In September 2025, the NZ Government announced changes to help New Zealand employers attract and retain skilled workers and support long-term economic growth.

These changes include: 

New residence pathways for skilled migrants, which are:

• Trades and Technician pathway, and
• Skilled Work Experience pathway

Changes to better reflect the value of qualifications completed in New Zealand, and changes to simplify existing settings.

Immigration New Zealand (INZ) has finalised details on these changes to the Skilled Migrant Category (SMC), which take effect from 24 August 2026. 

Details of the final changes include:

• clarifying how wage thresholds are applied and that changes to wage assessments will apply across all relevant Skilled Residence visas
• updating evidential requirements for qualifications
• removing the 120-credit requirement for Trade and Technician qualifications gained overseas 
• confirming that Trades and Technician qualifications from New Zealand must have at least 120-credits, which can be made up of more than 1 qualification (where lower qualifications are a prerequisite for higher)
• clarifying that self-employment cannot be counted as directly relevant work experience under the 2 new pathways, and 
• strengthening settings that support genuine skilled employment.

Skilled Migrant Category wage threshold rule clarification

From 24 August 2026, most SMC applicants will only need to meet one SMC wage threshold, rather than one rate for their work experience and a higher rate when they apply for residence. 

Applicants will still need to meet a wage threshold when they apply for residence; however, that wage threshold will generally be the one in effect when they started accruing skilled work experience.  They will not have to meet the SMC wage threshold in effect at the time they are invited to apply for residence.

A grace period will now apply where the SMC wage threshold increases before a migrant starts work. If a migrant begins skilled work experience within 5 months of their work visa being granted, the wage threshold that applied on the day the visa was granted will be used, even if the required wage threshold has increased since then.

This simplifies the process and provides greater certainty for applicants, particularly where wages increase over time.

Aligning skilled residence pathways

Changes are also being made to work to residence visas to align with the updated SMC wage settings.

These changes apply to the:

• Work to Residence Visa
• Care Workforce Work to Residence Visa, and
• Transport Work to Residence Visa.

Applicants can now use the relevant wage rate that applied for their occupation when their work visa was granted to begin counting work experience in New Zealand, provided they started earning at least that rate within 5 months of their visa being approved, and this was within the maximum time they must complete their work experience (for example 30 months before their resident visa application for a Work to Residence Visa).

Applicants will not need to meet a higher wage rate at the time they apply for residence if the wage rate for their occupation has increased since they began working. They must instead continue to be paid at least the wage rate that applied for their occupation when they first started accruing work experience in New Zealand in acceptable employment.

Applicants for work to residence visas must still complete 24 months of work experience in New Zealand within the 30 months immediately before applying for residence.

Qualification evidential requirements clarified

Applicants claiming points for Level 8 or Level 9 qualifications, except if claiming 5 points for a New Zealand masters, must now also hold a supporting bachelor's, or an equivalent undergraduate degree. Applicants must provide evidence of both qualifications. Evidence for a bachelor's degree must include the qualification certificate and academic transcript. 

For overseas qualifications, an International Qualification Assessment (IQA) is generally required unless the qualification is on the List of Qualifications Exempt from Assessment (LQEA). An IQA is not required for supporting bachelor's degrees.  Applicants claiming 5 points for a New Zealand master's degree do not need to provide evidence of holding a bachelor's degree. 

The LQEA has also been updated to reflect changes to the SMC points system. Points for bachelor's degrees increase from 3 to 4, while points for master's and doctoral degrees remain unchanged. Points for Washington and Sydney Accord accredited qualifications also increase from 3 to 4 points.

Trades and Technician pathway update

Applicants under the Trades and Technician pathway must hold a relevant Level 4 or higher qualification that is recognised on the New Zealand Qualifications and Credentials Framework (NZQCF).

• New Zealand qualifications must have at least 120 credits. Credit information is readily available for New Zealand qualifications and provides a consistent, objective way for INZ to confirm the qualification meets the pathway settings. These assessments are straightforward for New Zealand qualifications and will continue to be completed by INZ.
• Overseas qualifications must have an IQA that assesses the qualification as Level 4 or higher. The 120-credit requirement does not apply to relevant overseas qualifications. While the IQA does not explicitly assess the number of credits, NZQA considers credit value during the IQA process (for example, to be comparable to Level 4, a qualification requires at least 40 credits at Level 4).

For New Zealand qualifications, the 120-credit requirement can be made up of more than 1 qualification (where lower qualifications are a prerequisite for higher). For example, a person could hold a Level 4 qualification (which will have at least 40 credits at Level 4) and a Level 3 qualification of 80 credits that was a prerequisite for the Level 4 qualification. Credits from both these qualifications can be counted towards the 120-credit requirement.

Self-employment restrictions

Applicants under the Trades and Technician and Skilled Work Experience pathways must provide evidence of directly relevant work experience to demonstrate they are suitably skilled and meet requirements for residence.

The new pathways require a high standard of evidence for work experience, including independently verifiable documents.  While tax records may be available to support claims of self-employment in a particular occupation, other independent evidence relating to the nature and skill of the work experience may be unavailable or difficult to verify with confidence.

To ensure the integrity of the new pathways, evidence of self-employment cannot be used to meet requirements for directly relevant work experience.

Strengthening settings that support genuine skilled employment

Immigration instructions have been updated to provide a clearer definition of genuine employment which is required for all skilled residence visas (for example, the SMC Resident Visa, Work to Residence Visa and Straight to Residence Visa). This includes requiring that offers of employment must be 'available and ongoing' and have a 'genuine need to be based in New Zealand'.

The new instructions broadly align the genuine employment assessment for skilled residence with the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) definition.  For the majority of skilled residence applications, employment is genuine, and the clarification will have no impact. The change will provide INZ with clearer grounds to decline applications where there are strong concerns and the employment is identified as being non-genuine.

If you require support or clarification on anything regarding these changes, please don’t hesitate to contact Steve Baker for an obligation free discussion.