Engage with Work and Income before your Job Check
If the job is ANZSCO skill level 4 or 5, you must engage with Work and Income to check if there are any suitable New Zealanders for the job.
How to apply for a Job Check
- Advertise the job before your Job Check
- Engage with Work and Income before your Job Check
- Check a migrant applicant is suitably qualified
- How we calculate pay rates for the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV)
- Sector agreements and hiring migrants on an AEWV
- Applying for a Job Check: employer checklist
- Apply for a Job Check
- After your Job Check is approved
- Reusing or resending a job token
- If your employer accreditation or Job Check application is declined
The Accredited Employer Work Visa requirements are changing in 2025. 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:
Reforms to the Accredited Employer Work Visa announced
Before you apply for a Job Check, you must engage with Work and Income if the job is skill level 4 or 5 on Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO). ANZSCO grades occupations according to skill level. ANZSCO skill levels range from 1 to 5, with 1 being the most skilled and 5 being less skilled.
What is ANZSCO and how to find your skill level
You must apply for a Job Check within 90 days of engaging with Work and Income.
You must engage with Work and Income in addition to advertising the job. You can advertise the job while you engage with Work and Income.
Jobs that are exempt from engaging with Work and Income
You do not need to engage with Work and Income if the job:
- is ANZSCO skill level 1, 2 or 3, or
- is on the Green List and meets the Green List requirements, or
- pays at least NZD$59.32 an hour (twice the February 2023 median wage).
Green List roles and requirements
Who can engage with Work and Income
When you engage with Work and Income, you must give them the details of someone they can contact about the job.
The contact person can be either:
- someone from your business who is responsible for making hiring decisions, or
- a person from an external organisation that you contracted to provide recruitment advice.
A person who is responsible for making hiring decisions is someone involved in the recruitment. They may have some authority over the final hiring decisions.
Examples of people responsible for making hiring decisions include:
- hiring managers
- human resources managers, or
- an owner/operator.
If you are using an external organisation
If you are using an external organisation, for example a recruitment company, to fill the vacancy you can provide their details to Work and Income. However, the contact person must have been contracted by your business to provide specific recruitment advice.
The contact person, or anyone else from the same external organisation, cannot give you immigration advice about your Job Check application.
Who cannot be a contact person
If you are using an immigration professional, for example a licensed immigration adviser or immigration lawyer, they cannot be the contact person when you engage with Work and Income. This is because an immigration professional is not responsible for making hiring decisions or providing specific recruitment advice.
They can still provide immigration advice to you while you engage with Work and Income or during your Job Check application.
How to engage with Work and Income
You complete Work and Income's online form.
Hiring migrant workers — Work and Income
You must include a job description that shows:
- the main tasks and responsibilities of the job
- the terms and conditions of the employment
- the minimum and maximum rate of pay or salary
- estimated actual earnings if the job pays by piece, commission or there are other rates or bonuses
- the minimum guaranteed hours of work, and
- the location of the job.
The details should match what you will submit in your Job Check application.
Work and Income will decide to either:
- list the job for up to 21 days, or
- that they cannot fill the vacancy and you do not need to engage with them further.
After you submit, they will contact you within 5 working days to let you know if they will list the job or not.
While they are listing a job, Work and Income may decide to reduce the listing time to less than 21 days.
Work and Income will send you an Engagement Check once the engagement is complete. It will confirm:
- how long they listed the job for and if they matched any job seekers with the job, or
- that they could not fill the vacancy and you did not need to list the job with them.
When you apply for a Job Check
You must upload a copy of the Work and Income Engagement Check to the Supporting Documents page of the Job Check form.
You will be asked to confirm in your Job Check application that the person who engaged with Work and Income was someone responsible for making hiring decisions.