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Moving from Samoa

Moving to New Zealand from Samoa

Samoan citizens have a residence ballot of their own, the Samoan Quota. Being drawn only gives you the right to apply. You still need a job offer, enough income, and evidence of your health, character and English.

The short answer

How do you move to New Zealand from Samoa?

New Zealand's visa rules are the same wherever you apply from. What differs for Samoan applicants is which routes are actually used, which documents your country issues and how long they take, and which mistakes recur. Samoan citizens have a residence ballot of their own, the Samoan Quota. Being drawn only gives you the right to apply. You still need a job offer, enough income, and evidence of your health, character and English.

  • Police certificates are required from every country you have lived in long enough to trigger the requirement, which for many people means more than one.
  • Medical examinations must be done by a doctor on the Immigration New Zealand approved panel. A medical from your own doctor is not accepted.
  • Whether an overseas qualification is recognised is decided by NZQA, and for regulated professions by the relevant registration body, not by Immigration New Zealand.
  • For most work visas your employer must be accredited and the role must pass a job check before you can apply at all.
  • Immigration advice about New Zealand may only be given by a licensed New Zealand adviser or lawyer, wherever in the world they are based.

The Samoan Quota is a ballot

Samoan citizens can register for a ballot that Immigration New Zealand (INZ) runs once a year. If your registration is selected, INZ invites you to apply for the Samoan Quota Resident Visa. Registering does not give you a visa. It gives you a chance to be invited to apply.

To register, INZ says you must:

  • be a citizen of Samoa
  • be within the age range INZ sets for the ballot
  • have been born in Samoa, or have a parent who was born in Samoa
  • be in Samoa, or legally in New Zealand, when you register online.

Registration is open for a short period each year, and INZ announces the dates on its website. Registrations for the 2026 ballot are closed. The INZ page for the Samoan Quota Resident Visa gives the age range, the number of places and the current fees.

You can include your partner and dependent children in the visa application only if you included them when you registered. Before you register, make sure everyone you want to bring is on the registration.

Being drawn is not the same as getting residence

After you are invited, INZ assesses your visa application against its own requirements:

  • You, or your partner, need an offer of full-time work that meets INZ’s minimum length. INZ will not grant the visa if the employer is on the Labour Inspectorate’s stand-down list.
  • If you include dependent children, the job must pay at least the minimum income INZ sets, which it reviews each year. Without children, the job must pay at least the New Zealand minimum wage. You can combine your income with your partner’s.
  • You need a chest X-ray and a medical examination once you are invited.
  • You need police certificates from Samoa and from any other country where you have lived long enough to meet INZ’s rule.
  • INZ may check your English by talking with you about yourself, your family and your background. You also need to be able to read and answer questions in English.

A job offer takes time to arrange from Samoa, and you cannot apply without one. Start looking for work before the draw.

Applications go to the Apia Visa Application Centre

INZ says Samoan Quota applications are now lodged on paper at the Apia Visa Application Centre (VAC), with your supporting documents and the application fee. The VAC charges its own service fee for scanning and handling your documents. INZ in Apia still assesses and decides the application.

Seasonal work is a separate scheme

Samoa is one of the Pacific countries in the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme, which brings workers to New Zealand for horticulture and viticulture work. You need a job offer from a Recognised Seasonal Employer, and you can work only for the employers named on your visa.

The RSE Limited Visa is short term. You cannot include your partner or children, you cannot apply for any other visa while you hold it, and you must leave New Zealand before it expires. Seasonal work is useful income and work history. It does not lead to residence by itself.

Other routes

The Samoan Quota is not the only way to move. If you are not drawn, the usual work route is the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV), which needs an accredited employer and an approved job check, the same as for any other applicant. If your partner is a New Zealand citizen or resident, a partner visa is assessed on evidence of your relationship.

Samoa is not on New Zealand’s visa waiver list, so Samoan citizens need a visitor visa to visit. A visitor visa does not allow you to work.

Who may advise you

Only a licensed New Zealand immigration adviser, a New Zealand lawyer, or a person with a legal exemption may give immigration advice about New Zealand. That applies in Apia as much as in Auckland. Check any adviser’s licence on the public register before you pay.

The draw is a ballot, so nobody can improve your chance of being selected. Be careful of anyone who charges you to help with the ballot and suggests they can make your registration more likely to be drawn. Charging a worker for a job in New Zealand is illegal, wherever the payment is made.

Where to start

Routes Samoan applicants most often use

Ordered by how commonly they are used, not by how easy they are. Each one is assessed on different evidence.

Start these first

The four things that hold applications up

All four come from someone other than you, and all four run on their own timetable. Beginning them late is the most common self-inflicted delay.

  • Police certificates

    From every country you have lived in for long enough to trigger the requirement, which is often more than one. Slow, and outside your control.

    Find your country’s issuing authority

  • Medical examination

    Has to be done by a doctor on the approved panel. A medical from your own doctor does not count, however thorough it is.

    Find an approved doctor

  • Qualification assessment

    NZQA decides whether an overseas qualification is recognised and at what level. Immigration New Zealand does not, and professional bodies decide separately again.

    How NZQA assesses qualifications

  • English evidence

    Check which tests and scores are currently accepted before you book one. Sitting the wrong test is a common way to lose a month.

    Accepted tests and scores

Where to go next

ProVisas, Target Language Academy, StudentNZ and Invest Visa NZ are related companies. ProVisas publishes this site.

Where this comes from

Immigration New Zealand publishes the rules and can change them without notice. These are the pages this one is based on. If something here and something there disagree, Immigration New Zealand is right.

Licensed advice

Applying from Samoa?

This page explains how the process works. It cannot tell you whether your own application will succeed, because that turns on facts only an adviser who has seen your documents can weigh up.

In New Zealand it is a criminal offence to give immigration advice without a licence or an exemption. ProVisas holds IAA licence 201301110.

Talk to a licensed adviser