INZ’s roll-out of the new 3-step employer accreditation programme has begun, with applications for new employer accreditation open as of 23 May 2022. Employers wanting to be able to recruit people from overseas to fill their job vacancies can submit an application for the accreditation now. The application for accreditation involves proving that your company:

• is a viable and genuinely operating business
• will complete settlement support activities for all new migrant employees
• complies with immigration, employment & business standards

There are 4 different types of accreditation – standard (where an employer can employ up to 5 Accredited Employer work visa holders at any one time), high volume (where there is no limit on the number of Accredited Employer work visa holders that can be employed), franchisee (where the employer is a franchisee) and triangular (where the employer will place Accredited Employer work visa holders with a controlling third party).

Once a company is accredited with INZ, any job vacancy that they have been unable to fill with a New Zealander following advertising needs to be submitted to INZ for a Job Check. This Job Check allows INZ to ensure that the accredited employer has attempted to recruit New Zealanders for the role first and check that any job being offered to a migrant involves the same conditions and market pay rate as would be offered to a New Zealander for the same role.

Once the Job Check is approved, the employer can then ask the migrant to apply for an Accredited Employer work visa related to the Job check that has been approved by INZ. INZ will be checking that the job included in the migrant’s work visa application is the same as that which was approved in the Job Check.

The INZ processing timeframes for the 3-step process are:

• 10 working days for an accreditation application
• 10 working days for the Job Check
• 20 working days for an Accredited Employer work visa application

So if your company has a vacancy that they’ll likely need to fill with talent from offshore within the next 2 months, it’s a good idea to get your application for accreditation underway today, to avoid delays with getting a migrant worker onshore with a valid visa to begin working for you.

If you want to save the time and admin involved in getting your accreditation with INZ sorted, get in touch with us today. We already have experience in applying for the new employer accreditation for other companies and can take care of the end-to-end process for you.