New Zealand has working holiday scheme agreements with many countries, allowing applicants to work in and explore New Zealand.
Overview
| Length of stay | 6 months – 23 months* |
| Age Range | 18 – 30 years |
| Processing Time | 76 days |
| Costs | $280 |
*Due to COVID-19, if you are outside New Zealand, you cannot apply for this visa.*
Eligible Countries
Working Holiday Visas are available to young people, usually aged 18 to 30, but 18 to 35 in a selected few country. The visa lets you travel and work in New Zealand for up to 12 months, or 23 months if you are from the UK or Canada. If you apply for a 23-month visa, you must provide a General Medical Certificate.
To be eligible, you must be a passport holder from one of the eligible countries:
| Working Holiday Visa Schemes | ||
|---|---|---|
| Argentina Austria Belgium* Brazil Canada* Chile China Croatia Czech Denmark* Estonia Finland* France* Germany* Hungary |
Hong Kong Ireland* Israel Italy* Japan* Korea Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malaysia Malta Mexico Netherlands* Norway* Peru |
Philippines Poland Portugal Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden* Taiwan Thailand Turkey United Kingdom* USA* Uruguay Vietnam |
Criteria
The Working Holiday Visa criteria differ between countries. For example, if you are from the UK or Canada, you may be eligible to stay longer than 12 months. Whilst applicants from China, Korea, Japan, USA, Spain etc are given 12 months on their Working Holiday Visa.
In addition, it is essential to remember that some countries have quotas on the Working Holiday Visa. For example, the quota for Spain is 200 per year and it is 1150 per year for Malaysia.
Therefore, it is important to check the criteria and quota before applying.
General Criteria
In general, the criteria for a Working Holiday Visa are:
- Meet health and character requirements.
- You must genuinely intend to meet the conditions of your visa.
- Must meet the age requirement.
- You must be a citizenship of the country.
- You must have a ticket to leave New Zealand or enough money to buy one.
- You must have enough money to live on while in New Zealand (this is dependent on the countries you are from and the duration of your stay. In general, you must have at least NZD 350 for each month of your stay)
- You must not have had approval for a New Zealand Working Holiday Visa before.
- You must have full medical insurance for the length of your stay.
