If you represent an organisation that’s main purpose is to advance religion and that is also a registered charity, you may be able to recruit religious workers from overseas. You’ll need to be able to offer your candidates a job doing religious work and your sponsorship.
You must complete a 'Sponsorship Form for Religious Workers' and include:
If the work you’re offering is paid salary or wages, you must provide a copy of an employment agreement. If the work you’re offering is paid by any means other than salary or wages or is unpaid, then you must provide a description of that work.
The work must be in substantially one or more of the following religious activities:
For your religious worker to be able to work for you, they’ll first need to apply for a work visa.
For us to accept your workers application, they must send us all the information we ask for, including a copy of their employment agreement and/or job description.
We also need you to provide a completed 'Sponsorship Form for Religious Workers' to your candidate, which forms part of their application.
We make a decision about your workers application as soon as we can. You can view our historic visa timeframes below.
As soon as your religious worker has been granted a work visa, they can come to New Zealand.
If you wish to offer continued religious work and sponsorship, your religious worker may apply for another Religious Workers Visa.
If they’ve already been doing religious work in New Zealand on a valid Religious Workers Visa for 3 years, they may apply for a Religious Worker Resident Visa. If they’re granted residence, they’ll be able to work and live in New Zealand permanently.