The working holiday visa scheme provides an opportunity for applicants to experience New Zealand’s work culture and daily life. This visa category is only available to applicants from specific nationalities and primarily covers individuals from the age groups of 18 to 30, with the acceptable age limit extending to 35 for citizens of certain countries. Applicants are not required to produce evidence of a job offer to apply for this visa, and will be able to work for any New Zealand-based employer of their choosing.
In most cases, depending on the nationality of the applicant, the visa holder can work in New Zealand for up to one year. For most nationalities, there will be a condition that the visa holder can only work for a specific employer for a maximum of three months. This encourages foreign workers to gain exposure to different work environments in New Zealand with diverse employers and work colleagues.
Along with enabling a visa holder to engage in employment, the working holiday visa also enables them to undertake short-term study for up to six months. In many cases, this allows for the worker to undertake work and study simultaneously, especially for short-term courses such as English language certificates.
A prospective foreign worker would need to hold comprehensive medical insurance over the duration of their visa along with holding sufficient funds for their maintenance and daily expenses.
For certain nationalities, such as Canadian citizens and British Citizens, applicants may be able to extend their visas for a total duration of 23 months and 36 months, respectively.
Once a worker has used their maximum entitlement under the Working holidays scheme, amounting to 12 months for most nationalities, and 23 months and 36 months for Canadian and British Citizens, they are unable to apply for a further visa of the same category.
However, should any visa holder wish to remain in New Zealand for a longer duration, they are able to explore other visa categories including a fee-paying student visa and an Accredited Employer Work Visa.