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Skilled Migrant Category

The Skilled Migrant Category is the main path to residence in New Zealand. It is designed to make sure that people migrating to New Zealand have the skills the country needs. This category works on a points system. Points are earned on the basis of your qualifications, work experience and job, or job offer, in New Zealand.

  1. 1. Requirements To apply under the Skilled Migrant Category, you must meet the some basic requirements. You need to be aged 55 or under. You also have to meet our standards of health, character, and English language ability before you start the process.
  2. 2. The Expression of Interest This is the first step towards making an application for a visa to New Zealand. If you qualify, you can submit an Expression of Interest (EOI), in which you claim points for skills, experience, and other factors.
  3. 3. The EOI pool and the pool draw If you achieve 100 points or more on your EOI your application can submit it into the Pool. Every fortnight, all EOIs over 140 points are automatically selected for an invitation to apply for permanent residence. After this, lower scoring EOIs with certain factors, such as skilled employment in New Zealand, are selected.
  4. 4. Invitation to Apply Once your EOI is drawn from the pool, Immigration New Zealand will examine it and send in ivitation to apply for Permanent residence. At this stage your application is examined in detail to verify he claims made on your EOI.
  5. 5. Full assessment Immigration New Zealand will then start assessing you for residence and your ability to settle in New Zealand successfully.
  6. 6. Resident visas and Job Search visas Once satified Immigration New Zealand criteria will offer you a resident visa.
  7. If Immigraiton New Zealand thinks you have potential, but want to see how you settle, they will give you a 9 month job search visa, which you can use to help obtain an offer of skilled employment in New Zealand. If you obtain skilled employment in this time you will have shown your ability to settle and contribute, and your residence application will be approved.

Do you qualify for a Skilled Migration Visa?

Determine your Skilled Migration Visa eligibility in just a few minutes and begin the Visa Application Process to Australia.