Support your worker's RSE Limited Visa application
What you do as an employer supporting your worker's Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) Limited Visa application.
Improvements were made to the RSE scheme on 2 September 2024. Learn more about what these changes mean for RSE employers and workers.
When a worker accepts your employment offer, you need to ensure they, or the agent acting on your behalf, is fully supported for the RSE Limited Visa application.
As an employer you do this by:
- ensuring the work offered is planting, maintaining, harvesting or packing crops
- providing your worker with a written employment agreement
- complying with the requirements set out in your Agreement to Recruit (ATR)
- letting your worker know in writing what their voluntary deductions are
- sending their New Zealand flight details
- letting them know their insurance information.
Some of this information may go instead to the agent acting on your behalf. They may need it to help workers with their visa applications.
Helping workers with their visa application
Workers may need help with their visa application, such as arranging their medical certificates, medical insurance, and police certificates.
It may be you who helps them (if you are in the worker's country doing a direct recruitment), or the Labour Sending Unit, VAC, or recruitment agent acting on your behalf.
It is important that the worker's visa application clearly shows your ATR number.
If the worker is part of a joint agreement the application must show the ATR numbers for both employers in the agreement.
A missing ATR number may mean a worker is granted a visa for only part of the time they were meant to work in New Zealand. This could lead to them being seen as illegally in New Zealand.
- The visa lets them work in New Zealand for up to 7 months over an 11-month period. If the workers are from Kiribati and Tuvalu it is up to 9 months over an 11-month period. Your ATR is used to work out the duration of the worker's visa.
- Workers are issued visas with conditions. This includes work conditions which say who their employer is, how long they can work for them, and what region of New Zealand they can work.
- RSE workers still in New Zealand after their RSE Limited Visas expire risk being deported.
If you do not leave New Zealand before your visa expires
Minimum requirements for an RSE worker employment agreement
Employer requirements for the RSE Scheme
Voluntary deductions for RSE workers
Recognised Seasonal Employer Limited Visa – information for RSE workers
Rights and responsibilities for employers and employees – Employment New Zealand website
Checking visa labels
When you receive your workers’ visas you need to check the:
- dates cover the whole time you want them to work
- date the worker must fly to New Zealand is still valid. If this date has passed they will not be able to board their flight.