Applying for AEWV employer accreditation: process steps

How to apply for Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) accreditation, what you must agree to when you apply, and when you can change accreditation types.

Employer accreditation for the AEWV

Alert

The Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) requirements have changed. Changes include removing the median wage requirement, reducing work experience requirements and redesigning the job check stage.

For more information about the announcement, including a list of key changes:

Changes to the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) and median wage

Check you are ready to apply

Before you apply for AEWV employer accreditation, you need to check that:

  • your business meets our accreditation rules
  • you have all the information and documents you need, including a New Zealand Business Number (NZBN), Business Industry Classification (BIC) code and Inland Revenue number.

Check if you can apply for AEWV employer accreditation and the type of accreditation available

Applying for or renewing AEWV employer accreditation: employer checklist

If you want to renew your employer accreditation, there is a different process.

Renewing your AEWV employer accreditation

Apply online

If you have everything you need to apply, start your application.

1. Log into Immigration Online using RealMe®.

RealMe login button

2. Go to the 'Employ migrants' tab or choose the 'Employ migrants' button.

3. Go to the 'My accredited organisations' section.

4. Choose 'Get Accreditation'.

5. Complete and submit the online form. You will need to pay a fee.

6. We process your application — if we need more information, we email you to request it.

7. We email you with our decision.

Paying for AEWV employer accreditation and job checks

Note

You may be asked to provide evidence to show your business is viable and genuinely operating. You can upload your evidence when you apply to avoid delays when we process your application.

Financial evidence for your AEWV employer accreditation application

Meet your obligations

During your application, you must make a number of declarations and commitments. If you do not do this, or you do not meet your commitments, we may revoke your accreditation.

Meeting your AEWV accredited employer requirements

Share your application

In Immigration Online, employers can share information about their organisation, accreditations, job checks and migrant workers.

This means licensed immigration advisers and other users can work on accreditations and job checks together.

You can create a network in your Immigration Online dashboard. To add other people to your network, they need to provide you with their sharing ID and email address.

Sharing your online application

We process your application

We assess your application based on:

  • your declarations, and
  • our automated checks against publicly available information
  • information held by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, and
  • information you provide in your application.

We contact you if we are not satisfied you meet the requirements or if we want more information to help us assess your application.

We email you when we have processed your application.

Check our wait times page to find up to date information on how long we are taking to process applications.

Work visa and employer accreditation wait times

If your application is declined

If we decline your employer accreditation application, you can:

  • ask us to reconsider our decision, or
  • submit a new application.

If your AEWV employer accreditation or job check application is declined

Next steps

If your employer accreditation application is approved, the next step to employing workers on an AEWV is to:

  • advertise the job — you may need to also engage with Work and Income
  • apply for a job check.

Applying for a job check: process steps

Once your job check application is approved, you can ask a migrant to apply for an AEWV.

Recruiting and supporting a migrant to apply for an AEWV: process steps

If you need to change your accreditation type

If you want to change your accreditation type, for example from standard or high-volume accreditation to triangular employer accreditation, you must:

  • renew your accreditation
  • pay the accreditation fee.

You can also change your accreditation type if you want to become an accredited employer to hire migrants on different visas, for example Work to Residence or Skilled Migrant Category visas.

Renewing your AEWV employer accreditation

Paying for AWEV employer accreditation and job checks

Help for employers

Our employer helpline is open between 08:00 and 18:00, Monday to Friday.

Freephone from New Zealand landlines: 0508 967 569