This page is informational only.
Lifeset Overseas does NOT process work permits. Work permits require a separate MEA Recruiting Agent (RA) licence under the Emigration Act, which we do not hold. Our Licence (No. 849/DC/PTA/PLA/LC-3/2024) covers visa consultancy and travel services — study, permanent residency, visitor, family, and CAIPS/GCMS support. This page exists so you understand the work-permit pathway, not because we can apply for it on your behalf.
New Zealand · Visa guide
New Zealand · Visa guideNew Zealand Work Permit (Information Only)
Information about work-permit pathways across countries. Lifeset Overseas does NOT process work permits — work permits require a separate MEA Recruiting Agent (RA) licence under the Emigration Act. These pages exist for applicant awareness only; we cannot assist with these applications.
- ProcessingVaries by case
- Visa categoryWork Permit (Information Only)
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New Zealand Work Permit (Information Only) — overview
What this page is, and what it is not
This is an informational reference to New Zealand's main work-permit pathways: the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) and the Post Study Work Visa. Lifeset Overseas does not process work permits — see the disclaimer at the top of this page. We hold a Punjab travel-professional consultancy licence, not an MEA Recruiting Agent licence under the Emigration Act, and arranging overseas employment requires the latter.
We publish this because half the harm done to families in Punjab comes from not understanding how these systems work. If you can read the structure below, you can tell a genuine offer from a fraud.
The single most important thing to understand
In New Zealand, a work permit is not something you buy and not something an agent can hand you. It starts with an employer, and the employer carries most of the process. Anyone who offers to sell you a job, a sponsorship, a nomination or a permit for a fee is describing something that does not legally exist in the way they are presenting it.
If someone asks you for money to "arrange" employment abroad, ask them for their MEA Recruiting Agent registration number and verify it before you part with anything. We do not hold one, which is precisely why we will not take this work.
How the pathway actually runs
The steps below are the real sequence. Note how much of it happens before you personally apply for anything — that shape is the tell. A process that starts with you paying a fee is not this process.
What we can help with instead
We cannot help you with a work permit. We can help you with:
- Study routes to New Zealand and elsewhere, which in several countries lead to post-study work rights in their own right
- Visitor and family visas
- Permanent-residence routes that are points-based rather than employer-sponsored
- Refusal recovery — CAIPS/GCMS notes, understanding what actually went wrong, and rebuilding a file
If a work permit is genuinely your goal, take this page as background and speak to a firm that holds the right licence.
Before you trust any figure
Salary thresholds, fees, occupation lists and quotas in this area change at least annually, and often mid-year. This page deliberately describes the structure rather than printing numbers that would quietly go stale. For current figures, always read immigration.govt.nz directly — not an agent's screenshot, and not this page.
6 items
Documents you need
An accredited employer
You can check accreditation status on the Immigration New Zealand website before trusting an offer.
An approved job check
The employer proves the role is genuine, paid at market rate, and advertised locally unless exempt.
A job token and offer of employment
Issued after the job check, allowing you to apply.
Skills and experience for the role
Qualifications or relevant experience matching the ANZSCO classification.
English where required
Depends on the skill level of the role.
Health and character
Chest x-ray and medical certificates for longer stays; police certificates for countries lived in over twelve months.
5 steps
How the process works
Step 1
Employer gains accreditation
Employer-side only.
Step 2
Employer passes the job check
Including advertising, unless the role is Green List or otherwise exempt.
Step 3
You apply with the job token
Online, with identity, skills and health evidence.
Step 4
Medical and police certificates
Submit as requested.
Step 5
Decision
Check current INZ processing estimates rather than relying on an agent’s figure.
3 answers
Frequently asked questions
No. Overseas job placement requires an MEA Recruiting Agent licence that we do not hold.
A list of roles in shortage with faster or more direct pathways, including some straight-to-residence options. Membership of the list changes.
The AEWV requires a job offer first. Post Study Work Visa holders may work more freely, but that route begins with study.
A real way forward
Work visas aren’t our licence — a real route to New Zealand is.
Employer-driven work visas need a separate licence we don't hold — so this page is information only. But if your real goal is to build a future in New Zealand, we can help with a study route, a family route, or permanent residency where it exists. Talk to us and we'll map the honest path that actually works for you.
Honest route mapping
We assess your profile and show you which New Zealand pathway can realistically work for you.
A file built to win
Study, family or PR — whichever route fits, we build and stress-test the documents properly.
One consultant, end to end
The same person stays with your case from the first call to the decision.
Licensed & honest
A Government-of-Punjab licensed consultancy. We never take a case we believe will fail.
licensed (No. 849/DC/PTA/PLA/LC-3/2024)Fixed fees agreed upfrontWe won’t take a case we believe will fail
Other New Zealand visas
New Zealand Visitor Visa
A visa for tourism, family visits, weddings and short stays of up to 9 months — Indians need a full visitor visa, not an NZeTA.
New Zealand Business Visitor Visa
A visitor visa for short business activity in New Zealand — meetings, conferences and negotiations, with no employment.
New Zealand Student Visa
The Fee Paying Student Visa — the main route for Indian students enrolling full-time at a New Zealand university, polytechnic or institute.
New Zealand Student Guardian Visa
A visitor visa that lets one parent or legal guardian live in New Zealand with a child who is studying there.
Before you pay anyone for a New Zealand work permit
Only a firm holding an MEA Recruiting Agent licence may recruit you for overseas employment. That register is public, and checking it takes about a minute — it is the single thing that separates a legitimate agent from the people this route is famous for.
- Ask for the RA licence number and look it up on the Ministry of External Affairs’ own eMigrate portal. A genuine agent will give it without being pushed.
- A licensed agent’s fee is capped by law and receipted. Nobody legitimate asks for cash with no paperwork.
- No agent can promise you a job offer, and an offer letter that arrives before any interview is the oldest warning sign there is.
- Never hand over your original passport. Not to them, and not to us.
For information only — we do not handle work permits. Lifeset Overseas does not process work permits for New Zealand or any other country: that requires an MEA Recruiting Agent licence under the Emigration Act, which we do not hold. Our licence (No. 849/DC/PTA/PLA/LC-3/2024) covers visa consultancy and travel services. We can explain how this route works and how to check somebody who says they can do it — we cannot apply for it on your behalf, and we will not take a fee for trying.
Most people who ask us about work permits are really asking about something else.
A course with a post-study work route often reaches the same place, legally, through a door we can open for you — and it is a route nobody can take your money for and disappear. If you tell us what you are actually trying to achieve, we will tell you honestly whether that fits, including when it does not.
Or read the study visa route first — no phone number required.