Immigration
& visas
How visas work for healthcare professionals, the main pathways, plainly explained, and where each one leads.
Kettle on. About 11 min
Three things you can do right now
Price up the move
Visa fees, flights, shipping and the first month here, worked out for your household rather than a generic average.
Open the cost calculator I want the official immigration linksGet the official links
Immigration New Zealand, the Green List and the forms you’ll need, gathered in one place.
Open the directory I want to know if I can registerCheck your registration
The pathway checker shows your likely registration route. It doesn’t assess visa eligibility; Immigration New Zealand decides that.
Open the pathway checkerThe visa usually follows the job, not the other way around
Reviewed October 2026 · checked against Immigration New Zealand’s current published guidance. Immigration rules change, always confirm at the source
For most healthcare professionals, the visa follows a job offer from an accredited New Zealand employer.
New Zealand has deliberately built fast, welcoming routes for the skills it needs most, and healthcare is high on that list. The Green List sets out in-demand roles with streamlined pathways to residence, and many of the professions we place are on it. Being on the list does not by itself qualify you: you still need to meet the occupation, qualification, registration, pay and other requirements of the route.
One note up front: Ethicare is a recruitment specialist, not licensed immigration advisers. We can explain how the recruitment side fits and point you to Immigration New Zealand’s official guidance. We can’t advise on which visa suits your individual circumstances; Immigration New Zealand decides eligibility.
Three pieces that move together
Registration, your job offer and your visa progress alongside one another rather than in a strict queue.
A job with an accredited employer
Most work visas require a job offer from an employer accredited by Immigration New Zealand. The employers we work with hold that accreditation, which is what makes the visa possible.
The right route for you
With an offer in hand, the question becomes which visa fits: usually a work visa to begin, or, for some Green List roles, a direct residence application.
A pathway to residence
For many healthcare roles the destination isn’t a temporary stay but residence, the security of putting down roots, which is exactly what most families are really after.
The Green List, in plain terms
The Green List names roles New Zealand is short of, in two tiers. Being on it opens a residence route, but you still have to meet that route’s requirements for occupation, qualifications, registration, employment and pay.
Straight to Residence
For the most in-demand roles, you can apply for residence directly with a qualifying job offer, rather than working for years first.
- Residence application from the start
- Your partner and dependent children can be included; each must meet health and character requirements
- You hold residence once it is granted, not when you apply
Work to Residence
For other Green List roles, you generally work in the role in New Zealand for 24 months and can then apply for residence. You arrive on a work visa, settle in, and the residence pathway opens up as you go.
- Begin on an Accredited Employer Work Visa
- Apply for residence after the qualifying period
- Your partner and children apply for their own visas, depending on your role and pay
Which tier is my profession?
The Green List is set by Immigration New Zealand and reviewed periodically, so roles and tiers can change. Check the current answer for your profession on Immigration New Zealand’s Green List page.
The visas you’re most likely to meet
For healthcare professionals moving with Ethicare, a handful of visa types come up again and again.
Accredited Employer Work Visa
The main work visa, tied to a job offer from an accredited employer. For many people it’s how they first arrive and begin working. Official details
Straight to Residence Visa
For eligible Tier 1 roles with a qualifying job offer: apply for residence directly, with your partner and dependent children included in the application. Official details
Work to Residence
Work in a qualifying Tier 2 role for the required period, generally 24 months, then apply for residence. Official details
Partner & dependent visas
Your partner and children apply for their own visas. Whether you can support them depends on your visa, role and pay. Official details
Work visa, resident visa, permanent resident visa
Work visa
Lets you live and work in New Zealand for a set period, usually for a named employer and role. It ends when it expires unless you get another visa.
Resident visa
Lets you live, work and study in New Zealand indefinitely. Your first resident visa usually has travel conditions that limit how long you can re-enter as a resident.
Permanent Resident Visa
Removes those travel conditions. You can usually apply after holding a resident visa for two years and showing your commitment to New Zealand.
Visa categories, criteria and names are set by Immigration New Zealand and can change. This is an orientation, not immigration advice. Always confirm current detail at immigration.govt.nz.
Bringing your partner and children
Partners and children can usually join you, but they apply for their own visas, and whether you can support them depends on your visa, role and pay. Check the current rules with Immigration New Zealand before you plan around them.
Your partner may be able to work
If you hold an Accredited Employer Work Visa in a skilled role and earn above Immigration New Zealand’s minimum for supporting a partner, your partner can apply for a work visa of their own, often with open work rights. They must meet the requirements themselves.
Your children can study
Dependent children can usually get a student visa based on your work visa, which generally lets them attend state school as domestic students. Confirm it for your visa before you commit to a school.
Residence can include your family
A residence application can include your partner and dependent children. Each of them must meet the health and character requirements, and residence is only yours once it is granted.
How the process usually unfolds
Secure a job offer
An offer from an accredited employer is the foundation everything else rests on. This is where we focus first, because once it’s in place the visa options become clear.
Confirm your pathway
Using Immigration New Zealand’s guidance, work out which visa fits: a work visa, Straight to Residence or Work to Residence, depending on your role, the Green List and your circumstances.
Gather your evidence
Passport, qualifications, job offer, registration progress, and health and character checks such as medicals and police certificates. Starting these early avoids the most common delays.
Submit the application
Your application, and your family’s, goes to Immigration New Zealand with the relevant fees. From here it’s an assessment and processing period. Processing times vary, and a wait is not necessarily a sign of a problem with your application.
Approval & planning your arrival
Once granted, you can firm up flights, timing and the practical move. This is where Preparing to move takes over from the paperwork.
People brace themselves for the visa to be the hardest part, and for many healthcare professionals it goes more smoothly than they feared. My one piece of advice is to take the health and character checks seriously and start them early; a delayed medical or a slow police certificate is what most often holds things up. Use Immigration New Zealand’s guidance, lean on us for the employer side, and keep your documents moving.
SophieFounder, Ethicare Resourcing
The medical you cannot book with your own GP
Nearly every application needs one, and it is the step people leave latest and then wait on. It is worth understanding before you need it.
If you are coming for more than twelve months, or applying for residence, Immigration New Zealand will want a medical examination and in most cases a chest x-ray. The examination has to be carried out by a doctor on INZ’s own list of panel physicians. Your own GP cannot do it, however long they have known you — the only exception is where no panel physician operates in your country, in which case INZ allows a registered medical practitioner, preferably your usual doctor, to complete the form instead.
Three details catch people out:
- Everyone on the application is examined, including children and babies. A family of four is four appointments, four sets of notes and four fees.
- The certificate has a short life. It must reach Immigration New Zealand within three months of the physician signing it. Book it too early and you pay twice.
- You may already have one. A medical completed for an earlier New Zealand application within the last 36 months can sometimes be reused, so check before you book.
Panel physicians are private clinics and set their own fees, which you pay directly, per person. In some countries there are only one or two of them, with a wait for an appointment, so finding yours is a useful thing to do early even if you are months from applying.
Find an approved visa medical clinic: Immigration New Zealand lists its panel physicians by country. Look yours up, note the nearest clinic and roughly what it charges, and put that on your plan. If there is no panel physician where you live, that page tells you what to do instead.
What this step felt like
Three clinicians on the moment immigration stopped being an idea and became real.
“Getting the job offer was exciting. Getting the work visa approved was the moment I knew I was actually moving to New Zealand.”
“I had assumed I would need to work in New Zealand for several years before I could even think about residence. Finding out there was a direct pathway for my profession was a very pleasant surprise.”
“For me, residency meant security. I was moving my children to the other side of the world, so I needed to know there was a realistic long-term future for us in New Zealand.”
What’s worth knowing before you apply
Rules can and do change
Visa categories, the Green List and criteria are reviewed over time. Always confirm the current position at the source, and don’t rely on what was true for a friend a year or two ago.
Health & character checks take time
Medicals and police certificates from every country you’ve lived in can be slow to obtain. Some countries also need your fingerprints before they will issue a certificate, which adds an appointment. Each certificate must be less than six months old when you submit the visa application, so time them for when the application is ready to go. Most are straightforward, but some applications need further health or character assessment, so they reward an early start more than almost anything else. How to get a police certificate, by country.
There are costs to budget for
Visa application fees, medicals, certificates and the levy add up across a family. They’re manageable and predictable, just plan for them from the beginning.
Take extra care with anything unusual
A complex history, a past visa refusal or a health condition are all navigable. Declare everything, and read Immigration New Zealand’s guidance on your situation closely before you apply.
Age limits sit on residence, not the work visa
The Accredited Employer Work Visa has no age limit. Straight to Residence, Work to Residence and the Skilled Migrant Category each require you to be 55 or younger when you apply.
The things people ask us first
Do I need a job offer before I can get a visa?
For the main work and residence routes, yes, a job offer from an accredited employer is usually the starting point. That’s why we focus on securing the right role first: once the offer is in place, the visa pathway becomes clear and the rest follows. It’s far less a queue than three pieces moving together.
Can my profession get me residence?
For many healthcare roles there is a residence route. Some Green List roles can apply directly; others after a period of work. Being on the list does not by itself qualify you: check the current list and the requirements for your route with Immigration New Zealand.
Can my partner work and my children go to school?
Often, yes, but it is not automatic. Your partner and children apply for their own visas, and whether you can support them depends on your visa, role and pay. Children holding a student visa based on your work visa can generally attend state school as domestic students. Check the current rules with Immigration New Zealand.
How long does a visa take?
It varies by visa type, your circumstances and Immigration New Zealand’s current processing times, which it publishes on its website. Delays are not necessarily caused by anything you have done. What you can control is how quickly your documents, medicals and checks come together, so start those early.
Do I need an immigration adviser?
For straightforward cases, employers and Immigration New Zealand’s own guidance carry you a long way. Advisers can be expensive and are not always necessary: if you have the time to work through the process yourself, many people do, and it can save a good deal of money. We’re recruiters, not immigration advisers, so we don’t recommend one.
Is there an age limit?
Not for the Accredited Employer Work Visa. The residence visas do have one: Straight to Residence, Work to Residence and the Skilled Migrant Category each require you to be 55 or younger when you apply. See Immigration New Zealand: Straight to Residence.
Read a little deeper
Not sure which visa pathway is yours?
Start with Immigration New Zealand’s official guidance; our directory gathers the links in one place. Ask Ethicare can explain how the job offer, registration and visa fit together.
Ethicare Resourcing · your guide to a life and career in New Zealand.