How to Check If an Employer Is Accredited in New Zealand
No migrant can be hired on an Accredited Employer Work Visa unless the employer holds current accreditation and has an approved Job Check for the role. Ask for both in writing, verify the company independently, and treat any demand for payment in exchange for a job offer as the clearest warning sign there is.
Quick Facts
| Two things must exist | Current employer accreditation and an approved Job Check for your role |
| Who pays for them | The employer — NZ$775 accreditation, NZ$735 Job Check |
| Payment for a job offer | INZ declines an AEWV where the applicant or their agent offered or promised money to the employer |
| The Bill passed 21 November 2025 | Creates an offence of seeking or receiving a premium for employment — up to 7 years or NZ$100,000 |
| Official websites | INZ's rule: only official links end in .immigration.govt.nz |
| Job floor | At least 30 guaranteed hours a week, paid the market rate |
| Who may advise you | Only licensed immigration advisers, New Zealand lawyers, and listed exempt people |
| Cost to check | Nothing. Every check on this page is free |
Start here: what has to be true for the job to be real
An Accredited Employer Work Visa cannot exist unless all of these are true:
- The employer holds current employer accreditation — standard, high volume or triangular employment.
- The employer has an approved Job Check for your specific role, producing a job token.
- The job guarantees at least 30 hours a week and pays the market rate for the occupation.
- You have paid nothing to the employer or a recruiter for the job offer itself.
If any one of those is missing, there is no visa at the end of the process — no matter what you have been told, no matter how professional the paperwork looks, and no matter how much money has already changed hands.
That is the whole test. Everything below is how to check each part.
Step 1: Ask for the accreditation details in writing
Ask the employer directly, by email, for:
- The legal name of the employing company — the entity on the employment agreement, which in a labour hire arrangement is not the business where you will be working
- The accreditation type — standard, high volume or triangular employment
- The accreditation expiry date
- Whether the Job Check for your role has been approved, and when
None of this is confidential and none of it is unusual to ask. An employer who has genuinely been through the process can answer in one email, because they hold the decision letters.
What the answers tell you:
| Answer | What it means |
|---|---|
| Clear name, type, expiry and Job Check date | The best signal available at this stage |
| "We are applying" / "it is in process" | Real, but you have nothing to apply for yet. Nothing you pay for now buys anything |
| "You don't need to worry about that" | A refusal to answer a basic factual question about your own visa |
| "Franchisee accredited" | A category that closed on 16 June 2024. At best out of date |
| A demand for payment before answering | Stop. See the warning signs below |
On expiry dates: a Job Check is valid for six months or until accreditation lapses, whichever comes first, and unused job tokens expire when accreditation expires. If the accreditation expires in two months, the job token you are relying on expires in two months too.
Step 2: Understand what INZ does and does not publish
There is no free, instant public lookup that answers "is this company accredited?" the way a company register answers "does this company exist?".
Immigration New Zealand publishes the accreditation rules, the fees and the processing times on immigration.govt.nz. We were not able to verify a public, searchable accredited-employer lookup as at 20 August 2026. Check the employer pages on immigration.govt.nz for the current position — INZ's own site is the only authority on this — and treat any third-party page presenting itself as "the New Zealand accredited employer list" as unverified until you can trace it to INZ.
Saying we do not know is more useful than sending you to a list we cannot stand behind. It also matters because fake "accredited employer lists" are themselves a scam format — a page that shows the employer you were promised, on a site that looks official, is exactly the reassurance a fraudster needs you to have.
INZ's own guidance on official websites is simple and worth memorising: only official INZ links end in .immigration.govt.nz. Not immigration-nz.com, not immigrationgovnz.com, not nz-immigration.org. See how to spot a fake NZ immigration website.
Step 3: Verify the company independently
Separate from immigration, check that the employer is a real, trading New Zealand business:
- The New Zealand Companies Register (companies.govt.nz) shows registered companies, their directors, addresses and status. A company that does not appear, or was registered last month, is worth a second look.
- The physical address. Does it exist? Is it consistent with the work described? A recruitment operation running from a residential address in another country is not a New Zealand employer.
- The email domain. A genuine company writes from its own domain. Free webmail addresses for a "HR Director" are a well-known pattern.
- The phone number. Call the company's publicly listed number — the one you found yourself, not the one in the email — and ask for the person you have been dealing with.
- The website's age and depth. A company with 200 employees has a history. A site created three months ago with stock photography does not match that claim.
None of these prove accreditation. All of them catch the more common fraud, which is not a real employer misrepresenting its status but a fictional employer entirely.
Step 4: Check the job offer against what a real one contains
A genuine AEWV job offer sits on top of an approved Job Check, so it should be consistent with what INZ required at that stage:
| A real offer contains | Because |
|---|---|
| The legal employer's name | It is the name that will appear on your visa |
| A written employment agreement | Required by New Zealand employment law for every employee |
| At least 30 guaranteed hours a week | The AEWV job floor |
| A specific pay rate consistent with the advertisement | Pay offered must match what was advertised |
| The work location | You may work only at the location on your visa |
| The specific job title and duties | The Job Check approved a specific role |
| No payment from you, in any form | Accredited employers must not pass recruitment costs to workers |
If the role was advertised, ask for a copy of the advertisement. It should state duties, the minimum and maximum pay or estimated earnings, the type of work and minimum guaranteed hours, and the minimum skills required — because INZ requires all of that. An "advertisement" missing those elements either was not the ad used for the Job Check, or the Job Check has a problem. See advertising a job before a Job Check.
Step 5: Check who is giving you immigration advice
Under the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007, only licensed immigration advisers, New Zealand lawyers holding a current practising certificate, and a short list of exempt people may give New Zealand immigration advice. The Act applies whether or not the person is paid.
A "consultant", "visa agent" or "migration officer" who is charging you to handle your application and is not licensed or exempt is committing an offence — and is not accountable to any regulator when it goes wrong. Check a licence on the Immigration Advisers Authority register before you pay anyone: how to check an adviser's licence and licensed immigration advisers explained.
The warning signs, in order of seriousness
1. You are asked to pay for the job offer. The clearest signal there is. Accredited employers must not pass recruitment costs on to workers, and INZ declines an AEWV where the applicant or their agent offered or promised money to the employer in exchange for the job offer. Paying does not just risk your money — it can destroy the visa application you are paying for.
The Immigration (Fiscal Sustainability and System Integrity) Amendment Bill passed its third reading on 21 November 2025 and creates an offence of knowingly seeking or receiving a premium for employment, carrying up to seven years' imprisonment or a NZ$100,000 fine. Royal Assent and commencement dates were not published at the time of writing, so that is what the legislation creates rather than a description of the law as it stands today — check legislation.govt.nz for current status.
2. You are asked to reimburse the accreditation or Job Check fee. NZ$775 and NZ$735 are employer costs. A request to repay them breaches the employer's accreditation obligations.
3. You are offered faster processing for a fee. There is none. INZ publishes no expedited or premium service and charges no fee for one. Green List roles process faster because of the occupation, not because anyone paid. See paid priority visa processing.
4. You are told to pay a "visa fee" to the employer or agent. INZ fees are paid to INZ through Immigration Online. Your AEWV costs from NZ$1,540 and you pay it yourself.
5. Pressure and deadlines. "The job token expires tomorrow", "another candidate is waiting", "transfer today to hold the position". Real Job Checks have real dates that an employer can show you.
6. A job offer with no interview, no assessment of your qualifications, and terms that are far better than the market. Fraud is designed to be attractive.
7. Payment by money transfer, cryptocurrency or gift cards. No New Zealand employer needs any of these.
8. Documents that look official but are not. Fabricated INZ letters are a documented problem. INZ's National Manager Risk and Verification has warned specifically about checking that links end in .immigration.govt.nz, because scam addresses can look similar.
More detail: immigration scams to avoid and how to spot a fake New Zealand job offer.
If you have already paid
You are not the first, and the immediate priority is limiting the damage.
- Stop paying. Further payments will be requested and will not resolve anything.
- Keep everything — emails, receipts, transfer records, contracts, screenshots, phone numbers, the advertisement. This is your evidence.
- Report it. Immigration New Zealand takes reports about immigration fraud and about employers demanding payment for job offers. Employment New Zealand and its Labour Inspectorate handle employment standards breaches such as unpaid or underpaid wages and unlawful deductions. MBIE operates a dedicated migrant exploitation reporting service; current contact details are published on the Employment New Zealand and MBIE websites. If money was taken by fraud, that is also a police matter.
- Get advice from someone accountable — a licensed immigration adviser or a New Zealand lawyer. See paid an immigration scammer — what to do.
If you are already in New Zealand and the employment relationship has become exploitative, the Migrant Exploitation Protection Work Visa exists so that leaving does not mean losing your immigration status. Its applicants are exempt from the immigration levy. See migrant exploitation and the protection work visa.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I check if a New Zealand employer is accredited?
Ask the employer in writing for the legal company name, the accreditation type, the accreditation expiry date and the Job Check approval date, then verify the company independently on the Companies Register and by phoning its publicly listed number. Check immigration.govt.nz for INZ's current guidance — and remember that only official INZ links end in .immigration.govt.nz.
Is there a public list of accredited employers in New Zealand?
We were not able to verify a public, searchable accredited-employer lookup as at 20 August 2026. Check the employer pages on immigration.govt.nz for the current position, and treat any third-party "accredited employer list" as unverified — fake lists are themselves a known scam format.
How do I know if a New Zealand job offer is real?
A genuine AEWV offer names the legal employer, comes with a written employment agreement, guarantees at least 30 hours a week, states a pay rate consistent with the advertisement and the market rate, states the work location, and asks you for no money at all.
Is it illegal to pay for a job offer in New Zealand?
Paying for a job offer causes INZ to decline the AEWV where the applicant or their agent offered or promised money to the employer. Separately, the Bill that passed its third reading on 21 November 2025 creates an offence of knowingly seeking or receiving a premium for employment, with penalties of up to seven years or NZ$100,000 — check legislation.govt.nz for its commencement status.
Can an employer ask me to pay the accreditation or Job Check fee?
No. NZ$775 for accreditation and NZ$735 for the Job Check are employer costs, and accredited employers must not pass recruitment costs on to workers. A request to reimburse them is a breach of the employer's obligations.
My employer says accreditation is "in progress" — can I apply for my visa?
No. Accreditation must be held, and a Job Check approved, before you have anything to apply for. Nothing you pay during that period buys you a place in a queue, because the queue does not exist yet.
Can a recruitment agency be my accredited employer?
Yes, where it employs you and places you with a controlling third party — that requires triangular employment accreditation. The agency, not the host business, is your legal employer and the name on your visa. See triangular employment accreditation explained.
Who can I report a fake job offer to?
Immigration New Zealand for immigration fraud and employers demanding payment for job offers; Employment New Zealand and its Labour Inspectorate for employment standards breaches; the police where money has been taken by fraud. MBIE publishes a dedicated migrant exploitation reporting service.
General information only. This page explains published rules and general verification steps. It does not assess any particular employer, job offer or person, and it is not immigration advice. Under the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007, only a licensed immigration adviser or a New Zealand lawyer with a current practising certificate may give New Zealand immigration advice — find one through how to find a licensed immigration adviser. Figures as published 20 August 2026.
