From 8 December 2025, you must provide a valid police certificate with your Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) application. 

INZ will no longer be accepting receipts that show you have applied for a certificate.

INZ are making this change to speed up visa decisions and reduce delays caused by missing documents. 

If you apply with complete documents, you will get a quicker decision. 

INZ will assess your application based on what you provide and will not delay processing. This means people who submit complete applications will benefit from faster decisions.

Applicants who provide all required information upfront can expect to receive more timely visa outcomes, as this change allows our processing staff to focus on deciding applications rather than chasing documents.

You MUST only apply when you have your police certificate ready to upload. 

Processing times for police certificates vary by country, so check with your local authority and carefully plan ahead.

This is very important for Middle Eastern countries in particular, where there can be a long delay in processing Police Certificates. 

There are Exceptions:

Fiji, Hong Kong and Israel send certificates directly to INZ. 

In these cases, you can upload proof that you have applied for your Police Certificate. 

You can apply without a new Police Certificate if you have spent less than 24 months in New Zealand.

If you have spent more than 24 months in New Zealand and apply for a visa without the Police certificate(s), you will receive a Potentially Prejudicial Information (PPI) letter and have a chance to respond.

If you are outside of New Zealand and you have already spent more than 24 months in New Zealand, your application may be declined.