Hiring migrant workers

To hire a migrant worker on an Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV), you need to work with us and Immigration New Zealand. This is for roles at ANZSCO Skill Level 4 or 5.

You need to engage with us before you start your Job Check application with Immigration New Zealand. We'll check the labour market supply for your role. This is to ensure that New Zealanders are considered for jobs where there are no skills shortages.

You can read the full process for becoming an accredited employer on the Immigration New Zealand website:

Accreditation for the AEWV - Immigration New Zealand

Engagement in good faith

You need to engage with us in good faith as part of this process. This means you need to:

  • complete the online form below to get in touch with us, and respond within 3 days when we contact you back
  • work with us to check if there's a skills shortage for this role in your area
  • work with us directly - you can't have an immigration professional (e.g. a Licensed Immigration Adviser or LIA) do it for you
  • keep evidence (e.g. copies of emails) to show you've engaged with us. You may need this for your job check application with Immigration New Zealand.

Contact us to start engagement process

Complete our online form to start engaging with us.

You need to tell us about:

  • your business, including your NZ business number
  • your contact information
  • the role
  • skills and experience needed, and
  • any pre-employment checks required.

We’ll contact you back within 5 working days. You need to make sure we can contact you during this time – this is part of your engagement in good faith.

Use our online form

Once you’ve submitted the form, you have 90 days to submit your Job Check application to Immigration New Zealand.

What happens next

We’ll check the local labour market supply to see if there are people in the area who meet your requirements. 

  • If there are, we'll contact you about listing the vacancy and refer these people to you. 
  • If there aren't, we'll send you verification to support your application for accreditation. 

Listing the role and recruiting

If you need to list the role with us, your listing must:

  • be advertised long enough for people to apply or be referred, usually around 10 working days
  • allow enough time for recruitment activities, for example interviews
  • only ask for qualifications and work experience that are genuinely required to do the role
  • ask for the same qualifications and work experience as other adverts you place elsewhere for the same role
  • make sure the job description genuinely reflects the role, and will not be changed during recruitment.

During recruitment, you must genuinely consider candidates referred by us, and interview and recruit any who are suitable.

Once your recruitment drive is complete, tell us the outcome. Let us know why candidates were not suitable or successful. This helps us provide better matches in future.