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Moving to New Zealand from the UK: which visa route applies

Moving to New Zealand from the UK turns on where you start: 35 or under without a job offer, skilled with an offer, on the Green List, or moving with a partner. The route for each, the UK paperwork that trips people up, and the order of steps.

· 8 min read · By Natanya Mostert

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

Moving to New Zealand from the UK: which visa route applies

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Moving to New Zealand from the UK depends less on your passport than on where you start: your age, whether you hold a job offer, whether your occupation is on the Green List, and who is moving with you. The passport does bring one extra option, a working holiday visa up to age 35, but it does not lead to residence on its own.

Take a hypothetical Manchester household (an illustration, not a client). Sam is 34, a civil engineer with a bachelor’s and a master’s from UK universities. Priya is 36 and a registered nurse. They have a six-year-old daughter. Neither has a job offer, and the three checklists they have read give three different first steps.

Four starting positions, four routes

Where you startUsual routeWhat it leads to
35 or under, no job offerUnited Kingdom Working Holiday VisaA way in to find work, not residence
Skilled, with a job offerAccredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV)Skilled Migrant Category residence, usually after New Zealand work
Occupation on the Green ListStraight to Residence (Tier 1) or Work to Residence (Tier 2)Residence at once, or after 24 months’ work
Moving with a partnerUsually follows the principal applicant’s visaPartner work, visitor or residence visas

35 or under without a job offer: the UK Working Holiday Visa

The United Kingdom Working Holiday Visa is open to UK citizens aged 18 to 35 who normally live in the UK or the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey or the Isle of Man, and who have never held a New Zealand working holiday visa, even an unused one. You must not have been outside the country for more than two years immediately before applying.

The visa runs for 12, 23 or 36 months, with temporary work allowed for up to 36 months and study for up to six months in total. You need no job offer, and Immigration New Zealand (INZ) makes 15,000 of these visas available each year. The age and stay limits date from 1 July 2023, when the age limit rose from 30 to 35 and the maximum stay from 23 months to three years.

Irish citizens have a narrower scheme: ages 18 to 30, for up to 12 months. Other passports, including an EU passport held by someone living in the UK, fall under their own country’s agreement where one exists, normally for ages 18 to 30 and generally for up to 12 months.

You cannot take a permanent job on a working holiday visa, and a partner or child must apply for their own visa. Sam qualifies at 34. Priya, at 36, does not, and nor does their daughter.

Where it ends: the working holiday visa is a way in to look for work with an accredited employer, not a route to residence.

Skilled with a job offer: the AEWV, then usually the Skilled Migrant Category

The Accredited Employer Work Visa needs an offer of full-time work, at least 30 hours a week, from an accredited employer holding an approved job check for your role. The job must pay at least the market rate, and our guide to the three AEWV checks explains the wage rule.

You also need two years of relevant experience, or a qualification at level 4 or higher on the New Zealand framework. A bachelor’s degree counts in any field, and an International Qualification Assessment (IQA) is needed at this stage only if an overseas qualification sits below bachelor’s level. The AEWV allows a total stay of up to five years for most jobs, or usually three years for roles at ANZSCO skill level 4 or 5.

Changing employer later is a Job Change application, not automatically a new visa, and the new employer generally needs accreditation and a valid job check.

Where it ends: for most UK professionals, the Skilled Migrant Category (SMC) Resident Visa. Its points-based pathway needs six points from one skill indicator (a qualification, New Zealand occupational registration, or income), topped up if needed by up to three points for skilled work in New Zealand. You also need a skilled job or job offer with an accredited employer, and you must be 55 or younger.

An overseas qualification earns 4 points at bachelor’s level, 5 for a master’s (with a bachelor’s as well) and 6 for a doctorate, once it has an IQA or appears on INZ’s exemption list. Skilled work in New Zealand adds 1 point for a year, 2 for 18 months and 3 for two years. Sam’s master’s would give 5 points, and a year of skilled work in New Zealand the sixth. A UK bachelor’s holder usually needs 18 months. Income points do not add to qualification points, and income alone reaches six only at three times the SMC wage threshold.

Two other SMC pathways, for skilled work experience and for trades and technicians, also need New Zealand work experience. Our summary of the August 2026 changes sets them out.

On the Green List: residence without the points

If your occupation is on the Green List, check its tier first: it can replace the points calculation.

Tier 1, Straight to Residence. You need a job or job offer in a Tier 1 role with an accredited employer, paid at least the rate set for the role (or the median wage where none is set), and you must be 55 or younger. The job must be permanent, fixed-term for at least 12 months, or a contract (or continuous contracts) of at least six months.

Tier 2, Work to Residence. You need 24 months’ work in a Tier 2 job in New Zealand within the 30 months before you apply, and one or more work visas held for the full 24 months before you apply, not necessarily an AEWV. You also need a current Tier 2 job or offer with an accredited employer, paid at least the rate in place when you started counting.

Many Green List roles add their own conditions, such as New Zealand registration, a specific qualification or a pay rate. Priya’s first task is to find her role on the list and start any registration it needs early.

Where it ends: residence, at once or after 24 months. Residence is not the same as permanent residence: a resident visa lets you live in New Zealand indefinitely, and after two years in a row on it you can apply for a Permanent Resident Visa, which removes the expiry on your travel conditions. Our New Zealand citizenship guide follows the route further.

Moving with a partner or children

  • On a working holiday visa, each person applies separately and must qualify in their own right.
  • On an AEWV, you may be able to support a work or visitor visa for your partner and visitor or student visas for your children, depending on your job and how much you earn.
  • In a residence application, you can include your partner and dependent children aged 24 or younger.
  • If your partner is a New Zealander, the Partner of a New Zealander Resident Visa needs you to have lived together in a genuine and stable relationship for at least 12 months. If your partner is a New Zealand citizen and you have lived together overseas for at least five years, INZ may grant a Permanent Resident Visa.

Where it ends: for the Manchester household, the family route runs through Sam’s AEWV or a residence application that includes all three of them, not a working holiday.

The UK paperwork, and where online checklists go wrong

Four points in the paperwork are specific to the UK, and are where online checklists and AI answers most often mislead.

Police certificate timing. Police certificates for New Zealand from England, Wales and Northern Ireland are applied for through the ACRO Criminal Records Office (check INZ’s country guide for Scotland or the Crown Dependencies), and INZ needs each one to be less than six months old when you submit. A checklist that lists it first invites you to order it before you have an offer, and it can age out while the job check is processed. If your total time in New Zealand will be 24 months or longer, an AEWV application needs the certificate itself: INZ does not accept a receipt. You also need a certificate from every other country whose citizenship you hold; without a British passport, whether you need a UK one depends on how long you have lived there, as the next point explains.

Which countries count. Work visa guidance asks for certificates from your countries of citizenship and any country you have lived in for more than five years since turning 17. A resident visa asks for more: any country where you spent 12 months or more over the last 10 years, counting separate stays together. A recent working holiday year in Australia may not matter for your work visa; it will for residence.

Assuming a UK degree needs no assessment. Most overseas qualifications need an IQA from the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) before they earn SMC points or meet a Green List requirement. Some are on INZ’s exemption list, and engineering degrees accredited under the Washington Accord (or engineering technology degrees under the Sydney Accord) are also exempt, but check your exact award: INZ can still ask for an assessment. NZQA currently reports average waits of 10 weeks, not counting weekends or public holidays, and incomplete or unverified documents slow it further.

Assuming a low tuberculosis rate means no chest X-ray. For an AEWV, whether INZ needs an X-ray turns on tuberculosis incidence where you are from and where you have spent time, and INZ tells you after you apply. A residence application is different: it needs a medical examination for everyone included and, generally, a chest X-ray for everyone aged 11 or older, wherever you are from. Where INZ asks, use one of its panel physicians if your country has one, and time it: results must be no more than three months old when INZ receives them.

The order of steps to emigrate to New Zealand from the UK

  1. Identify each person’s starting position and route.
  2. Check qualification recognition and registration, and start any IQA early.
  3. Search the Green List and the accredited employer list, then secure an offer.
  4. Once the employer’s job check is approved, order police certificates so they are current when you lodge. Book medicals before a residence application, or when INZ asks for them on an AEWV.
  5. Lodge, and if you arrive on a work visa, plan the residence step from the start.

To find which position fits your household, start with our eligibility check. It takes about a minute: you answer a few questions, and a client manager then calls you to assess which route fits. For a full case review, book a consultation, or start from our New Zealand overview.

This article reflects Immigration New Zealand and NZQA publications read on 28 September 2026. It is general information, not individual immigration advice.

Sources

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