Jobs in New Zealand for Indians (2026): the AEWV, the Green List, residence, pay and the honest odds

Most Indians who type "jobs in New Zealand" have heard the story of 2022 and 2023: a country short of everyone and a new work visa handing out offers. In October 2026 the story is different, and you deserve to hear it before you spend money on an agent, an English test or a flight.

The economy. New Zealand's economy shrank or stood still through most of 2023 and 2024, and the job market is still paying for it. GDP grew 0.9% in the March 2026 quarter and 0.2% in the June quarter, 1.7% over the year — but GDP per person rose just 0.1%. Stats NZ's Household Labour Force Survey put unemployment at 5.6% in the June 2026 quarter: 171,000 people, the highest rate since September 2015, with underutilisation at 13.8%. Auckland, where most Indians live and most new arrivals land, was at 6.5%, its highest-equal rate since 2013; the North Island as a whole was at 6.0% and the South Island at 3.7%. Pay is rising slowly: private-sector wages in the Labour Cost Index were up 2.0% in the year, public-sector wages 1.7%.

The cuts. The government shrank the core public service by 2,731 full-time roles (4.2%) in 2024, with about 2,028 redundancies, according to the Public Service Commission's December 2024 workforce report — the last full-year count we could confirm — and Wellington, where those jobs were, felt it most. Health New Zealand is hiring carefully: it is offering about 1,800 graduate registered-nurse roles in its 2026/27 year for roughly 2,978 New Zealand graduates looking for one, and 1News reported in August 2026 that it had hired just 54 full-time-equivalent nurses in the previous two years.

The exits. New Zealanders are leaving, mostly for Australia. In the year to June 2026, New Zealand citizens recorded a net migration loss of 37,700 — about 64,000 left — and the net loss to Australia alone was 28,500 in calendar 2025. Migrants leave too: roughly 49,000 of the 113,100 long-term departures that year were people who were not citizens. Total net migration was a gain of 17,600, well below the long-run June-year average of 31,200.

Where hiring still happens. It has narrowed rather than stopped. SEEK's job ads in August 2026 were 9.7% higher than a year earlier, the 21st month of growth: mining, resources and energy up 46.7%, the South Island regions (Canterbury +15.5%, Otago +18.8%), hospitality and retail ahead of summer, and technology roles that ask for AI skills. The sectors this page returns to are health, construction and infrastructure, technology, farming and food processing, and aged care.

What it means for you:

• If you are experienced in a Green List role — a doctor, an engineer, a software engineer paid NZ$72.80 an hour or more, an electrician — an accredited employer can hire you, and residence can follow in months, not years.
• If you have two years' experience in a mid-skilled job, the AEWV still works, but the employer must advertise first and pay the market rate, and a lower-skilled role (ANZSCO level 4 or 5) gives you three years, no partner or children with you, and little road to residence.
• If you are a nurse, registration is open and jobs are scarce.
• If anyone asks you for money for a job or a visa, stop. It is illegal for an employer to take it, and Immigration New Zealand declines the visa of anyone who pays.

Indians are a large part of this country. The 2023 Census counted 292,092 people of Indian ethnicity, 22% more than in 2018, now the third-largest ethnic group, ahead of Chinese New Zealanders (279,039); people born in India were 2.9% of the population. The events, groups, businesses and city pages for New Zealand show what you arrive into. This page is about getting the job first.

New Zealand publishes where it is short of people, and the Green List is that list. Read the sectors below against it.

Health

Health New Zealand (Te Whatu Ora) runs the public hospitals and recruits overseas for doctors (general practitioners, resident medical officers, almost every specialty), midwives, experienced nurses in specialist areas and allied health — medical laboratory scientists, sonographers, medical imaging technologists, radiation therapists, pharmacists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists. Most of these are Green List Tier 1 roles, which means residence on the job offer. The hard part is the offer. Health NZ is prioritising New Zealand graduates, and in August 2024, at an Auckland health job fair, hundreds of foreign-trained nurses queued for recruiters who were "full up"; one Indian nurse with six years' experience had spent NZ$45,000 to come and was flying home. Health care pays above the national average — NZ$48.27 an hour in the June 2026 quarter — and the nurse section below explains the registration.

Aged care

Rest homes, hospital-level aged care and home-support providers hire caregivers and registered nurses constantly. A caregiver is an ANZSCO level 4 role, but care workforce jobs have their own Care Workforce Work to Residence route: 24 months in the sector at NZ$28.25 an hour or more. Registered Nurse (Aged Care) is on the Green List, and aged care is where many internationally qualified nurses get their first New Zealand job.

Construction and infrastructure

Electricians, plumbers, gasfitters, drainlayers, builders and carpenters, diesel and motor mechanics, welders and fitters are Green List Tier 2 roles; civil, structural, geotechnical and electrical engineers and construction project managers are Tier 1. Construction drove job growth in the South Island in the first half of 2026 before weakening in July, and SEEK names construction, engineering and mining as the industries whose ads are growing fastest. Average construction pay was NZ$41.82 an hour in June 2026; the trades section explains the registration boards.

Technology

A real market, but a choosier one than in 2022. Information media and telecommunications averaged NZ$55.43 an hour in June 2026, and software engineer ads on SEEK in the ICT industry averaged NZ$115,265 a year. Recruiters describe 2026 as "deliberate investment rather than rapid headcount growth", with demand in cyber security, architecture, data and AI; AI skills appear in 17.6% of ICT job ads. Software engineer, developer programmer, ICT security specialist and ICT project manager are Green List roles, but most need 208% of the median wage, NZ$72.80 an hour (about NZ$151,400 a year) — a senior salary, not a graduate one.

The land and food

Dairy farming (dairy cattle farmers are Tier 2), meat and seafood processing, and packhouses employ many Indians, especially in the Waikato and Canterbury. Two limits: an AEWV cannot be used for planting, harvesting or packing crops in horticulture and viticulture, and since 8 December 2025 seasonal peaks are filled through the Global Workforce Seasonal Visa (granted for three years, up to nine months a year, for people with three seasons of experience in the last six) and the Peak Seasonal Visa (up to seven months).

Hospitality and retail

Cooks have been treated as ANZSCO level 3 since 10 March 2025, which gives a five-year AEWV, but accommodation and food services is the lowest-paid industry (NZ$31.10 an hour) and one where exploitation cases cluster.

The cities

• Auckland has 175,794 people of Indian ethnicity, the most jobs and the highest unemployment (6.5%). Its job ads grew at their fastest monthly pace in four years in August 2026, led by hospitality, manufacturing, transport and logistics; median rent was NZ$660 a week. The Auckland page lists its events, groups and businesses.
• Wellington (13,224 Indians in the city) lost public-sector jobs; ads are recovering slowly.
• Christchurch (16,191) and Canterbury have been the most resilient big market — South Island unemployment 3.7%, Canterbury job ads up 15.5% in a year — and the city hosts the nurses' OSCE.
• Hamilton (17,283) is the dairy, agritech and logistics centre of the Waikato.

The groups in New Zealand are where "my ward is hiring" is posted long before it reaches a job board.

Almost every Indian who works in New Zealand without residence does it on an Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV): three checks in a row — the employer's accreditation, the job check and your own visa. Since March 2025 the rules are looser on pay and experience than they were in 2023.

What changed in 2025 and 2026

Immigration New Zealand is also replacing ANZSCO with its own National Occupation List (NOL); some NOL occupations can already be used for an AEWV, but residence still uses ANZSCO.

Step 1: the employer is accredited

Standard accreditation lets a business hire up to five migrants at a time, high-volume accreditation six or more, and triangular accreditation is for labour-hire firms placing workers with clients. INZ publishes the accredited employer list: check that your employer is on it before you send a single document.

Step 2: the job check

The employer must first test the local market: advertise on a national platform such as SEEK or Trade Me for at least 14 days (ANZSCO levels 1–3) or 21 days plus good-faith engagement with Work and Income (levels 4–5), with the pay range, and then offer the pay it advertised. Green List jobs meeting their requirements, and jobs paying NZ$70 an hour or more, are exempt. An approved job check lasts six months. The job must guarantee at least 30 hours a week, and the agreement may not contain a 90-day trial period, unlawful deductions or a bonding clause that makes you repay money if you leave.

Step 3: your visa

The employer sends you a link to apply. The fee starts at NZ$1,540, and INZ was deciding 80% of applications within five weeks in October 2026. You need third-party evidence of your two years' experience — payslips, tax certificates, certificates of employment on letterhead; a CV or reference letter alone is not enough — registration if the job needs it, proof of English for skill levels 3 to 5, police certificates if your total stay will reach 24 months, and a chest X-ray for a stay over six months, because India is not a low-tuberculosis country.

How long you can stay, and the stand-down

Your maximum continuous stay is five years if the job is ANZSCO level 1–3 (or recognised as level 3), pays NZ$52.50 an hour or more, or is on the Green List; it is three years for other level 4 and 5 jobs. When you reach it, you must spend 12 months in a row outside New Zealand before another regular AEWV — unless a higher-skilled job with a five-year limit lets you stay or return early. Plan your road to residence inside that window.

Changing jobs

The visa names your employer, job and location; a new employer means a Job Change application or a new visa. And one alert sits on INZ's own AEWV page: job-offer scams are common in India and South Asia, and INZ will decline an application if you or your agent offered or promised money to an employer for the job.

An AEWV is temporary; residence is what lets you change jobs freely, join KiwiSaver, bring your family on your own terms and, five years later, become a citizen. Every residence threshold is tied to the median wage, which Immigration New Zealand set at NZ$35.00 an hour (about NZ$72,800 a year on 40 hours) from 9 March 2026, from Stats NZ's June 2025 earnings survey. All three routes below need a job or job offer with an accredited employer, and you must be 55 or younger. A resident visa costs from NZ$6,450.

The Green List

Tier 1 — Straight to Residence. If your job is on Tier 1 and you meet its qualification, registration and pay requirements, you can apply for residence as soon as you have the offer, from India or after arriving on a work visa. INZ was deciding 80% within three months in October 2026. Tier 1 covers registered nurses, general practitioners and medical specialists, most professional engineers, construction project managers and a group of ICT roles — software engineer, developer programmer, analyst programmer, ICT security specialist, ICT project manager — which need 208% of the median, NZ$72.80 an hour (database and systems administrators NZ$70; external and internal auditors NZ$45.50). Registered teachers are on the Green List too; check the tier for your teaching level on INZ's tool.

Tier 2 — Work to Residence. Electricians, plumbers, gasfitters, drainlayers, builders and carpenters, diesel and motor mechanics, welders, fitters and dairy cattle farmers are Tier 2: you apply for residence after 24 months in the job, within the last 30 months, paid at least the required rate (the median wage unless the role has its own). Ten more trades were added to Tier 2 in August 2025. The Care Workforce and Transport work-to-residence routes work the same way at their own rates (NZ$28.25 for care).

The Skilled Migrant Category from 24 August 2026

The SMC now has three pathways. You submit an expression of interest, and INZ invites those who meet the requirements.

1. Points-based. You need 6 points from one category — a qualification, an occupational registration or your pay — topped up with New Zealand skilled work experience (1 point for a year, 2 for 18 months, 3 for two years). You cannot add a qualification to pay points. The new table:

For an Indian graduate this is the biggest change in years: a B.Tech, B.Com or B.Sc that NZQA accepts as a bachelor's degree is now worth 4 points, up from 3, so 18 months of New Zealand skilled work completes it instead of three years; an Indian master's on top of a bachelor's is 5 points plus a year. Your job must pay at least NZ$35.00 an hour (NZ$52.50 for a level 4–5 job), and your threshold is fixed at the rate in force when your skilled experience started.

2. Skilled Work Experience pathway. For people without a degree: an ANZSCO level 1–3 job paying 1.1 × the median (NZ$38.50), with five years of directly relevant experience, two of them in New Zealand at that rate. Amber List occupations need five years in New Zealand and 1.2 × (NZ$42); Red List occupations cannot use it, and self-employment does not count.

3. Trades and Technician pathway. A listed trade or technician occupation, a relevant level 4 or higher qualification, and four years of post-qualification experience, 18 months of it in New Zealand at NZ$35 an hour or more.

From 2027 you will also be able to extend an AEWV by up to 12 months to finish the experience you need.

Which road is yours?

Tier 1 job: residence now. Tier 2 trade: residence after two years. A degree and a skilled job at NZ$35: the points pathway in 12 to 24 months. Experience without a degree: the two new pathways. A level 4–5 job outside the care and transport routes: no road, and three years before you must leave.

Your partner and children on an AEWV

Your family cannot be included in your AEWV; you support their visas, and what you can support depends on your job's skill level and your pay. Couples who both hold an AEWV can combine incomes for the children's threshold.

That last row is the one agents leave out: under the rules in force since 2024, a worker in a lower-skilled role — retail supervisor, labourer, many hospitality and process jobs — cannot support visas for a partner or children, and only families supported before 26 June 2024 keep their old rights. The Partner of a Worker Work Visa costs from NZ$1,630, was being decided 80% within seven weeks in October 2026, lasts as long as your visa and lets your partner work.

Students

Studying here is the slow, expensive door, but the August 2026 points changes made it more valuable: a New Zealand bachelor's is now worth 5 points and a New Zealand master's (with a bachelor's, studied full time for 30 weeks here) is worth all 6, so a graduate in a skilled job paying NZ$35 an hour can apply for residence quickly. The job market for graduates is the hard part, not the visa. Choose a course for its employers and placements, and remember that the nursing-graduate numbers in this guide are the domestic ones.

The India–New Zealand free trade agreement

Negotiations concluded on 22 December 2025, the agreement was signed in New Delhi on 27 April 2026, New Zealand's Parliament passed the implementing law on 16 September, ratifications were exchanged in Parliament on 21 September, and it enters into force on 20 October 2026. The people side, as summarised by the negotiators and law firms:

• Temporary Employment Entry visa — up to 5,000 Indian holders at any one time (about 1,667 new visas a year), for three years: 1,466 a year for 13 Green List occupations and 200 for "iconic" Indian occupations — yoga instructors, Indian chefs, music teachers and AYUSH practitioners.
• A working holiday scheme for Indians — the first New Zealand has offered India: 1,000 places a year for young people (reported as ages 18 to 30, for twelve months).
• Students — 20 hours a week of work during study, and post-study work of up to three years after a STEM bachelor's or master's and four after a doctorate.

None of these is an application form yet: Immigration New Zealand has to create the visa categories and publish the criteria, dates and fees. Until it does, anyone selling an "FTA visa" or a "working holiday slot" is selling nothing; watch immigration.govt.nz, not a WhatsApp forward. The agreement does not change the AEWV, the Green List or the residence rules above. Until the scheme opens, there is no working holiday visa for Indian citizens, and New Zealand has no job-seeker visa.

The most useful fact for a job search from India is that an AEWV job must be advertised in public first — at least 14 days on a national platform such as SEEK or Trade Me (21 for lower-skilled jobs) — unless it is a Green List role or pays NZ$70 an hour or more. Sponsored jobs are therefore on the same boards as every other job, and an agent who says an "AEWV job" exists but is not advertised anywhere is describing something that, for most roles, cannot pass a job check.

Where to look

• SEEK is the largest board in the country, and its free salary insights — advertised salaries by role, industry and region — are the numbers to negotiate from. Trade Me Jobs is the other national board and strong for trades, regional and hospitality work.
• LinkedIn is where professional, technology and finance hiring happens and where the Indian managers who might refer you are; Indeed NZ aggregates many of the same ads.
• Health New Zealand's careers portal (on healthnz.govt.nz) lists hospital jobs and has pages and recruitment events for international candidates; private hospitals and aged-care groups advertise on SEEK. jobs.govt.nz carries public-sector roles — fewer since the 2024 cuts; read each advert's work-rights line.
• Recruiters. Hays, Robert Walters and the technology specialist Absolute IT are the names you will meet most, alongside specialist health, engineering and trades agencies. A recruiter is paid by the employer. Immigration New Zealand says it plainly: New Zealand employers or agents cannot charge you fees for a job or make you pay any of their recruitment costs.
• The accredited employer list. INZ publishes every accredited employer. Use it twice: to find employers in your field who already hire migrants, and to check any offer you receive. Check the Employment New Zealand stand-down list too, which names employers banned from supporting visas after breaching employment law.

The "New Zealand experience" wall

"Must have NZ residency or a valid work visa", "NZ experience preferred" — the phrases are real and legal. The ways through: a qualification already assessed by NZQA (or registration in hand, for regulated jobs); a CV that translates scale ("a ₹300 crore project" becomes "a NZ$60 million project"); membership of the local professional body; and, above all, a Green List role, because the employer then skips the advertising and you skip the wait for residence.

Reading the market

Competition is fierce. SEEK's applications per job ad rose for the second month in a row in July 2026, the sharpest rise in 18 months. Hays' FY26/27 survey found 30% of New Zealand professionals actively looking for a new job and another 40% open to one, and Hays put the average salary increase at 3.3%. Expect a search from India to take months, send fewer, better applications — the first two lines of the advert answered in the first two lines of your cover letter — and keep a spreadsheet.

Your network

Many hires in technology and the professions are referrals, and many hospitality, retail and trades jobs among Indians are found through people. Alumni groups, the Indian associations, the temple and gurdwara committees and the Namaste groups in New Zealand are where a vacancy is mentioned before it is posted. Ask for introductions, not jobs — and treat any "job" offered by a community contact in exchange for money exactly as you would a stranger's: as a crime.

Timing from India

New Zealand is 7.5 hours ahead of India from late September to early April and 6.5 hours ahead otherwise: a 9 a.m. Auckland interview in October is 1.30 a.m. in Delhi, so offer late-afternoon slots.

A CV written for an Indian recruiter gets filtered out in New Zealand for reasons that have nothing to do with your ability. Change these things before you send a single application.

The CV

• Two or three pages, A4. Longer than an American résumé, far shorter than an Indian CV that lists every certificate.
• Leave out the photo, date of birth, age, marital status, religion, caste, father's name, passport number and your 10th and 12th percentages. The Human Rights Act makes most of these unlawful grounds for a hiring decision, and a CV that leads with them reads as foreign.
• Order: name and contact details (city, phone, email, LinkedIn), a three- or four-line profile, work experience newest first with three to five bullet points each that start with a verb and end with a result, then education, then skills and certifications. Convert rupees to New Zealand dollars and name any NZQA assessment or New Zealand registration you hold.
• State your work rights in one line: "Requires an Accredited Employer Work Visa; Green List Tier 1 role", "Holds a Partner of a Worker Work Visa with open work rights", "New Zealand resident". Hiding it wastes a week; the application form will ask anyway.
• New Zealand English, which is British English: programme, organisation, licence, labour. "Fresher" is not a word here ("recent graduate"), "passed out" means fainted, and "revert" means go back to, not reply.
• Referees. New Zealand employers call them, usually before the offer. Name two or three — ideally your last two managers — and warn them; a referee who cannot be reached in a New Zealand morning slows everything down.

The cover letter

One page, addressed to the named hiring manager if the advert gives one ("Kia ora Priya" or "Dear Priya" — not "Respected Sir/Madam"), three paragraphs: why this organisation, two things you have done that match the first two requirements in the advert, and when you can start. For public-sector and health jobs, follow the application instructions exactly; some ask you to answer specific questions instead.

The interview

New Zealand interviews are informal in tone and serious in substance. Expect a phone screen, then one or two interviews, often with a panel of two or three; technical roles add a practical exercise. Most questions are behavioural — "tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager" — and want a short story in the STAR shape (situation, task, action, result) with the result in numbers. New Zealanders are modest and dislike overclaiming: say "we" for the team's work and then be specific about your own part. In Health New Zealand, the public service and many large employers you may be asked what Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi) or cultural safety means in your work; learn the basics before the interview, because nurses and doctors are assessed on it for registration anyway.

The questions you ask

Ask the questions that protect your visa, politely and in writing after the interview:

1. Is the organisation accredited for the AEWV, and does it already have a job check, or will it apply for one?
2. What is the hourly rate? Immigration New Zealand converts salaries to an hourly rate using your maximum contracted hours, and that rate decides your partner's visa, your Green List eligibility and your residence points.
3. Is the job permanent and full-time — at least 30 guaranteed hours a week?
4. Which ANZSCO occupation will the job check use? A chef coded as a kitchenhand can lose you residence and your family's visas.

Salary talk

Salary is discussed openly and early. Have a number from SEEK's salary insights for your role and city, not from an Indian portal, and compare the whole package: base pay, KiwiSaver once you are eligible, relocation help, and whether the employer pays the visa fee. An employer who asks you to repay its recruitment costs is breaking the law.

New Zealand regulates its professions through councils and boards, and for an Indian professional the registration — not the visa — is the long part. An AEWV for a regulated job needs your New Zealand registration, or the registration body's confirmation that you are eligible for it.

Nurses

The Nursing Council of New Zealand registers internationally qualified nurses through one route for everyone outside Australia:

1. Have your documents verified by TruMerit, then apply to the Council (a NZ$485 application fee) when invited.
2. Complete two free online "Welcome to Aotearoa New Zealand" courses and a criminal history check.
3. Pass the theory exam — 120 multiple-choice questions in 165 minutes, on medication safety and nursing knowledge — at a Pearson VUE centre in New Zealand or overseas (check the locator for one in India): NZ$140, three attempts allowed.
4. Attend a two-day orientation course at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch (NZ$500), then sit the OSCE, ten clinical stations at the Nurse Maude Simulation and Assessment Centre in Christchurch (NZ$3,000, the same again for a re-sit).

That is about NZ$4,125 in fees before flights, a visitor visa, accommodation and English tests (check the Council's page for the accepted tests and scores). Registered nurse is a Green List Tier 1 role, so a job offer from an accredited employer can lead straight to residence. The offer is the problem: Health NZ is prioritising about 1,800 graduate roles for New Zealand-trained nurses in 2026/27, and in 2024 hundreds of foreign-trained nurses, Indians among them, queued at an Auckland job fair with no offers. Health NZ pays NZ$75,773 on step 1 of the nurses' collective and NZ$106,739 at the top step (2025 rates), plus 2.5% from 2 March 2026 and 2% from 2 March 2027. Aged care and private hospitals usually pay less — SEEK's average advertised salary for registered nurses in healthcare was NZ$71,018 in October 2026 — and are where many overseas nurses start. Talk to employers before you fly to Christchurch for the OSCE.

Doctors

An Indian MBBS registers through NZREX Clinical, the Medical Council's registration exam: a 12-station OSCE over three hours. To sit it you need the Council's English requirement, a pass within the last five years in PLAB Part 1, the AMC MCQ, MCCQE Part I or USMLE Steps 1 and 2 (Clinical Knowledge), and your degree verified through EPIC. Under the Council's fees notice in force from 1 July 2026 the application fee is NZ$748.63 and the exam fee NZ$4,319.08, both before GST. The September 2026 sitting is closed; the next are 6 March 2027 and 4 September 2027. After passing, the Council is blunt: securing a PGY1 (first postgraduate year) training role with a New Zealand provider is your only pathway to registration, whatever your experience — and Health NZ's PGY1 intake is aimed at New Zealand and Australian graduates first.

Engineers

Green List engineering roles ask for a recognised degree and, where required, Chartered Professional Engineer status or equivalent, so start with Engineering New Zealand, and say on your CV if your degree is accredited under the Washington Accord.

Teachers

Teachers must be registered with the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand and hold a practising certificate before an AEWV or a Green List residence application. Allow months for the assessment and the English evidence.

Accountants and the professions

CA ANZ is the local chartered body; from 24 August 2026 CPA Australia members who can do the work of a Qualified Statutory Accountant also qualify for the SMC. Most other professions need an NZQA International Qualification Assessment of an Indian qualification for immigration, unless it is on the exempt list.

The trades

Electricians register with the Electrical Workers Registration Board; plumbers, gasfitters and drainlayers with the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board; and much building work needs a Licensed Building Practitioner. Expect a competency assessment and some local study first. These are the Green List Tier 2 trades, and the Trades and Technician pathway of August 2026 was built for exactly these people.

Three numbers anchor every conversation about pay in New Zealand. The adult minimum wage is NZ$23.95 an hour from 1 April 2026 (NZ$49,816 a year on 40 hours; the starting-out and training rate is NZ$19.16). The median wage, which Immigration New Zealand uses for every residence threshold, is NZ$35.00 an hour (Stats NZ, June 2025). And the average ordinary-time hourly earnings in Stats NZ's Quarterly Employment Survey were NZ$44.62 in the June 2026 quarter, up 2.8% from NZ$43.39 a year earlier.

SEEK's figures average the salary ranges employers disclose in ads, some including KiwiSaver; Stats NZ's average everyone in the industry. Mining and energy pay electricians far more (NZ$112,255 on SEEK).

What you keep: PAYE and the ACC levy

Tax is deducted from every pay by your employer (Pay As You Earn). The rates in force since 1 April 2025, after the threshold changes of 31 July 2024, are 10.5% on the first NZ$15,600, 17.5% to NZ$53,500, 30% to NZ$78,100, 33% to NZ$180,000 and 39% above. On top of income tax the only payroll deduction is the ACC earners' levy, which pays for New Zealand's no-fault accident cover: NZ$1.75 per NZ$100 of earnings (GST included) for 2026–27, on earnings up to NZ$156,641, a maximum of NZ$2,741.22. There is no separate social-security tax.

In round numbers, before any tax credits or student-loan deductions and with no KiwiSaver, a full-time salary of NZ$70,000 leaves about NZ$55,550; NZ$100,000 about NZ$75,370; NZ$120,000 about NZ$88,420; and the Green List ICT floor of about NZ$151,400 about NZ$108,900. Give your employer your IRD number and the right tax code (M for your main job) on day one; without an IRD number, tax is deducted at 45%. The tax year runs from 1 April to 31 March, and for most employees Inland Revenue squares the year automatically.

KiwiSaver

KiwiSaver is New Zealand's workplace retirement savings scheme — and you cannot join it on an AEWV or any other temporary visa; it is for citizens and people entitled to live in New Zealand indefinitely, which includes resident visa holders. Once you have residence, a new job enrols you automatically. From 1 April 2026 the default contribution is 3.5% of your pay from you and 3.5% from your employer (rising to 4% each from 1 April 2028), and the government adds 25 cents for every dollar you contribute, up to NZ$260.72 a year, unless your income is over NZ$180,000. Until then, an employer pays no KiwiSaver for you, so compare offers on salary alone.

The rest of the offer

Four weeks of paid annual leave and the public holidays are the legal minimum; an AEWV offer must guarantee at least 30 hours a week and contain no 90-day trial clause. If the pay is below the NZ$35.00 your residence plan depends on, negotiate before you sign: under the SMC, skilled experience only starts counting once you are paid at the threshold.

Between the visa approval and your first payslip there are a handful of things to do, and the order matters.

Before you fly

• Keep copies of your visa approval, employment agreement, job description and every payslip from India — your residence application will need proof of experience, and your employer's job check describes the job you must actually be doing.
• Get your health cover clear. ACC can cover treatment after an accident regardless of residence status. For illness, Health New Zealand treats you as eligible for publicly funded care if your work visa lets you stay two years or more (counting time already spent here legally); a shorter visa does not, so buy insurance for the gap and for family on visitor visas.
• Bring your Indian driving licence, an English translation if it is not in English, and an International Driving Permit if you have one.

The IRD number

Apply online in your first days as a new arrival: register for myIR, then apply with your passport details, your Immigration New Zealand application number and your most recent overseas tax number (your PAN). It is free, Immigration New Zealand's identity check means you send no further documents, and Inland Revenue says an approved application returns your number by text or email in about two days. You can start work before it arrives, but tax is deducted at 45% until your employer has it.

A bank account

Your salary is paid into a New Zealand account, usually fortnightly. Several of the large banks let new migrants start an account online before arriving and complete it with their passport in a branch; compare fees for international transfers, because sending money home is the transaction you will make most. Build a local credit record — a phone plan, a credit card paid in full — because landlords and car finance will ask.

Driving

How long you can drive on your Indian licence depends on when you arrived. In November 2024, because of long waits for driving tests, the government temporarily extended the period to 18 months from your last entry; that extension ends for anyone arriving on or after 1 November 2026, who gets the standard 12 months. People who last arrived between 1 November 2024 and 31 October 2026 keep 18 months while they stay. India is not on the list of exempt countries, so converting means passing a theory test and then a practical test at a specialist overseas-conversion agent; after the theory test you hold a New Zealand licence with a supervisor condition until you pass the practical. At NZ Transport Agency fees set in July 2024, that was NZ$52.10 to apply, NZ$45.70 for the theory test and NZ$59.90 for the practical. Book early: the queues are why the extension existed.

The rent

Trade Me Property's rental index for August 2026 put the national median asking rent at NZ$625 a week, the first year-on-year rise in 18 months:

Rents are quoted weekly. Many new arrivals share a house for the first months — Trade Me says groups and multi-generational households are pushing up large-house rents — but insist on a written tenancy agreement and a lodged bond, and never pay a "holding fee" to someone you have not met for a house you have not seen. Live close to the job: public transport outside central Auckland and Wellington is thin.

Settling in

Indian grocers, restaurants, accountants, travel agents and immigration advisers are in the Indian businesses directory for New Zealand — and before you pay an adviser, check that they are licensed (the next section explains how).

One rule defeats most of the frauds aimed at Indians who want to work in New Zealand: you never pay for a job. The Wages Protection Act 1983 forbids an employer to seek or receive a premium for employment; Immigration New Zealand says employers and agents cannot charge you fees for a job or pass on their recruitment costs; and INZ declines an AEWV if you or your agent offered or promised money for the job offer. Exploiting a temporary worker is a criminal offence. Everything below follows from that.

What has already happened to Indians here

• Papakura, August 2023. On 13 August 2023 INZ found Indian nationals living in a Papakura house who had arrived on AEWVs for jobs that did not exist, after paying large sums for the visa and the job. Within days five more Auckland properties were found; by September INZ had identified 144 migrants linked to ten properties, and was cancelling the visas of about 135 more people still offshore who were linked to the same companies.
• Manukau, September 2023. An Auckland couple and their import companies were sentenced for exploiting three Indian workers and for immigration fraud; reparation of more than NZ$91,000 was paid.
• Paeroa, December 2025. A retailer whose directors recruited two Indian nationals on AEWVs, worked them up to 14 hours a day, seven days a week, made disguised "loan repayment" deductions and gave INZ fabricated rosters and payslips was fined NZ$159,250, after more than NZ$158,000 of unpaid wages had been calculated.
• Auckland, June 2026. The Employment Relations Authority ordered a landscaping company, 7 Solutions Limited (trading as Auckland City Lawns), to repay a NZ$44,750 premium that an Indian worker had paid for his job and visa, with penalties of NZ$16,000 against the company and NZ$8,000 against its director, who is personally liable for the premium if the company cannot pay.
• Palmerston North, July 2026. A company director was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, served as 12 months' home detention, for demanding tens of thousands of dollars from a Sri Lankan employee who was working towards residence; the court ordered NZ$59,657.68 in reparation.

The red flags

• Any payment for a job offer, a job check, a "sponsorship", a "visa slot" or a "guaranteed PR" — in rupees in India or in dollars in New Zealand, before or after you arrive, described as a loan, a deposit, a training fee or a family favour.
• An employer who is not on INZ's accredited employer list, or who is on Employment New Zealand's stand-down list.
• An "AEWV job" that was never advertised, when the job is not on the Green List and pays under NZ$70 an hour.
• An offer letter with a different job title, fewer hours or lower pay than the job check; an employer who keeps your passport; wages paid in cash, or paid and then "returned".
• An adviser who is neither a licensed immigration adviser — search the Immigration Advisers Authority's public register — nor an exempt person such as a New Zealand lawyer. Check before you pay, whether the office is in Jalandhar, Hyderabad or Auckland.

If it is happening to you

You are the victim, not the offender. Report it to MBIE on 0800 200 088 or through Employment New Zealand's online form, or anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. If Employment New Zealand assesses your report and sends you a Report of Exploitation Assessment letter, you can apply within a month for the Migrant Exploitation Protection Work Visa: free, up to six months, letting you leave the job at once and work for any employer while the case is investigated. INZ says it will ignore visa breaches, and false or withheld information, that happened because of the exploitation. Keep every payslip, bank transfer, message and roster; they are your evidence, and your residence application may need them too.

Then tell the groups, so the next person does not pay.

Residence is not the end of the road, and the years after it shape where your family ends up.

Permanent residence and citizenship

A resident visa lets you live, work and study in New Zealand indefinitely; after two years in a row on it, having met its conditions and shown a commitment to New Zealand, you can apply for a Permanent Resident Visa (from NZ$315), which lets you travel in and out without limits. Citizenship by grant needs five years as a resident, physical presence of at least 1,350 days in those five years and 240 days in each of them, basic English and good character. The fee for an adult rose to NZ$560 on 21 November 2025. The government has announced a citizenship test — 20 questions with a pass mark of 15 — for applications made from the second half of 2027; applying before it starts means not sitting it. India does not allow dual citizenship, so a New Zealand passport means surrendering the Indian one and applying for an OCI card; many Indian New Zealanders stay permanent residents for years for exactly that reason.

The road to Australia

A New Zealand passport opens Australia: New Zealand citizens get a Special Category Visa on arrival and can live and work there indefinitely, and since 1 July 2023 a New Zealand citizen who has lived in Australia for four years can apply directly for Australian citizenship without first becoming a permanent resident. It is one reason New Zealand lost a net 28,500 people to Australia in 2025, and why some Indians plan New Zealand as a long route to Australia — five years to New Zealand citizenship, four more in Sydney or Melbourne. It is a legitimate plan, but a long one, and the Australia jobs guide shows that the Australian market has its own queues.

Where the community helps

Indians have been organising in New Zealand for a century. The New Zealand Indian Central Association, founded in 1926 with branches in Auckland, Wellington and Taumarunui, now has ten affiliated branches; the Wellington Indian Association, founded in 1925, still runs its hall, Bharat Bhavan, at 48 Kemp Street in Kilbirnie. Alongside them are dozens of regional, language and faith groups — Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayali, Bengali, Marathi, Fijian Indian — and professional networks.

The temples and gurdwaras are where many new arrivals find their first friends, room or job lead: Gurdwara Sri Kalgidhar Sahib in Takanini, opened in 2005 and the largest gurdwara in the country, the Bharatiya Mandir in Sandringham, and temples, gurdwaras, mosques and churches in every city where Indians live. When the Papakura migrants were found in 2023, INZ worked with local community representatives, Victim Support and the Ministry of Social Development to support them — the community is part of the safety net, not a substitute for reporting.

What the community cannot do is sell you a visa. What it can do is tell you which employers treat people well, which landlords return bonds, and which ward is hiring.

The Indian events in New Zealand — Diwali melas, Holi, Navratri, Onam, Vaisakhi, cricket and alumni nights — and the events in Auckland are where you meet the people who will refer you. The events, groups, businesses and city pages for New Zealand bring them together, the Indian businesses are where you will shop and find an accountant, and the groups below are where questions get answered in hours.

Moving on

If New Zealand does not work out, New Zealand experience, registration and proven English travel well. The UK jobs guide shows the same search with a sponsorship floor instead of a Green List, and the other guides cover Europe and North America. The Namaste Community app works in every country, so the groups and the directory come with you.