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The four routes to New Zealand: why everything here starts with a job

New Zealand doesn't rank you and doesn't make you enter a draw: six points is a threshold, and you hear straight after submitting whether you are over it. But almost every door starts with an employer accredited by Immigration New Zealand — and that makes the order different from Canada and Australia.

5 min read

Written and checked by Auke on , against the sources at the bottom. Is something no longer right? Report it below and I'll fix it.

Four routes lead to New Zealand: Straight to Residence, Work to Residence, the Skilled Migrant Category and the working holiday. Anyone who has looked into Canada or Australia may recognise the pattern of collecting points, entering a pool and waiting to see whether your turn comes. New Zealand works differently:

  • Six points is a threshold, not a contest.
  • Almost every route begins with an employer accredited by Immigration New Zealand, the immigration service: approved to hire overseas workers.
  • The hard limits are age 55 and IELTS 6.5 (a score on the best-known English language test).

Is it a contest or a threshold?

A threshold. For the Skilled Migrant Category you need six points. Not more than someone else, not more than last month: six. You submit an expression of interest, a first submission of your details. If it meets the requirements, you can be invited to apply. There is no cut-off score to speculate about and no competition with other candidates.

The price you pay for that: the points alone get you nowhere. For the Skilled Migrant Category you also need a suitable job or job offer with an employer that is accredited by Immigration New Zealand. The same goes for the two Green List routes. Here you look for work first, and the file follows. Ask in the first conversation whether the employer is accredited. If not, they have to arrange that first.

Which four routes are there?

1. Straight to Residence (Green List, tier 1). If your occupation is on tier 1 and you have a job offer from an accredited employer that meets the requirements, you apply for residence straight away. After two consecutive years on this visa you can move on to permanent residence.

2. Work to Residence (Green List, tier 2). Same principle, different pace. You first work 24 months in that occupation in New Zealand, within the 30 months before your application. Then you apply for residence.

3. Skilled Migrant Category. The route for those not on the Green List. Since August 2026 it has three pathways:

  • the points-based pathway: six points from qualification, occupational registration or income, topped up with New Zealand work experience;
  • the Skilled Work Experience pathway: at least three years of relevant experience plus two years of skilled work in New Zealand;
  • the Trades and Technician pathway, for tradespeople and technicians.

An occupational registration earns three to six points. For Dutch people that is often the fastest way to six.

4. Working Holiday. For Dutch citizens aged 18 to 30: twelve months of working and travelling, without an employer in advance. You show NZ$ 4,200 in funds and full medical insurance. The application starts at NZ$ 770, and 80% is decided within two weeks.

Route Cost from Age Prior condition
Straight to Residence NZ$ 6,450 55 or younger tier 1 job (offer) with an accredited employer
Work to Residence NZ$ 6,450 55 or younger 24 months of tier 2 work within 30 months
Skilled Migrant Category NZ$ 6,450 55 or younger 6 points, or one of the two other pathways, plus a suitable job
Working Holiday NZ$ 770 18 to 30 NZ$ 4,200 in funds, insurance, 12 months
Temporary Retirement Visitor NZ$ 7,891 66 or older invest NZ$ 750,000, NZ$ 500,000 in assets, NZ$ 60,000 income

Rather have everything for New Zealand on one list?

Then we'll send you the departure checklist for New Zealand, with every step in order, and five mails about the pitfalls and the real costs. You can switch it off at any time.

We use your address, and your departure date if you fill it in, only for the checklist, the guide and the mails after it. You can unsubscribe under every mail.

Which limits are hard?

Age. For the residence routes you are 55 or younger when you apply. There is no waiver.

English. Dutch people are not exempt. The principal applicant for a skilled residence visa scores IELTS 6.5 overall or an equivalent score on TOEFL iBT, PTE Academic or B2 First. Results may be no more than two years old when you apply, or five years if you hold a recognised occupational registration. A test taken at home does not count. Partner and children from 16 have a lighter requirement (IELTS 5), or you buy lessons in New Zealand for them.

Health and character. Everyone has a medical examination, children too. From age 11 a chest X-ray is part of it. The evidence may be no more than three months old when you apply. Everyone from 17 provides police certificates, from every country you are a citizen of and from every country where you lived twelve months or longer in the past ten years. Those certificates may be no more than six months old. So apply for them late, not early.

And if you want to retire?

Then New Zealand is, frankly, a difficult country. There is no ordinary retirement route. The Temporary Retirement Visitor Visa requires you:

  • to be 66 or older;
  • to invest NZ$ 750,000;
  • to have NZ$ 500,000 to live on besides;
  • and to have an annual income of NZ$ 60,000.

And it is temporary: two years, with your partner but without children, and with no route to permanent residence.

The other way runs through an adult child who already lives there, with the Parent Resident Visa, the resident visa for parents:

  • 2,500 visas a year;
  • an income requirement for the sponsoring child;
  • a selection that from 5 October 2026 works 90% in order of submission and 10% by ballot.

Anyone who first thinks of New Zealand at sixty without family there will in practice no longer get in. That is unpleasant to read, but better than discovering it afterwards.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 1 of 5 of the journey, step 1.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to New Zealand or go straight to step 1.1 in the open plan.

Want to know more about this?

Then we'll send you the departure checklist for New Zealand, with every step in order, and five mails about the pitfalls and the real costs. You can switch it off at any time.

We use your address, and your departure date if you fill it in, only for the checklist, the guide and the mails after it. You can unsubscribe under every mail.

What this rests on

The facts in this article come from these official pages. Rules change. When in doubt, go by the source, not this article.

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