The Government has announced reforms to the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) and work rights for more interim visa holders.
The changes include removing the median wage threshold, reducing experience requirements to 2 years and introducing new seasonal visa pathways to support employers to fill skill gaps.
The changes will be implemented in 4 different stages over the course of 2025, beginning in January.
Immigration New Zealand (INZ) is also re-designing the Job Check step of the AEWV process. The changes will aim to streamline the Job Check for low-risk employers and improve processing timeframes. This will be implemented from July 2025.
Other important changes include:
- Amending the MSD engagement requirement and removing the 21-day timeframe
- Interim work rights will be extended to AEWV applicants who are applying from any work visa type or from a student visa
In March 2025
- Wage thresholds for all AEWV roles will be removed. Employers still need to advertise and offer AEWV employees the market rate for their position and workplace location. This change does not affect existing employment agreements. There are no changes to the wages that AEWV workers must earn to apply for residence.
- Migrants will need to demonstrate 2 years of relevant work experience, instead of 3 years currently.
- Employers will no longer have to provide evidence of engagement with Work and Income in their Job Check. They will need to declare they have advertised lower-skilled roles with Work and Income, and interviewed appropriate candidates.
- The AEWV duration for new migrants in a lower-skilled role will increase to 3 years, to align with the maximum time they can stay in New Zealand on an AEWV. Migrants on two-year visas will be able to apply for a further year.
- AEWV migrants will need to earn at least NZ$55,844 a year to bring children, along with meeting other criteria. This threshold has not been updated since 2019.
You can read the full press release here, and the announcement from Immigration NZ here .
Read the Association’s press release / statement on these changes here.