to employ migrant workers on their existing work visas for now – but accreditation will be required to support new work visas for these workers when they need to renew their work visas in the future, and from 2023 to employ anyone on any type of work visa including partners, students and working holiday visa holders

There are 2 types of employer accreditation

 There are 3 steps to hiring a migrant on an Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV):

• The initial employer accreditation will be for 24 months and subsequent accreditation renewals will be for 24 months, except for franchise and labour hire type businesses who require annual renewals.
• The job must be paid at or above the NZ median payrate, and 3 year work visas will be issued. There can also be temporary exceptions for specified roles in in certain industry sectors, referred to as Sector Agreements. For these exception categories 2 year work visas will be issued.

Process and timing

• The accreditation, job check and AEWV application processes are all undertaken online
• Employer accreditation applications are currently taking around 10 working days
• Job check applications and are also taking around 10 working days to process but can vary depending upon complexity of requirements such as labour market check
• Migrant check/AEWV take around 20 working days to process

 INZ application fees

Employer accreditation:

There are a number of obligations that accredited employers must fulfil as part of their accreditation including, for example, the provision of settlement information and assistance, completion of Employment NZ learning modules for both the migrant employee and key employer staff. There are significant additional obligations for those businesses operating labour hire or similar businesses.

Begin your journey to employer accreditation AEWV requirements right here with MTNZ and Pathways NZ. It’s easier on the pocket than going direct. Pathways NZ will contact you shortly.