Working Holiday Visa

Conditions you must meet

• You must be a citizen of a country with a working holiday agreement with New ZealandThe gate before everything else. VisaAI cannot check it for you: INZ renders the country list client-side and publishes nothing server-side, so the list is not in this registry and no list is offered here.
• Normally aged 18 to 30 — 18 to 35 in a few schemesINZ states the band as a general rule and puts the exact ceiling on each country's own page. The figure that applies to you is the one on your scheme's page, not this one.
• Your own country's scheme sets the age, duration, funds and any extra criteriaTHE MOST IMPORTANT SENTENCE ON THE PAGE. It is the authority telling you that the four numbers you most need are somewhere else, which is why none of them is stored as a general figure here.
• You must be coming mainly to holiday, with a return ticket or the means to buy oneAn intention test, and it is the one that makes this a holiday visa rather than a work visa: INZ says work and study 'should be secondary intentions'.
• Employment or contract for services only — no business ownership, no permanent jobNarrower than most working-holiday schemes are assumed to be. Someone planning to freelance through their own company is outside this visa.
• You can get a working holiday visa once — even if you never use itOne of two ways this visa is spent without being used. See the twelve-month arrival deadline and the traveller-declaration trap.
• You must arrive within 12 months of issue — the visa cannot be delayed or cancelledMiss it and the visa expires AND you cannot apply for another, because the one-visa rule has already been spent.

Documents you must provide

• A valid PHYSICAL passport at the time you applyINZ's own emphasis, and the consequence it states is refusal rather than delay.

Steps in the process

• Apply online, in English, and only while your scheme is openApplying before the opening date is not queued — INZ deletes the application automatically, and says so.
• Visa-waiver nationals must tick 'I hold a temporary entry class visa' on the NZTDTHE SHARPEST TRAP ON THIS ROUTE, and it costs the whole visa. Get it wrong and the border issues a visitor visa, the working holiday visa is CANCELLED, and the one-visa rule means there is no second attempt. A form field on arrival, not a document at application.

Also stated by the authority

Not requirements in themselves. These are alternatives, exemptions, rights and warnings the authority publishes alongside the requirements — quoted here because they can change what applies to you.

• Normally 12 months — 23 months from Canada, 36 months from the United KingdomThe three durations INZ states outright. Everything else is on the per-country page.
• Study is allowed, up to 6 months across one or more courses
• Some schemes require you to be in your home country when you applyChina is INZ's named example. Most schemes allow applying from anywhere, including from inside New Zealand.
• Chest x-ray if you have spent over 3 months in the last 5 years in a higher-TB countryFor applicants outside New Zealand on a 12-month scheme. Someone who has only been in low-incidence countries needs neither x-ray nor examination.
• Over 12 months in New Zealand: both a chest x-ray and a general medical examinationThe threshold counts time on OTHER visas too, so a previous stay can push a working holiday over the line.
• Austria and Malaysia schemes: no x-ray or examination when applying from outside New Zealand
• Applying from inside New Zealand: in most situations both an x-ray and an examination
• Some schemes require proof of English language skillsINZ publishes the thresholds through a lookup tool rather than on this page, so the obligation to check is recorded and no score is stated.