How Skilled Migrant Category Points Work
New Zealand's Skilled Migrant Category needs 6 skilled resident points. Points come from one primary claim — a qualification, your income, or an occupational registration — worth 3 to 6 points. Any shortfall is closed with skilled work experience in New Zealand, at 1 point per year, up to 3 points.
The point values change on 24 August 2026. This page carries both tables: the one in force up to 23 August, and the new one that replaces it. INZ has now published the new table in full, and it is set out below.
Quick Facts
| Points needed | 6 skilled resident points |
| Where points come from | One primary claim (qualification, income or occupational registration) worth 3–6 points |
| Top-up | Skilled work experience in New Zealand — 1 point per year, maximum 3 |
| Cost to submit an Expression of Interest | No fee |
| Visa fee if invited | NZ$6,450 (NZ$2,880 fee + NZ$3,570 immigration levy, Band A/C) |
| Processing time | Average 10 weeks; 80% within 4 months (as published 20 August 2026) |
| Who it is for | Skilled workers in a qualifying job with an accredited employer |
| Age limit | 55 or younger at the date of application |
| Selection | Threshold, not a ranked pool. Reach 6 points and you qualify |
| Changing | Point values change 24 August 2026 |
The one thing to understand first
The number 6 confuses people, because most points systems score out of 60, 100 or 160. New Zealand's does not.
Think of it as a skill band plus a loyalty top-up. You make one claim about how skilled you are. That claim is worth 3, 4, 5 or 6 points. If it is worth 6, you are finished. If it is worth less, New Zealand asks you to make up the difference with time actually worked here — one point for each year of skilled New Zealand work experience, capped at three.
That design has a consequence worth stating plainly: you cannot stack claims. A master's degree and a high income do not combine. You pick whichever single claim is worth the most and build from there.
The category as a whole is explained in the Skilled Migrant Category, explained. If you are comparing systems, SMC points vs the Australian points test shows how differently the two work.
Points from your qualification
As at August 2026, under the points-based pathway:
| Qualification | NZ qualification framework level | Points | New Zealand skilled work experience also needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doctorate / PhD | Level 10 | 6 | None |
| Master's degree | Level 9 | 5 | 1 year |
| Bachelor honours degree, or postgraduate diploma | Level 8 | 4 | 2 years |
| Postgraduate certificate (Level 8), or bachelor's degree (Level 7) | Level 8 / 7 | 3 | 3 years |
Read the right-hand column carefully. It is not an extra rule — it is simply the arithmetic. A master's is 5 points, so you need 1 more, so you need 1 year of New Zealand skilled work experience. A bachelor's is 3 points, so you need 3 more, so you need 3 years.
The qualification table from 24 August 2026
From 24 August 2026 the table is rebuilt around where the qualification was gained, not only its level. A New Zealand qualification earns more than its overseas equivalent, and several claims now require an underlying bachelor's degree.
| Qualification | Points | Bachelor's degree also required? |
|---|---|---|
| Doctoral degree | 6 | No |
| New Zealand master's degree, with 30 weeks' full-time study in New Zealand | 6 | Yes |
| New Zealand master's degree | 5 | No |
| Master's degree gained outside New Zealand | 5 | Yes |
| New Zealand honours degree, postgraduate diploma or postgraduate certificate | 5 | Yes |
| New Zealand bachelor's degree | 5 | Not applicable |
| Honours degree, postgraduate diploma or postgraduate certificate gained outside New Zealand | 4 | Yes |
| Bachelor's degree gained outside New Zealand | 4 | Not applicable |
Three things change materially.
A New Zealand bachelor's degree goes from 3 points to 5. That is the single largest move in the table. Under the old grid a New Zealand bachelor's needed 3 years of skilled New Zealand work experience to reach 6 points; from 24 August it needs 1 year.
An overseas bachelor's degree goes from 3 points to 4. Better, but still a point behind the New Zealand equivalent.
Some claims now need a supporting bachelor's degree. A master's gained outside New Zealand, and New Zealand honours, postgraduate diploma and postgraduate certificate claims, all require one. A New Zealand master's earns 6 rather than 5 only where you both hold a bachelor's degree and completed at least 30 weeks of full-time study in New Zealand.
Where a bachelor's degree is used only as a supporting qualification for a Level 8 or 9 claim, INZ does not require an International Qualification Assessment for it — the certificate and academic transcript are enough. For a combined master's degree, the transcript alone evidences the bachelor's.
The zero-point trap
Levels 3, 4, 5 and 6 earn no points at all. The ladder starts at Level 7.
This is the single most misunderstood part of the system. A New Zealand Certificate at Level 4 — a completed apprenticeship, for example — scores nothing under the points-based pathway, no matter how many years of skilled work sit behind it. Neither does a Level 5 or Level 6 diploma. There is no partial credit.
That is why the new Trades and Technician pathway opening on 24 August 2026 matters so much. It is the first Skilled Migrant Category route that recognises a Level 4 qualification at all — and it does it by dropping points entirely and testing years of experience instead.
Overseas qualifications usually need an assessment from NZQA before INZ will accept the level you are claiming. See what an NZQA IQA is.
Points from your income
The income bands are set as multiples of the immigration median wage, which has been NZ$35.00 an hour since 9 March 2026. When the median wage moves, every figure in this table moves with it.
| Income | Multiple of the median wage | Hourly rate | Points | NZ skilled work experience also needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Very high | 3× median | NZ$105.00/hr | 6 | None |
| High | 2× to under 3× | NZ$70.00–$104.99/hr | 4 | 2 years |
| Above average | 1.5× to under 2× | NZ$52.50–$69.99/hr | 3 | 3 years |
INZ annualises on a 40-hour week. On that convention NZ$52.50 an hour is roughly NZ$109,200 a year, NZ$70.00 is roughly NZ$145,600, and NZ$105.00 is roughly NZ$218,400.
Two practical notes. First, there is no income band worth 5 points — the jump is from 4 to 6. Second, these are the points thresholds, which are different from the skilled work threshold your job has to meet just to count as skilled at all. That lower threshold is NZ$35.00 an hour for ANZSCO skill levels 1–3, and NZ$52.50 for skill levels 4–5 and unlisted occupations. SMC wage thresholds explained untangles the two.
Points from occupational registration
Some professions cannot be practised in New Zealand without registration — nursing, teaching, engineering, plumbing, medicine and others each have a registering body. Where your occupation requires registration, that registration can be your primary claim.
The points depend on how much training and experience the registration itself demands:
| Registration requires… | Points |
|---|---|
| 6 or more years of training or experience | 6 |
| 5 years | 5 |
| 4 years | 4 |
| 2 years | 3 |
We are not going to publish a list of which professions sit in which band. The schedule of qualifying registrations is a separate document that we have not been able to obtain in full, and guessing would be worse than useless. If registration is your claim, the band your registration falls into is a question for INZ's published schedule or a licensed adviser.
The New Zealand work experience top-up
This is the only part of the system that adds to your primary claim.
| Skilled work experience in New Zealand | Points |
|---|---|
| 3 years within the past 5 years | 3 |
| 2 years within the past 4 years | 2 |
| 1 year within the past 2 years | 1 |
Three details matter.
It has to be in New Zealand. Overseas experience earns nothing under the points-based pathway. That changes on 24 August 2026, when the Skilled Work Experience and Trades and Technician pathways start counting overseas experience — but under the points system, only New Zealand time counts.
It has to be recent. Notice how the window tightens: three years of experience must sit inside the past five, two inside the past four, one inside the past two. Old experience expires.
It only closes the gap. The maximum is 3 points, and it cannot take you above 6.
The work experience table from 24 August 2026
From 24 August 2026 each year of New Zealand experience is worth more, and the three-year tier disappears because two years already tops out at 3 points.
| Skilled work experience in New Zealand | Points now | Points from 24 August 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 3 years | 3 | retired — 2 years already earns 3 |
| 2 years | 2 | 3 |
| 1.5 years | 1 | 2 |
| 1 year | 1 | 1 |
In plain terms: two years of New Zealand experience will earn what three years earns today, and eighteen months will earn what two years earns today. The maximum New Zealand work experience the points pathway can require drops from 3 years to 2.
Combine that with the qualification change and the effect compounds. A New Zealand bachelor's degree moves from 3 points to 5, and the 1 remaining point needs 1 year of New Zealand experience rather than 3. The same person reaches 6 points two years earlier than under the old grid.
Worked examples under the current table
These show the arithmetic. They are not an assessment of anyone's case.
| Profile | Primary claim | Top-up | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| PhD holder, new to New Zealand | Doctorate — 6 | none needed | 6 |
| Master's graduate, 1 year in a skilled NZ job | Master's — 5 | 1 year — 1 | 6 |
| Bachelor honours, 2 years in a skilled NZ job | Honours — 4 | 2 years — 2 | 6 |
| Bachelor's degree, 3 years in a skilled NZ job | Bachelor's — 3 | 3 years — 3 | 6 |
| Earning NZ$110 an hour | 3× median — 6 | none needed | 6 |
| Earning NZ$75 an hour, 2 years in NZ | 2× median — 4 | 2 years — 2 | 6 |
| Level 4 trade certificate, 6 years in NZ | Level 4 — 0 | 3 years max — 3 | 3 — short |
That last row is the reason the category is being restructured.
What the points do not do
Reaching 6 points is necessary, not sufficient. The application still fails if any of these is missing:
- Age. 55 or younger at the date of application — see the age limit for New Zealand skilled residence.
- The job. With an accredited employer, at least 30 hours a week, permanent or fixed-term for at least 12 months (or contracts totalling at least 6 months), paid at the threshold for its skill level.
- English. Speak and understand English, with any test result no more than 2 years old — see English requirements for New Zealand residence.
- Health. Medical examination and chest x-ray — see health requirements for New Zealand residence.
- Character. Police certificates less than 6 months old — see character requirements for New Zealand residence.
Step 1: Identify your single strongest claim
Compare what your qualification is worth, what your income is worth, and what your registration is worth, and take the highest. Only one counts.
Step 2: Work out the gap
Subtract your claim from 6. That is how many years of skilled New Zealand work experience you need, and the recency window that goes with it.
Step 3: Submit an Expression of Interest
There is no fee for a Skilled Migrant Category Expression of Interest. If your EOI meets the threshold, INZ sends an Invitation to Apply by email, and you then have 4 months to lodge the full application. See the residence Expression of Interest, explained.
What changes on 24 August 2026
The points-based pathway survives the restructure, but its numbers do not.
The changes: New Zealand qualifications earn more points than their overseas equivalents; some Level 8 and Level 9 claims require an underlying bachelor's degree; the maximum New Zealand work experience requirement falls from 3 years to 2; English test validity extends from 2 years to 5 for applicants holding an eligible occupational registration; and accountants who are CPA Australia members able to perform Qualified Statutory Accountant work gain a 6-point registration claim.
Both new tables are published above — qualification points and work experience points.
One more timing rule is worth knowing. If your pathway does not require skilled work experience at all — you are claiming 6 points for a doctorate, say — you meet the wage threshold in force at the time you are invited to apply, which is usually the date you submitted your Expression of Interest. Everyone else is measured against the threshold in force when they started gaining the experience. Changing jobs does not normally push you onto a higher threshold; the exception is moving from an ANZSCO skill level 1–3 occupation to a skill level 4–5 one.
Two entirely new routes also open that do not use points at all — Skilled Work Experience and Trades and Technician. What changed in the Skilled Migrant Category covers the whole restructure, and old rules vs new rules sets them side by side.
Getting this checked
Counting points looks like arithmetic, and the arithmetic is genuinely simple. What is not simple is deciding which qualification level INZ will accept, whether a particular job counts as skilled, whether a gap in employment breaks a recency window, or which registration band applies.
Those are assessments of a specific person's circumstances. Under New Zealand law, only a licensed immigration adviser or a New Zealand lawyer may make them. This page explains what the published rules say; it does not tell you what your own claim is worth. You can check whether an adviser is licensed on the public register at app.mbieregisters.govt.nz.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many points do I need for New Zealand PR?
Six skilled resident points, under the Skilled Migrant Category as at August 2026. That is one primary claim worth 3 to 6 points, plus up to 3 points of skilled work experience in New Zealand to close any gap.
Is there an official SMC points calculator?
INZ publishes the points tables on its own website, and its Expression of Interest form applies them. Third-party "points calculators" are not official, and several published online still use the old 160-point system that New Zealand retired in 2023. Because the point values change on 24 August 2026, any calculator that has not been rebuilt since that date will be wrong — in particular, any calculator that still values every bachelor's degree at 3 points regardless of where it was gained.
How many points is a bachelor's degree worth?
Three points under the table in force to 23 August 2026, for a Level 7 bachelor's degree or a Level 8 postgraduate certificate — meaning 3 years of skilled New Zealand work experience is needed to reach 6. From 24 August 2026 it depends where you gained it: a New Zealand bachelor's degree is worth 5 points, and a bachelor's degree gained overseas is worth 4.
Do I get points for a Level 5 or Level 6 diploma?
No. Levels 3, 4, 5 and 6 earn zero points under the points-based pathway. From 24 August 2026 a Level 4 qualification becomes usable through the separate Trades and Technician pathway, which does not use points.
Can I combine my degree points and my income points?
No. You make one primary claim only, and take whichever is worth more. The only thing that adds to it is skilled work experience in New Zealand.
Does overseas work experience count for points?
Not under the points-based pathway — only New Zealand skilled work experience earns the top-up points. Overseas experience does count under the two new pathways opening on 24 August 2026.
How much do I have to earn to get 6 points from income?
Three times the immigration median wage. At the NZ$35.00 median wage in force since 9 March 2026 that is NZ$105.00 an hour, roughly NZ$218,400 a year on INZ's 40-hour convention. Two times the median (NZ$70.00) is worth 4 points, and 1.5 times (NZ$52.50) is worth 3.
What happens to my points if the median wage goes up?
The income bands are multiples, so they move with it. When the median wage rose to NZ$35.00 on 9 March 2026, the 1.5×, 2× and 3× thresholds all rose too. From 24 August 2026 a fairness rule applies to the skilled-work threshold: applicants only need to meet the rate that was in force when they started gaining the relevant experience.
Does reaching 6 points guarantee residence?
No. Points are one requirement among several. Age, the job itself, English, health and character are all tested separately, and an application that meets the points threshold can still be declined on any of them.
