Choose the course for what follows it
For Sri Lankan applicants coming through study, the decision that matters is made before any visa application exists. What you study, and at what level, determines whether you get post-study work rights, for how long, and whether the work you can then do counts towards anything further.
Two courses can cost the same and leave you in completely different positions at the end. That is published policy and it is checkable before you enrol. Establish what the qualification produces, and what kind of role that leads to, before you pay a deposit.
Funds are assessed on source as well as amount
This is where most student applications from Sri Lanka encounter difficulty. Meeting the required balance is the straightforward part.
Immigration New Zealand also examines where the money came from, how long it has been held, and whether you genuinely have access to it. A lump sum that arrived recently, or funds belonging to a relative whose relationship to you and reason for supporting you are not set out, will be questioned.
Prepare the history rather than the balance. Bank statements across a period, evidence of the underlying source, and a plain explanation of who is supporting you and why. The funds transfer scheme is worth reading about as one way to make the living-costs element straightforward.
English
The score your education provider requires to admit you and the score Immigration New Zealand requires for the visa are set separately. An offer of place does not mean you meet the visa requirement.
Check which tests and scores are currently accepted before booking, because sitting the wrong test is a common way to lose a month and a fee.
Qualifications
Recognition of an overseas qualification is NZQA’s decision, and for regulated professions the relevant professional body decides separately again. Nursing, teaching and engineering each have their own registration route.
If your plan depends on a qualification being recognised at a particular level, an assessment obtained early is worth more than an assumption carried through the whole process.
Documents to start on first
Police certificates and medicals come from third parties and are the most common cause of an otherwise complete file waiting.
The police certificate requirement follows the countries you have lived in rather than your nationality, so time working in the Gulf, in the Maldives, in Australia or elsewhere generally adds certificates. Immigration New Zealand publishes the issuing authority for each country, and that list is what to work from rather than an agent’s instructions.
Who may advise you
Only a licensed New Zealand immigration adviser, a New Zealand lawyer, or a person with a specific exemption may give immigration advice about New Zealand, wherever they are based. Education agents in Colombo are not automatically advisers, and many are careful to stay on the right side of that line.
You can check any licence on the public register yourself in under a minute, before money changes hands.
Where to start
Routes Sri Lankan applicants most often use
Ordered by how commonly they are used, not by how easy they are. Each one is assessed on different evidence.
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01
Student visas
A common route, and worth choosing on what the qualification leads to rather than on price.
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02
Accredited Employer Work Visa
Needs an accredited employer and an approved job check before you can apply.
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03
Partner and family visas
Assessed entirely on evidence of a shared life, which is a different test from the skilled routes.
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.
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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