Employer Accreditation

If you are an employer and you are unable to find a suitable New Zealander to fill your role, you can apply to hire suitably qualified migrants on an Accredited Employer Work Visa. To be eligible, from the 4th July 2022 any company wishing to employ migrants will need to be accredited under the new AEWV accreditation policy. There will be two levels of accreditation available to employers:

Standard Accreditation

Employers with standard accreditation will only be able to employ up to 5 migrants in total on Accredited Employer Work Visas at any given time. This does not include migrants on other visa types such as working holiday visas or open work visas, it only takes into account employees on AEWV visas. If a company is in a position that they need to employ more than 5 candidates on AEWV visas, they can pay a fee and upgrade during the year.

High Volume Accreditation

If a company wants to employ more than 5 migrants at any given time they can choose the high volume accreditation. At this point in time the requirements for high volume accreditation are the same as standard accreditation but Immigration New Zealand has indicated that going forward the requirements for high volume accreditation will be more stringent. Again, under the high volume accreditation, only employees on Accredited Employer Work visas are counted.

Specialist Accreditation

There are two further accreditation requirements for third-party labour hire companies and franchises, please contact us for further information regarding the requirements.

When can you apply?

Applications for accreditation open on the 23rd May 2022 and are only available online. The estimated processing time for both standard and high volume accreditation is expected to take 10 working days. This is based on a standard business model and assumes the company has no history of non-compliance and all relevant and required information has been provided with the application.

What are the requirements?

All employers wanting to employ migrants on Accredited Employer Work Visas will need to meet the minimum requirements. This ensures that only compliant New Zealand businesses have access to Migrant workers on AEWV’s. Minimum requirements include:

  1. All employers must have a valid New Zealand Business Number.
  2. They must be a viable and genuinely operation business.
  3. Comply with immigration, employment and business standards.
  4. Have committed to completed employer learning modules.
  5. Must pay all recruitment costs.
  6. Must provide migrant employees with settlement support.
  7. Let employees complete the required learning modules. 
What happens next?

Once your company has become accredited and you want to employ a migrant you need to apply for a Job Check, which is fairly similar to the Labour Market Test under the old visa policy. The Job Check confirms:

  1. The job pays the current market rate in New Zealand and meets relevant wage thresholds.
  2. The terms and conditions of the offer comply with New Zealand employment law and standards.
  3. The job is full time and for a minimum of 30 hours per week.
  4. If required, you have advertised the job to New Zealanders including the expected pay rate and sills required.
It’s important to note that the Job check is not candidate specific, it is role specific. So if you decide not to offer the position to a specific candidate, you do not need to redo the Job Check it can be used for a different candidate as long as it has not expired. Job Checks are expected to take 10 working days and once approved the migrant can then apply for their Accredited Employer Work Visa.
 
How can we help you?
Not only do employers need to be accredited but they also need to comply with a number of requirements during the year to maintain their accreditation. This can often be difficult to navigate and can be rather time consuming. As leading specialists in the New Zealand immigration sector, Immigreat Consultants are perfectly placed to assist companies in achieving and maintaining their accreditation. Don’t let the complexities of the accreditation process hamper your efforts to employ migrants and miss out a star candidates as a result. Contact us today to see how we can help make this a seamless and straight forward process for you.

Do you need a licensed immigration adviser?

Immigration can be a stressful and expensive commitment to your future, can you afford to make a mistake that jeopardizes that future? As highly qualified specialists in the immigration industry we have the skills to help make your dream a reality!

contact us now