New Zealand Government has announced several reforms, including removing the median wage requirement for Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) from March 2025.
Reforms also include reducing experience requirements to 2 years, increasing visa duration to 3 years for new AEWVs issued for jobs assessed as skill level 4 or 5, and introducing new seasonal visa pathways to support employers to fill skill gaps.
The changes announced yesterday (17 December) by Erica Stanford, Immigration Minister, 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 help streamline the Job Check for low-risk employers and improve processing time-frames. This will be implemented from July 2025.
These reforms are to ‘support businesses to secure the skills and experience New Zealand needs’.
“Earlier in the year, we made initial changes to the AEWV to get unsustainable net migration under control and reduce migrant exploitation. Since then, Immigration NZ has also made operational changes…
“For example, the median Employer Accreditation processing time-frame has reduced from 62 calendar days to 14, and productivity in the Job Check has doubled. These efficiency gains alongside the changes announced today will ensure we have the right balance of ensuring New Zealanders are prioritised for job opportunities while providing a more fit for purpose and responsive visa when a business needs to employ a migrant.
“In March we will remove the median wage threshold as set out in the coalition agreement with ACT. The previous Government used the median wage as an artificial proxy for skill which did not work. Instead, it distorted wages and in some cases resulted in businesses paying migrant workers more than New Zealanders doing the same job. Other businesses had to increase prices to ensure pay equity across Kiwi and migrant workers,” Stanford said.
Other changes coming into effect from next year include:
- Reducing minimum experience requirement for lower skilled migrants to two years.
- Increasing visa duration for new applicants in Level 4-5 roles from two to three years.
- Extending interim work rights to AEWV applicants who are applying from any work visa type or from a student visa that allows them to work during term time.
- Reducing domestic workforce threshold for labour hire employers of certain construction roles from 35 to 15 %.
- Amending labour market test to a declaration-based model, based upon employer’s good faith.
- AEWV migrants will now need to earn at least NZ$55,844 a year to bring children.
“Our focus remains on attracting more higher-skilled workers while managing migration levels responsibly, so New Zealand has access to the skills we need to grow our economy. These changes will support a smarter, efficient and predictable immigration system,” Stanford said.
This change of median wage removal does not, however, affect existing employment agreements. There are also no changes to the wages that AEWV workers must earn to apply for residence.
