New Zealand Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) explained

The Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) is New Zealand’s main employer-sponsored temporary work visa. You can apply for it if you have a job offer from an employer that holds accreditation with Immigration New Zealand. The visa lets you stay in New Zealand from 7 months to 5 years, depending on your job, skill level, how much you are paid and when you applied for your visa. Your employer must send you a link to the online application form — you cannot start an AEWV application on your own without that link.

How the AEWV fits into New Zealand’s work visa system

New Zealand offers many temporary visas that allow you to work, and some can lead to residence. The AEWV is one of several visas that require you to work for an accredited employer. The others listed by Immigration New Zealand are the Care Workforce Work to Residence Visa, the Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa, the Straight to Residence Visa, the Transport Work to Residence Visa and the Work to Residence Visa.

The key distinction between these visas and the AEWV is the pathway. The AEWV is a temporary work visa. The other accredited-employer visas are residence pathways. If your long-term goal is residence, you may need to consider whether a residence visa is available to you, but the AEWV is the visa most applicants will use to start working in New Zealand.

Who can apply for the AEWV

You can apply for an AEWV if you have a job offer from an accredited employer. That means the employer must already hold accreditation with Immigration New Zealand, and the job must be one that the employer is approved to fill.

The employer must send you a link to the online application form. This is a practical requirement, not a formality: the application is initiated through the employer’s job check process. If your employer is not accredited, they cannot sponsor an AEWV application. You can check whether an employer is accredited on Immigration New Zealand’s accredited employer list.

You do not need to be a citizen of any particular country to apply for the AEWV. It is available to any applicant who meets the requirements, including having a job offer from an accredited employer.

How long the AEWV lasts

The AEWV lets you stay in New Zealand from 7 months to 5 years. The length of your visa depends on several factors:

Factor	How it affects your visa length
Your job	Some jobs are eligible for longer stays than others
Your skill level	Higher-skilled roles may qualify for longer visas
How much you are paid	Your pay rate is a factor in visa duration
When you applied	The rules in force at the time of application matter

Immigration New Zealand does not publish a simple table of durations by occupation in the official guidance. You must check the specific requirements for your job and pay rate on the AEWV page. The visa duration is not a single fixed period — it is determined by your individual circumstances.

Conditions on the AEWV

Your AEWV comes with conditions. These are set out in your visa approval letter, on the visa label in your passport (if you have one), and online through the Visa Verification Service. Conditions tell you what you can and cannot do on your visa.

Common conditions on work visas include:

• The visa expiry date — the last day you can stay in New Zealand on your visa.
• Travel conditions, including a “First entry before” date and an “Expiry date travel” date. If you do not enter New Zealand before the “First entry before” date, your visa will no longer be valid. If you are outside New Zealand and your “Expiry date travel” date passes, your visa will expire.
• Work conditions — who you can work for, the occupation you can work in, the location of your job, how much you must be paid, how many hours you must work per week, and the employment arrangement.
• Study conditions — some visas allow you to study for a set amount of time. If your visa allows study, you must only study under the conditions specified.

Unless your visa states “Return/onward travel not required”, you must have a ticket to leave New Zealand to an eligible country, enough money to buy a ticket out of New Zealand, or an acceptable sponsor who can pay for your ticket.

Changing employer, job or location on an AEWV

If your AEWV lets you work in any job, for any employer and in any location, you do not need to apply for a variation of conditions or a Job Change. Otherwise, you will need to apply to change these conditions.

The process for changing your employer, job or location on an AEWV is called a Job Change. You can apply for a Job Change to change your employer, job, location, or a combination of these. Your new employer must be an AEWV accredited employer and must have a valid job check for your new job. You will need the job check number (also called your job token) for your application.

Your job token must be for the same type of visa that you currently hold. If you have an AEWV and your job token is for a Peak Seasonal Visa (PSV) or Global Workforce Seasonal Visa (GWSV), you cannot apply for a Job Change.

If you are changing your job, you must meet any qualification or work experience requirements that your new employer listed in the job advertisement. The time left on your visa does not change if you get a Job Change. Changing the conditions of your visa will not change its expiry date.

What happens if your employer loses accreditation

If your employer loses accreditation, you can continue working for them until your visa expires. However, if you choose to find a job with a new employer, you can apply for a Job Change. This means losing accreditation does not automatically end your right to work — but it does affect your ability to change jobs without going through the Job Change process.

Business sale or restructure

If your employer is transferring you to another business due to a business sale or restructure, you will need to apply for a Job Change. A business sale or restructure happens when the legal owner of the business changes. If the reporting line changes but the organisation and main duties of the job stay the same, you do not need to apply for a Job Change.

Maximum continuous stay and changing jobs

The total time you can stay in New Zealand on an AEWV before you must spend time outside New Zealand is your maximum continuous stay. Before you check whether you can change jobs, you should check your visa length and the total time you can stay for both your current job and your new job. This matters because a Job Change does not reset the clock on your maximum continuous stay.

What to do next

Before you apply for an AEWV, confirm that your employer is accredited and that they have a valid job check for the role you have been offered. Ask your employer to send you the link to the online application form. Check the specific requirements for your job and pay rate on the official AEWV page, because visa duration depends on these factors.

If you already hold an AEWV and want to change employer, job or location, you will need to apply for a Job Change. Your new employer must be accredited and must have a valid job check. Verify your current visa conditions using the Visa Verification Service or your visa approval letter before you apply.

All of the information in this article comes from Immigration New Zealand’s official pages. For the most current requirements, check the Accredited Employer Work Visa page and the Check or change your work visa conditions page on the Immigration New Zealand website.