Why there are no dollar figures on this page
Immigration New Zealand’s fees change, and so do the levies, the third-party service fees and the exchange rate you will pay them at. A number written here would be wrong within a year and would be found by someone two years from now.
So this page lists what to budget for rather than how much, and links to the current figures where Immigration New Zealand publishes them. Get the amounts from there, on the day you are budgeting.
The visa fee is not the cost
It is usually the part people know about and rarely the largest part. Around it sit several costs that are non-refundable, payable whether or not the application succeeds, and easy to forget.
Before you apply
- Police certificates, one per country you have lived in, each with its own fee and sometimes a courier or embassy charge on top
- Medical examination and chest x-ray with a panel doctor, per person, and repeat tests if something needs following up
- English test, and a resit if the score falls short
- Qualification assessment through NZQA, and professional registration where your occupation is regulated, which is often the largest single item
- Certified translations of documents, priced per page
- Document courier and, in some countries, a visa application centre service fee
The application itself
- The visa fee and any levy, per person, which for a family is several times the single figure people quote
- Fees for dependants included in the application
Getting there
- One-way flights for everyone, and freight or shipping if you are bringing more than luggage
- Pet relocation and quarantine, which is often far more than people expect
- Temporary accommodation for the first weeks
The first two months here
This is the part that gets underestimated most.
- A rental bond and rent in advance, which together are a substantial sum before you have been paid
- Furnishing an empty house, because New Zealand rentals are usually unfurnished
- A car, which is close to unavoidable outside central Auckland and Wellington
- Setting up power, internet and phone accounts, sometimes with a deposit because you have no local credit history
- Health cover until you are eligible for publicly funded care, which depends on your visa
- Living costs before your first pay, which can be four to six weeks after you arrive
Costs people genuinely do not see coming
Professional registration. For nurses, doctors, teachers, engineers and several trades, registration is a separate process with its own fees, its own document requirements and its own timeline. For some occupations it costs more than the visa and takes longer.
A second police certificate. Because the requirement follows where you have lived, not your passport. Time in the Gulf, Singapore or Australia adds one each, and each has its own fee and processing time.
Expired documents. Police certificates and medicals are valid for a limited period. If the application takes longer than expected, some of them have to be obtained and paid for a second time.
No credit history. Arriving with an excellent credit record elsewhere counts for nothing here. Expect deposits on utilities and difficulty financing a car in the first months.
Currency. You are converting your savings at whatever rate applies on the day, and moving a large sum in one transaction at a poor moment is a real cost.
Two things worth knowing about fees
Visa fees are generally not refunded if the application is declined. You are paying for the decision, not the outcome. There are limited circumstances where refunds are available, and Immigration New Zealand publishes what they are.
And nobody may charge you for a job. Charging a worker a premium for employment is unlawful in New Zealand. If a cost in your budget is a payment for a job offer, that is not a migration cost. It is a warning about the job.
How to build the budget
Take the current figures from the Immigration New Zealand fees page for your visa and everyone included in it. Add the document costs above, per person and per country lived in. Add flights and freight. Then add three months of living costs at your destination city, because that is the buffer that turns a difficult first month into a manageable one.
The people who find the move hardest are rarely the ones who earned least. They are the ones who budgeted to the day they landed.