Do you want to try working abroad, gain amazing life experience, and see more than the typical
“tourist” sees?
Then experiencing New Zealand on a working holiday visa is the way to go!
We’ll go through everything you need to know about the New Zealand working holiday
visa, coming up!
Hi team, we’re Robin & Laura the team behind BackpackerGuide.NZ, helping you plan an epic
trip in New Zealand.
The New Zealand Working Holiday Visa allows young people aged between 18-35 years old
to work and travel in New Zealand for up to 6, 12 or even 23 months depending on which
country you come from.
In this video, we’re going to go through everything about the working holiday visa
for New Zealand including what are the requirements, when to apply for the working holiday visa,
what you need to prepare to apply, how to apply for the New Zealand working holiday
visa, how to check if your application has been
approved, what the visa looks like,
what to do when you arrive in New Zealand on a working holiday visa,
and finally, how to extend your working holiday visa.
Before we jump into the video, we publish new videos about New Zealand several times
a week so if you’re serious about visiting New Zealand make sure to hit the subscribe
button so you don’t miss out!
Ok, let’s go!
First things first, let’s go over the New Zealand Working Holiday Visa requirements.
The New Zealand Working Holiday Visa is not open to everybody.
There are a set of requirements that you need to make you eligible to apply for the working
holiday visa.
These requirements are different for every nationality, so make sure you check your county’s
criteria on the Immigration New Zealand website, which we’ll link up to in the description,
to get all the up-to-date requirements you will need to meet.
However, we’ll talk about 8 main requirements most nationalities have to meet.
Number 1, you need to have a passport from one of the New Zealand working holiday participating
countries.
Currently, there are 45 different countries which are participating in the New Zealand
Working Holiday Scheme.
New countries get added to the list every so often.
For now, these are the countries that can participate in a New Zealand working holiday
scheme.
Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Chine, Croatia, Czech, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia,
Lituania, Luxembourgh, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland,
Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom,
USA, Uruguay and Vietnam.
Your passport needs to be valid for at least three months after the date that you intend
to leave New Zealand.
Number 2.
You need to be 18-35 years old.
Most of the working holiday schemes are for those aged 18-30 years old but there are some
countries with an upper age limit of 35 years old, including Argentina, Canada, Chile, Czech,
Finland, Hungary, Slovakia and Uruguay. 3.
You need to be coming to New Zealand primarily to holiday.
Your main intention in New Zealand needs to be that you are travelling, rather than coming
to New Zealand just to work.
Working and studying should be a secondary intention.
This rule is enforced by working holidaymakers being prohibited from accepting a permanent
job.
4.
You need to have a minimum of NZ$4,200 and an outward travel ticket or funds to purchase
one.
For most countries, $4,200 is the minimum amount of available funds you need to have
in order to support yourself while in New Zealand.
Although this is just a requirement for the working holiday visa, we recommend having
a bit more available funds for the start of your trip.
Take a look at How Much Money Do You Need for a Working Holiday in New Zealand?
linked up in the description for more details.
On top of that, you will need either an outward travel ticket or sufficient funds to purchase
one.
There is no set amount of money for this, as it depends on where you claim to be travelling
to next or what country you are from, but NZ$1,000 is a safe amount.
Number 5, You need to meet the basic health and character requirements.
These will be assessed via the answers you give in your working holiday visa application.
They are simple questions about your medical history and criminal record.
Number 6, You are not bringing a child with you.
You cannot bring your children along with you on a working holiday visa.
If you are travelling with a partner, they will need to apply for their own visa.
7, You need to have travel insurance.
For the duration of your stay in New Zealand you will need comprehensive travel and medical
insurance.
Check out our full guide on Medical and Travel Insurance for New Zealand linked up in the
description below.
And finally number 8, you have not been approved for a working holiday in New Zealand before.
You can only do a working holiday in New Zealand once.
Next, let’s talk about when to apply for the New Zealand working holiday visa.
Once you have checked that you are eligible for the New Zealand working holiday visa,
you need to see when your country’s working holiday scheme opens.
Some countries have an unlimited amount of working holiday visas, meaning you can apply
at any time of the year.
However, some other countries have a quota, meaning they only have a set amount of working
holiday visas available per year.
Quotas open at different times of the year for different countries.
The quota fills up quickly so you'll need to apply as soon as the quota opens in order
to get the best chance of your application being processed.
The Immigration New Zealand website will release the dates that you can apply for your working
holiday visa one or two months prior to the quota opening.
However, the workingholidaynewzealand.com is a good resource for checking quota opening
dates and the previous years’ opening dates with their Quota Reports.
We’ll link that resource up for you guys in the description.
If you’re wandering when is your working holiday visa valid, you can travel to New
Zealand on your working holiday visa within a year after you have received the acceptance
email from Immigration New Zealand saying your visa has been approved.
The 6, 12 or 23 month duration of your working holiday visa doesn't take effect until the
date you arrive in New Zealand.
Next up, how can you prepare to apply for the New Zealand working holiday visa?
The working holiday visa for New Zealand can only be applied for online at the Immigration
New Zealand website.
Before you lodge an application for a New Zealand working holiday visa or before your
quota opens, there are a few things you can do to make the application run as quickly
and smoothly as possible.
You will need the following to apply: A computer.
We recommend this as it’s more reliable and quicker to use than a phone.
A good Internet connection.
A Visa or MasterCard, which doesn't have to be yours.
Your passport.
Another form of ID, like your driver license.
A medical and x-ray certificate if applying for the 23-month working holiday visa – more
info on that linked up in the description.
And to register on the Immigration New Zealand website.
Check out the link to the Backpacker Guide.NZ article in the description so you can follow
our walkthrough on how to register.
The next step is applying for the working holiday visa.
As soon as the quota opens, it’s time log into the Immigration New Zealand website and
start applying.
Or if you're from a country without a quota where you can apply at any time, we give an
example of when it is a good time to apply for the working holiday visa in our video
on How to Plan a Working Holiday, which we’ll link in the cards as well as in the description.
The online application is incredibly simple, but allow 45 minutes at the most to fill out
the form.
There will be four sections of the form to complete, which are:
The Personal Section where you need to complete your “Personal Details” and “Identification”.
The “Occupation Details” is optional.
The Health Section is a few “yes and no” questions about your health.
The Character Section is also in an easy “yes or no” format.
And the Working Holiday Specific Section is where you’re asked questions like your “indented
travel date” which is for survey purposes only, so there is no need to have it 100%
right.
For a complete step-by-step guide with screenshots of the working holiday visa application so
you know what to expect, check out our New Zealand Working Holiday Visa Application Walkthrough,
linked to in the description.
At the end of the application you will need to pay a fee, which is usually around NZ$208
or free if you are from the US.
And now, How to check if your working holiday visa has been approved.
After you have applied for your working holiday visa online, you should receive an email from
Immigration New Zealand within 14 days of completing the application – often much
much less!
Although you can log into your Immigration New Zealand account at anytime once you have
made your online application, there is not much reason to without first receiving an
email from Immigration New Zealand saying that a decision has been made on your visa
application.
However, if you can't wait, check out How to Check if Your Working Holiday Visa Has
Been Approved linked in the description for instructions on how to check out the status
of your application through the Immigration New Zealand website.
So what does the Working holiday visa look like?
Your New Zealand Working Holiday Visa is an eVisa meaning that you don’t have a sticker
or paperwork to show at the New Zealand border.
New Zealand Passport Control will see your eVisa electronically when they scan your passport.
However, you can still view, download and print your eVisa on the Immigration New Zealand
website.
Once you have been approved for the working holiday visa, login to the Working Holiday
Schemes Online homepage on the Immigration New Zealand website and simply click on “View
eVisa” to get the PDF version of your working holiday visa.
It looks like this…
Which isn’t very sexy but you might want to print it out and take it to New Zealand
just for peace of mind or in case you lose your passport.
You can see another example copy of the visa in the BackpackerGuide.NZ article, What Does
a Working Holiday Visa Look Like?, which of course, we will link up in the description
for you guys.
Now let’s talk about arriving in New Zealand with a working holiday visa.
Arriving in New Zealand on a working holiday visa is not much different to arriving as
a visitor.
You will still go through the Passport Control, Customs and Biosecurity processes that everyone
goes through when arriving in the country.
We outline all of these processes in our Arriving in a New Zealand Airport video which we’ll
link to in the cards and in the description.
However, we advise that you bring supporting evidence to show that you meet the requirements
of your working holiday visa.
This includes: Evidence of sufficient funds, such as a printed
bank statement showing you have at least NZ$4,200.
Evidence of an outward travel ticket or sufficient funds to purchase one, such as your return
flight ticket, receipt for one, or an added $1,000 on your bank statement to show you
have funds to purchase a ticket.
And Evidence of travel insurance, such as a printed copy of your policy certificate.
It's unlikely that you will be asked to provide this paperwork, however, you'll be happy that
you did for those times that they perform random checks.
Finally, How do you extend your working holiday visa?
If you find that you are enjoying New Zealand so much that you want to stay longer, it is
possible to extend your working holiday visa either for a further 3 or 11 months.
These applications are paper applications that will need to be dropped off or posted
to an Immigration New Zealand office.
UK and Canadian passport holders can extend their working holiday visas for a further
11 months, making their working holiday visa valid for 23 months in total.
Conditions are similar to that of the original working holiday visa, except UK passport holders
can only work 12 out of the 23 months, and both Brits and Canadians will need to complete
an immigration medical and chest x-ray.
We have guides to both of those applications, which we’ll link up to in the description.
Other working holidaymakers can apply to extend their working holiday visa by three months,
under one major condition: you have evidence that you have worked in the horticulture or
viticulture industry for a total of 3 months – not necessarily full-time work, but at
least part-time on a regular basis.
The positions must be planting, picking, maintaining, harvesting and packing crops.
Evidence could be payslips or a letter from your employer.
Check our list of Jobs That Qualify to Extend Your Working Holiday Visa in New Zealand linked
up, you guessed it, in the description below.
This is getting to be quite a lot of links for you guys!
If you’re finding it helpful having those links, hit the like button so we know!
So that’s it for this huge guide on the New Zealand Working Holiday Visa!
The next thing you need to do for planning your working holiday is figure out where you
want to visit in New Zealand, where you can find inspiration in our New Zealand vlog series,
New Zealand’s Biggest Gap Year, where we did 365 activities in 365 days all around
the country.
Plus, you can get tips on finding a job in the video linked in the cards and description.
Thanks for watching, team, and until next time, travel awesome!