Visa information

New Zealand offers three named routes in the 2026 guide: the Accredited Employer Work visa, Skilled Migrant Category residence, and the Active Investor Plus visa. The guide scores New Zealand 56/100 for visa and bureaucracy, and adds a notable 2025 change: remote work for foreign employers is now permitted on a visitor visa, for up to 9 months.

The three routes the guide names

Accredited Employer Work visa — the work route, named first in the guide's visa list.

Skilled Migrant Category residence — the residence route, named as residence in the guide's own wording.

Active Investor Plus visa — the investor route; the guide's schemes list adds that it was relaxed in 2025.

The schemes list adds two more expat draws: remote work allowed on the visitor visa and a Green List fast-track for skilled roles. Neither source prints points, salary thresholds, occupation lists or investment amounts for any of these routes, so this page does not invent them.

Remote work on a visitor visa — the 2025 change

The guide's remote-work line, carried identically in the site data, is: “Visitor visa now permits remote work for foreign employers (2025), up to 9 months.” Two limits are explicit in that wording and are the only ones this page claims: the work must be for foreign employers, and the period is up to 9 months. The schemes list states the same change more briefly as “Remote work allowed on visitor visa.”

Neither source says whether local employment is permitted on that basis (the wording implies the opposite by specifying foreign employers), what happens after 9 months, or how the visitor permission interacts with the three named routes — confirm those points before relying on them.

What the paperwork costs — plan budgets, not a fee schedule

The guide does not list individual government visa fees. What it gives is a bundled “Visa, permits & translations” budget line in each move plan, described in the plans as government fees, apostilles and translations, with the note that the luxury tier adds an immigration lawyer:

• $1,150 — Affordable plan (you file yourself)
• $1,600 — Mid-range and Retirement plans
• $3,900 — Luxury plan (lawyer-led)

The Retirement plan carries one further, separate line: $3,000 for “Retirement visa, lawyer & pension certification”, covering an immigration lawyer, apostilled pension letters, medicals and translations.

Application steps and timelines, by tier

The guide builds the application into each plan's timeline rather than printing a single step list. The common sequence across the plans and checklists is:

• Choose the route first and print its requirements; the Affordable checklist starts with “Visa route chosen and requirements printed.”
• Gather and legalise documents — apostilles and translations are named in every tier; the Retirement paperwork stage adds pension or income letters certified and apostilled, a police certificate, a medical, and birth and marriage certificates translated.
• Check your passport — the Affordable checklist requires a passport valid 18+ months.
• Arrange health insurance before you file (see the Hospitals page for the guide's first-year insurance budgets).
• File — yourself on the Affordable tier, or with a lawyer or agent on the Mid-range, Luxury and Retirement tiers.

Paperwork-stage durations in the guide: ~10 weeks filing yourself (Affordable), ~8 weeks with a lawyer or agent filing (Mid-range), ~6 weeks with a lawyer filing everything (Luxury), and ~14 weeks for the Retirement paperwork stage. After the move, the settle stage includes registering your address and opening a bank account.

Renewals and the path to residency — the honest limit of the guide

One pathway point is sourced: the guide names Skilled Migrant Category residence as a residence route in its own right, and lists a Green List fast-track for skilled roles among its schemes. Beyond that, neither the guide nor the site data gives renewal intervals, permit durations, years to permanent residency or citizenship for the other routes, or absence limits. This page therefore does not state them — treat the timetable as something to confirm with an immigration lawyer or the consulate before you rely on it.

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