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Emigrating to New Zealand: the requirements that decide it

Whichever visa you use to emigrate to New Zealand, the same gates decide it: age, health, character, English, skills and, on some routes, money. Which are fixed, which you can meet more than one way, and what actually fails people at each.

· 9 min read · By Katrin Maja O'Flynn

Migration rules change regularly. Treat this article as a policy snapshot and confirm current requirements with a licensed advisor before relying on it.

Emigrating to New Zealand: the requirements that decide it

Photo: Photo by Bagus Prabangkara on Pexels (https://www.pexels.com/photo/scenic-pastoral-landscape-in-new-zealand-38437723/)

Whichever visa you use to emigrate to New Zealand, the same gates decide the application: age, health, character, English, and a skills test that on most routes runs through a job with an accredited employer. Some of these are fixed. The age limit of 55 for skilled residence, the six-point threshold on the Skilled Migrant Category’s points pathway and a police certificate from every required country do not bend. Others can be met in more than one way: English by background or by test, a foreign qualification by assessment or by an exempt list, skills by points, experience or a trade. Money matters only on a few routes.

If you are asking how to move to New Zealand, work through the New Zealand immigration requirements below before you choose a visa.

Age: measured on the day you apply

The Skilled Migrant Category (SMC) Resident Visa, the Straight to Residence Visa and the Work to Residence Visa all require you to be aged 55 or younger when you apply. Immigration New Zealand (INZ) confirms your age from your identity document. The Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) page lists no age requirement.

What actually fails people: the Work to Residence Visa needs 24 months in a Green List Tier 2 job before you can apply, and the age test is applied to that residence application. Someone who starts the two-year clock at 54 reaches the application too late.

Health: the whole application is assessed

INZ calls its standard the “acceptable standard of health”. It checks whether you are a risk to public health, whether you would add significant cost to or place demands on New Zealand’s health services, and whether your health would stop you working or studying if that is the purpose of the visa.

For skilled residence, you and everyone included aged 15 or older need a medical examination and a chest X-ray. Children aged 11 to 14 need both; children aged 10 or younger need the medical examination only. The evidence must be less than three months old when INZ receives it, and it is done by an INZ-approved panel physician unless your country has none. For a temporary stay of more than 12 months, a chest X-ray and a medical examination are required no matter where you are from (student visas follow different rules).

What actually fails people: INZ may decline a residence application if a medical assessor thinks your health costs are likely to exceed NZD 81,000. INZ cannot take into account private health insurance or family members willing to pay for treatment. The assessment covers every person in the application, so a child’s condition can decide the family’s outcome.

Character: police certificates from more countries than you expect

For a resident visa, everyone aged 17 or older provides police certificates from every country of citizenship and from any country where they spent 12 months or more over the last 10 years, even if those months were split across several stays. The certificates must be less than six months old when you submit. For a work visa, certificates are required if your total time in New Zealand will be 24 months or longer, from countries of citizenship and any country you lived in for more than five years since turning 17.

INZ will decline residence if you were ever sentenced to five years or more in prison, were sentenced to 12 months or more in the last 10 years, or were removed or deported from any country.

What actually fails people: the offences that are “not normally” accepted for residence, which a waiver may still overcome. They include a conviction in the last five years for dangerous or drunk driving, or driving after taking drugs, and any conviction involving dishonesty. Leaving something out counts against you too: INZ can decline an application over false or misleading information, and false, misleading or withheld information in an earlier New Zealand application is a character issue for residence in its own right. A receipt showing you have applied for a certificate is not accepted, except for Fiji, Hong Kong and Israel, and a certificate not in English needs a translation.

English: several routes, one standard

For the skilled residence visas, the principal applicant shows English in one of two ways. The first is background: citizenship of Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom or the United States with at least five years working or studying there or in Australia or New Zealand, or a qualification gained in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom or the United States: a bachelor’s degree after living there for at least two years while studying, or a postgraduate qualification at level 8 or above after at least one year. The second is a test sat in person, with at least IELTS 6.5 overall (General or Academic), TOEFL iBT 79, PTE Academic 58, B2 First 176, or OET grade C+ in all four skills.

Your partner and dependent children aged 16 or older have lower minimum scores, or you can pay for English lessons for them in New Zealand. For the AEWV, English is required only if the job is at ANZSCO (the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations) skill level 3 to 5.

What actually fails people: a test result more than two years old when you apply, or an “at home” test, which INZ does not accept. For the SMC, from 24 August 2026 a result can be up to five years old, but only for the person who holds a full occupational registration that is eligible for SMC points.

Skills and the job: points are not a substitute for the job

On the SMC, every pathway requires a skilled job, or an offer of one, with an accredited employer. You also need one of three pathways:

  • Points-based: three to six points from one skill category (qualification, New Zealand occupational registration, or income), topped up to six if needed by up to three points for skilled work experience in New Zealand
  • Skilled Work Experience: a job at ANZSCO skill level 1 to 3 and at least five years of directly relevant work experience, including two years of skilled work in New Zealand
  • Trades and Technician: an eligible trades or technician occupation, a relevant qualification at level 4 or higher, and at least four years of post-qualification experience, including 18 months of skilled work in New Zealand

An overseas qualification counts for points only with an International Qualification Assessment (IQA) from the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA), unless it is on the List of Qualifications Exempt from Assessment (LQEA). An overseas bachelor’s degree is worth four points, a New Zealand one five.

What actually fails people: a job offer from an employer who is not accredited, and the belief that points alone are enough. With the visa application, INZ will not accept proof that an IQA is pending, only the result.

Money: only where the route asks for it

The SMC and Green List residence visas list no settlement-funds requirement; the money that matters there is the pay rate of the job. A German working holiday applicant needs at least NZD 4,200 for living expenses, an Austrian one NZD 2,250, and both need full medical insurance for the stay. The Business Investor Work Visa asks for at least NZD 500,000 in reserve funds, on top of the investment itself.

How the gates map to the main routes to New Zealand

RouteAgeEnglishSkill and job gate
Skilled Migrant Category55 or youngerSkilled-residence standardOne of three pathways plus a skilled job with an accredited employer
Straight to Residence (Green List Tier 1)55 or youngerSkilled-residence standardTier 1 role with an accredited employer, at the specified pay or the median wage where none is set
Work to Residence (Green List Tier 2)55 or younger at the residence applicationSkilled-residence standard24 of the last 30 months in a Tier 2 role, and a current Tier 2 job with an accredited employer
Accredited Employer Work VisaNone listedSkill level 3 to 5 onlyTwo years’ experience or level 4 qualification; market-rate job with an accredited employer
Working holiday (Germany, Austria)18 to 30No test listedNo job offer needed; no permanent job allowed

Residence, once granted, lets you live in New Zealand indefinitely. Residence is not the same as permanent residence: after two years in a row on a resident visa you can apply for a Permanent Resident Visa, which lets you travel in and out of New Zealand indefinitely. Moving from Britain has its own guide: Moving to New Zealand from the UK: which visa route applies.

If you hold a German, Austrian or Swiss passport

  • Police certificates. Germany issues the Führungszeugnis through the Bundesamt für Justiz, online with an activated ID card, at your local registration office, or from abroad by a written application with a certified signature. Austria issues the Strafregisterbescheinigung, online with ID Austria or at the police or municipal office, and abroad through an Austrian embassy. Switzerland issues the Privatauszug from the Federal Office of Justice, online or at a Swiss post office counter.
  • Working holiday. Germans can stay up to 12 months, Austrians up to six. Switzerland has no working holiday agreement with New Zealand.
  • English. German, Austrian or Swiss citizenship, or a degree from a German-speaking country, does not meet the skilled-residence English requirement. Expect to sit a test unless you studied in one of the listed English-speaking countries.
  • Qualifications. INZ added qualifications from Germany and Switzerland to the LQEA, the SMC’s exemption list, from 23 June 2025. Austria was not in that update. Check your exact qualification in the INZ tool; one that is not listed needs an IQA, Washington or Sydney Accord engineering degrees aside.

How to spot stale advice

German Auswanderer forums, translated blog posts and AI summaries repeat rules that no longer apply. Four tells:

  1. Any SMC points total other than six, or talk of needing more than the minimum to be selected. Since 9 October 2023 the points-based route has needed six points, and INZ said at the time there would be no cap on the number of people who can gain residence. The two pathways added on 24 August 2026 use experience (and, for trades, a qualification) instead of points.
  2. Qualification points with no difference between a New Zealand and an overseas degree (doctorates and some master’s degrees aside). That difference started on 24 August 2026, so the advice predates the current SMC settings.
  3. An AEWV that must pay the median wage, or needs three years’ experience. Both changed on 10 March 2025: the median wage requirement was removed, the market rate still applies, and the experience requirement fell to two years.
  4. An Expression of Interest “in SkillSelect”. SkillSelect is the Australian Government’s system. New Zealand Expressions of Interest go to INZ directly.

When an AI tool or a forum answer gives you a rule, ask for the INZ page it comes from and check the page yourself.

Where to start

Our eligibility check takes about two minutes: you answer a few questions and get an indicative route. Which of these gates you already clear is for our New Zealand adviser, licensed by the Immigration Advisers Authority (IAA), to work through with you in a paid consultation. For the wider picture, start at our New Zealand hub.

Sources

Next step

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