The New Zealand immigration points system is a pivotal part of your move to New Zealand as a skilled migrant. As such, it’s vital to understand how this system works and how you go about getting your points score.

Let’s start at the beginning though – what exactly is the New Zealand immigration points system?

What is the New Zealand immigration points system?

The New Zealand Immigration points system is one of the tools that Immigration New Zealand use in assessing whether or not you’re eligible to live and work in New Zealand.

Specifically, the points system is designed to allow the ranking of Expressions of Interest which enables Immigration New Zealand to extend Invitations to Apply to overseas applicants who have the most to offer to New Zealand.

How does the points system work?

The New Zealand points system judge your eligibility to live and work in New Zealand by awarding points for factors such as your age, whether or not you have a job offer, previous work experience, qualifications and your partner’s points score.

How many points must you get?

To apply for a Skilled Migrant visa, you must score at least 160 points. Due to this, your chances of successfully obtaining a skilled migrant visa will inevitably require that you have a job offer in place.

If you do not manage to score 160 points but you do score at least 100 points, in other words anywhere from 100 to 159 points, you’ll instead be eligible for an Essential Skills Work visa.

The main difference between these two work visas are the residency it offers. The Essential Skills Work Visa offers temporary residency while the Skilled Migrant visa offers permanent residency.

How does Immigration New Zealand award points?

Immigration New Zealand awards points under five categories:

1. Age
2. Skilled Employment
3. Relevant Work Experience
4. Qualifications
5. Your Partner’s Score

It is possible to score bonus points in certain categories. Before we get there, however let’s start with the age category and then we’ll work through all five categories as listed above.

1. Age

• 30 points: 20-39 years
• 20 points: 40-44 years
• 10 points: 45-49 years
• 5 points: 50-55 years

Please note: You will not qualify if you’re older than 55.

2. Skilled employment

• 50 points: If you have an offer of skilled employment in New Zealand.
• 50 points: If you are currently employed in a skilled occupation in New Zealand.

Skilled employment means employment for which you need specialist, technical or management expertise as well as relevant qualifications and/or work experience to do. It may also be that a minimum pay threshold applies.

Under the Skilled Migrant Category, you can claim points for skilled employment based on a job you’re currently in, or a job offer you have received.

Bonus points:

• 10 points where you are:
  • In an occupation in an area of absolute skills shortage, or
  • Employed in work in a region outside Auckland
• 20 points if:
  • Your income is more than twice the New Zealand median income.
  • Your partner also has a skilled job or job offer.

3. Relevant work experience

• 10 points: 2 years
• 20 points: 4 years
• 30 points: 6 years
• 40 points: 8 years
• 50 points: 10 years

Bonus points:

• 10 points:
  • 12 months or more
  • And if the work experience in an area of absolute skills shortage bonus points as follows
• 10 points: 2 to 5 years
• 15 points: 6 or more years

4. Qualifications

• 40 points: Recognised level 4-6 qualification (e.g. trade qualification, diploma) or Level 3 qualification on the List of Qualifications Exempt from Assessment.
• 50 points: Recognised level 7 or 8 qualification (e.g. bachelor degree, bachelor degree with honours)
• 70 points: Recognised level 9 or 10 post-graduate qualification (master’s degree, doctorate)

A recognised qualification is one that’s recognised based on:

• An assessment by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority of the level it occupies on the New Zealand Qualifications Framework (NZQF).
• The level it occupies on the NZQF as set out in the ‘List of Qualifications Exempt from Assessment’.

The level it occupies on the NZQF based on the applicant’s occupational registration in New Zealand (if that registration involves an assessment of comparability with a qualification on the ‘List of Qualifications Exempt from Assessment’)

Bonus points:

• 10 points for either:
  • Two years full-time study in New Zealand completing a recognised NZ bachelor degree.
  • One year of full-time study in New Zealand completing a recognised NZ post-graduate qualification.
• 15 points:
  • Two years of full-time study in New Zealand completing a recognised post-graduate NZ qualification.

5. Your partner’s score

• 10 points: Your partner holds a level 7-8 qualification.
• 20 points: Your partner holds a recognised post-graduate (level 9-10) qualification.

What does your points score tell you?

Your skilled migrant points score not only acts as an indicator to Immigration New Zealand. Your points score also sets out your migration pathway. It does this by revealing three things:

• Whether or not you qualify for a skilled migrant visa.
• If you do not qualify, what other visa options you could pursue.
• The processes you must follow with your application.

Please keep in mind though that eligibility for a skilled migrant visa does not solely depend on your points score. In addition to achieving the necessary points, you must also meet certain basic criteria such being in good health and of good character.

A word of warning

You’ll find many free tools online that offer to help you calculate your skilled migrant points score.

Tread carefully though! Online tools are often nothing more than a series of yes or no questions. Few have detailed descriptions of requirements or provide guidance on the more intricate parts of the immigration act.

You could thus easily get the wrong points score which could mean that you waste money, build up false hopes and perhaps even miss your chance of immigrating to New Zealand.

Instead of relying on an online calculator, rather get a licensed advisor to calculate your points score for you. A licensed advisor who are up to date with Immigration New Zealand’s requirements will ask you the right questions and request additional information where necessary to calculate your points score.

Get assistance and get the correct score

Intergate Emigration has not one but three licensed immigration advisors to assist you with your visa application from start to finish. This includes explaining how the points system work and calculating your New Zealand points score.

All you have to do to get started is book an initial immigration consultation. During this consultation, our licensed immigration advisor will take you through the immigration process and how we can assist you. You’ll also have the opportunity to ask any questions you may have.

What are you waiting for? Contact us today to get the ball rolling!

ANZSCO. You may think this is just another immigration acronym, but you’d be wrong. ANZSCO plays a major role in your immigration if you’re applying under the skilled migrant category.

In fact, you’re more than likely not going to be able to apply for a work visa if you can’t meet ANZSCO’s requirements.

For this reason, it’s important to understand all that ANZSCO entails. While there is a lot of information to know, you really only need to know the four facts below to put yourself in a much better position than most people.

1. ANZSCO is the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations

ANZSCO stands for Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations. It is a system that’s used within the skilled migration programs to set guidelines for the skills and work experience visa applicants must meet to work in specific occupations in Australia or New Zealand.

ANZSCO is a joint venture between the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Statistics New Zealand and The Department of Education and Training.

2. ANZSCO sets skills and work experience standards for the skilled migrant category

As explained above, ANZSCO sets skills and work experience standards for occupations that fall under the skilled migrant category. Further to this, ANZSCO sets out the tasks under each occupation that visa applicants must be able to perform as part of their everyday duties.

What all of the above means is that ANZSCO determines the most important requirements you must meet in order to qualify to apply for a skilled migrant residence and temporary work visa.

The immigration officer assessing your visa application will compare your skills, experience and job duties with those under your occupation on ANZSCO to help her or him come to a decision on your visa application. If you don’t meet all of the requirements, your visa application may be declined.

Let’s look at an example

Let’s assume you’re a chemical engineer for which the ANZSCO code is 233111. According to this code, you must meet these criteria:

• Skill level 1: Bachelor degree or higher. In some instances, experience and/or on-the-job training may also be required.
• Job description: Designs and prepares specifications for chemical process systems and the construction and operation of commercial-scale chemical plants, and supervises industrial processing and fabrication of products undergoing physical and chemical changes.
• Tasks:
  • Preparing designs for chemical process systems and planning control systems for processes such as those used to remove and separate components, effect chemical changes, test and evaluate fuels, transfer heat, and control the storing and handling of solids, liquids and gases
  • Monitoring the operation and maintenance of equipment to achieve maximum efficiency under safe operating conditions
  • Ensuring correct materials and equipment are used and that they conform to specifications
  • Diagnosing malfunctions in chemical plants and instituting remedial action
  • Studying product utilisation and pollution control problems
  • Reviewing plans for new products and submitting material selection recommendations in accordance with design specifications and factors such as strength, weight and cost
  • Planning and implementing laboratory operations to develop new materials and fabrication procedures for new materials to fulfil production cost and performance standards
  • Conferring with producers of materials during the investigation and evaluation of materials suitable for specific product applications
  • Reviewing product failure data and implementing laboratory tests to establish or reject possible causes, and advising on ways to overcome any problems

The immigration officer assessing your application would thus want to see from your CV and official statement of service that you have the relevant qualification and experience to work as a chemical engineer in New Zealand.

Furthermore, the officer would want to see that you can perform most or all of the tasks associated with chemical engineers.

3. There are 5 skill levels within ANZSCO

In ANZSCO, skill level is used as an additional differentiator for occupations. Each occupation’s skill level is derived from the range and complexity of tasks associated with the occupation.

How many skill levels are there?

There are five skill levels of which Skill Level 1 is the highest. This means occupations on Skill Level 1 has the greatest range and complexity of tasks. Examples of occupations on Skill Level 1 are audiologists, social workers and surveyors.

Locksmiths, welders and motor mechanics, for instance, are on Skill Level 3. This means these occupations don’t have as many tasks or tasks that are as complex as the occupations on a higher skill level.

Occupations on Skill Level 5 have the smallest range of tasks with the least complexity.

4. You cannot ‘mix and match’ occupations

When applying for a skilled migrant resident or temporary work visa, your occupation and experience must be highly relevant as per the ANZSCO lead statement of the occupation you want to nominate.

Your occupation and experience must also match most of the duties listed. This does however not mean that you or your employer can simply ‘copy and paste’ the ANZSCO description to your application.

Here’s an example of what we mean:

Let’s assume Jane is working as a tutor. Jane might think that she can apply for a visa as a teacher. The job descriptions are similar, after all.

However, many of the tasks associated with teachers on ANZSCO is not performed by tutors. For instance, participating in staff meetings and performing extra-curricular activities such as assisting with sports at the school.

In the same way, a secondary school teacher cannot apply for a visa as a special education teacher. These are in the same profession but are not the same occupation with the same experience.

What if my occupation is not on the ANZSCO list?

There could be two reasons why you can’t find your occupation on ANZSCO:

1. Your occupation title is a modern title which was developed more recently. ANZSCO does often not accommodate modern job titles.
2. Your occupation is on the list but your job title doesn’t match the occupation title as it appears on ANZSCO. Some occupations are the same when you look at the responsibilities but might not have the same title across the industry. For example, some people call themselves ‘speech-language pathologists’ while others give themselves the title of ‘speech and language therapist’. It’s the same job – speech therapy – but just with another title.

If your occupation does not appear on the ANZSCO list, you should ensure that you:

• look at all other available titles, and
• select the most appropriate job title.

When you do this, you’ll increase the chances of the visa officer being satisfied that you can do ‘most’ of the tasks for the occupation recorded in ANZSCO.

Do you feel you need the assistance of an immigration agent?

You’re always welcome to contact us for assistance. Our immigration advisors are registered and licensed with the IAA in New Zealand. This means you can rest assured that you’ll get advice that you can trust.

You can contact us online or give us a call on +27 (0) 21 202 8200 for a free consultation to see if you stand a chance of qualifying for a general skilled migration visa. If everything points to the fact that you, you can go ahead and do an assessment.

Who knows – perhaps you find yourself living and working in New Zealand soon!