New Zealand Accredited Employer Work Visa fees: what to check

The official Immigration New Zealand pages do not publish a specific fee amount for the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) in the official guidance you have been given. This means the exact fee you will pay is not stated in the sources available to you. What the official pages do confirm is that the AEWV is one of the work visas you can apply for if you have a job offer from an accredited employer, and that fees apply when you submit an online application. To find the current fee, you must check the AEWV page on the Immigration New Zealand website, because fees are set there and can change. Do not rely on any number you have seen elsewhere unless it appears on the official page for the visa you are applying for.

What the official guidance actually says about the AEWV

The Accredited Employer Work Visa is described on the Immigration New Zealand page “Visas for working in New Zealand” as a visa you can apply for if you have a job offer from an accredited employer. The employer must send you a link to the online application form. 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.

The same page lists the AEWV alongside other visas that require you to work for an accredited employer, including the Care Workforce Work to Residence Visa, the Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa, the Straight to Residence Visa, and the Transport Work to Residence Visa. This tells you that the AEWV is not the only route where employer accreditation matters, and that fees for those other visas will be separate.

What the official guidance does not give is a fee figure. There is no dollar amount, no table of fees, and no indication of whether the fee is the same for every applicant. The only statement about payment is on the “Who can apply for a working holiday visa” page, which says that once you have logged in to your online account you can “apply, upload your documents and pay the fees that apply.” That sentence is about working holiday visas, not the AEWV, but it confirms the general principle that fees are paid as part of an online application.

Why the AEWV fee is not in this material

the official guidance you have been given is drawn from four official Immigration New Zealand pages. Two of them are about working in New Zealand generally and working holiday visas specifically. One is about checking or changing visitor visa conditions. One is about Australian citizens and permanent residents travelling to New Zealand. None of these pages is the AEWV application page or a fees page.

The AEWV page itself is linked from the “Visas for working in New Zealand” page, but the content of that AEWV page is not included in the official guidance. This is why the fee cannot be quoted here. The correct response is not to guess or to recall a figure from memory. The correct response is to tell you exactly where to look and what to expect when you get there.

Where to find the current AEWV fee

You should go to the Immigration New Zealand website and open the page titled “Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV)”. That page will contain the application requirements, the conditions of the visa, and the fee that applies at the time you apply. Fees on official government websites are updated when they change, so the figure you see today may not be the figure you see next month.

You should also check the page titled “Employer Accreditation for the AEWV” if you are the employer rather than the applicant. Employer accreditation is a separate process with its own requirements and possibly its own costs. The official guidance does not state whether there is a fee for accreditation, so you must verify that on the official page as well.

When you open the AEWV page, look for a section headed “Fees” or “Cost” or “How much it costs”. Some Immigration New Zealand pages show the fee in a table that lists the visa type, the fee in New Zealand dollars, and any additional costs such as the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy (IVL) if it applies. The IVL is not mentioned in the official guidance, so do not assume it applies to the AEWV. Check the page.

What the official guidance confirms about the application process

Although the fee is not stated, the official guidance does confirm several things about how you apply for the AEWV. These are useful because they shape what you need to prepare before you pay anything.

First, you must have a job offer from an accredited employer. The employer must send you a link to the online application form. This means you cannot simply log in and apply on your own; the application is initiated through the employer.

Second, the application is submitted online. The working holiday visa page says that all working holiday visas must be applied for online and in English. It also says you need to create an account with Immigration New Zealand before you can apply. The AEWV is also an online application, and the same account system is used. You will need to upload documents and pay the fee through that account.

Third, the length of the visa varies. The AEWV can be granted for anywhere from 7 months to 5 years. The duration depends on your job, your skill level, how much you are paid, and when you applied. This matters because a longer visa may carry a higher fee than a shorter one, although the official guidance does not confirm that. You should read the fee section carefully to see whether the fee is a flat amount or whether it varies by duration.

Fees for other New Zealand work visas

The official guidance lists many other work visas, and each one will have its own fee. These include:

Visa	Who can apply	Key condition from official guidance
Accredited Employer Work Visa	Anyone with a job offer from an accredited employer	Employer sends the application link; stay 7 months to 5 years
China Skilled Workers Visa	Citizens of the People’s Republic of China	Job offer for a role on the China skilled job list; up to 3 years
China Special Work Visa	Chinese citizens	Job offer as chef, traditional medicine practitioner, Mandarin teacher’s aide, Wushu coach, or tour guide
Indonesia Special Work Visa	Indonesian citizens	Job offer as trained chef, Halal slaughterer, or Bahasa teacher’s aide
Japanese Interpreters Work Visa	Japanese citizens	Full-time job offer as a qualified interpreter in tourism
Philippines Special Work Visa	Filipino registered nurses, farm managers, engineering professionals	Job offer, qualifications, and experience required
Republic of Korea Special Work Visa	Korean citizens	Qualified in a Republic of Korea Special Work occupation
Thai Chefs Work Visa	Thai citizens	Full-time offer as a Thai chef with qualifications and experience
Vietnam Special Work Visa	Vietnamese citizens	Job offer as chef or engineering professional; must be qualified

Each of these visas has its own application page with its own fee. The official guidance does not give any of those fees either. If you are considering one of these visas, you must check the individual page for that visa.

Fees for resident visas and other categories

The official guidance also names several residence visas that can be reached through work, including the Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa, the Straight to Residence Visa, the Care Workforce Work to Residence Visa, and the Transport Work to Residence Visa. These are not work visas in the temporary sense; they lead to residence. Their fees will be different from the AEWV fee and will be listed on their own pages.

The official guidance does not provide any fee for these residence visas. It also does not provide a fee for the Partner of a New Zealander Work Visa, the Partner of a Student Work Visa, the Partner of a Worker Work Visa, the Entertainers Work Visa, the Specific Purpose Work Visa, the Talent (Arts, Culture, Sports) Work Visa, the Fishing Crew Work Visa, or the Domestic Staff of a Diplomat Work Visa. All of these are listed on the “Visas for working in New Zealand” page, and all of them will have their own fees.

The working holiday visa fee and the general fee principle

The only page in the official guidance that talks about paying fees is the “Who can apply for a working holiday visa” page. It says that once you have created an online account and logged in, you can “apply, upload your documents and pay the fees that apply.” It does not give a figure for the working holiday visa fee either.

This is a consistent pattern across the official guidance: the official pages tell you that fees exist and that you pay them online, but they do not give you the amounts in the official guidance to you. This is not an omission on the part of the website. It is simply that the fee information lives on the specific application page for each visa, and those pages are not part of the official guidance you have been given.

What to do next and what to verify

Before you apply for the Accredited Employer Work Visa, you should do the following:

1. Open the official AEWV page on the Immigration New Zealand website. Look for the fee amount in New Zealand dollars. Write it down, and note the date you saw it.
2. Check whether the fee is the same for all applicants or whether it varies by visa duration. The AEWV can last from 7 months to 5 years, so confirm whether the fee changes with the length of stay.
3. Check the employer accreditation page if you are the employer. Confirm whether accreditation has a separate fee and what that fee is.
4. Check the “Visas for working in New Zealand” page again to confirm you are looking at the correct visa. There are many work visas, and the AEWV is only one of them.
5. Check the fee again on the day you submit your application. Fees can change without notice, and the figure on the page when you first looked may not be the figure when you pay.

If you are applying from a country such as Ghana or Nigeria, the fee will still be payable in New Zealand dollars through the online system. The official guidance does not state whether there are local payment methods or embassy-specific fees. You must check the AEWV page and any country-specific instructions that appear there.

Do not rely on any third-party website, blog, or social media post for the fee. Only the official Immigration New Zealand page is authoritative. If the fee is not shown on the page you are looking at, look for a link to a fees page or a downloadable fee schedule. If you still cannot find it, contact Immigration New Zealand directly through the contact details on their website.

The fee is a fixed part of the application, but it is not the only cost. You may also need to pay for medical examinations, police certificates, translations, and travel to New Zealand. The official guidance does not list these costs, so you will need to budget for them separately.

In short: the Accredited Employer Work Visa fee is not stated in the official guidance you have been given, and no reliable figure can be produced from it. The correct action is to verify the fee on the official AEWV page before you apply, and to check it again at the point of submission.