Capped and Uncapped New Zealand Working Holiday Schemes
Thirteen of New Zealand's 45 working holiday schemes are uncapped and accept applications all year. The other 32 have a fixed annual quota and open on a published date. The 32 caps total 29,940 places, but only five schemes actually filled in 2026 — and the three biggest were not among them.
Quick Facts
| Uncapped schemes | 13 — Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, USA |
| Capped schemes | 32, each opening at 10:00 New Zealand time on a published date |
| Total capped places, 2026 | 29,940 (our sum of INZ's per-scheme quotas) |
| Largest cap | United Kingdom, 15,000 — a cap, not open access |
| Smallest caps | 50 each — Portugal, Luxembourg, Malta |
| Filled as at 20 Aug 2026 | Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Taiwan, China |
| Still open as at 20 Aug 2026 | Everything else, including the UK, Korea and Spain |
| Cost | NZ$770 on every scheme, capped or not |
| Allocation | First come, first served. No draw, no lottery, no random selection |
| Source | INZ per-scheme pages and the 15 January 2026 opening-dates announcement, read 20 August 2026 |
What "capped" actually means
A cap is a maximum number of visas INZ will approve under a scheme in a year. When the cap is reached, the scheme closes to new applications until its next opening date.
It does not mean a competition is judged, and it does not mean a selection is made. Places go in order of application. INZ's wording is that once a scheme opens, "applications will be open until the places are filled".
An uncapped scheme has no such number. There is no opening date, no closing date and no quota to exhaust. If you hold a passport from one of the thirteen, the only deadline you face is your own birthday.
The 13 uncapped schemes
Belgium · Canada · Denmark · Finland · France · Germany · Ireland · Italy · Japan · Netherlands · Norway · Sweden · United States
Every one of these is also a visa-waiver country for ordinary travel, which makes the combination unusually easy to work with.
Two are more generous than the rest:
- Canada — age 18–35, 12 or 23 months, funds expressed as NZ$350 per month of stay.
- Finland — age 18–35, 12 months. The only other uncapped scheme that runs past 30.
The remaining eleven are age 18–30, 12 months, NZ$4,200 in funds.
The 32 capped schemes, by size
| Scheme | 2026 places | 2026 opening | Status 20 Aug 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 15,000 | 25 June | Open |
| Korea (South) | 3,000 | 14 May | Open |
| Spain | 2,000 | 9 April | Open |
| Czech Republic | 1,200 | 18 June | Open |
| Malaysia | 1,150 | 11 February | Filled |
| Argentina | 1,000 | 24 September | Opens |
| China | 1,000 | 2 July | Filled |
| Chile | 940 | 15 October | Opens |
| Taiwan | 600 | 28 May | Filled |
| Hong Kong SAR | 400 | 19 March | Open |
| Brazil | 300 | 8 October | Opens |
| Singapore | 300 | 3 June | Open |
| Israel | 200 | 21 May | Open |
| Mexico | 200 | 26 February | Filled |
| Uruguay | 200 | 17 November | Opens |
| Vietnam | 200 | 3 November | Opens |
| Austria | 100 | 12 May | Open |
| Croatia | 100 | 10 September | Opens |
| Estonia | 100 | 4 March | Open |
| Hungary | 100 | 23 April | Open |
| Latvia | 100 | 22 July | Open |
| Lithuania | 100 | 19 August | Open |
| Peru | 100 | 1 October | Opens |
| Philippines | 100 | 12 March | Filled |
| Poland | 100 | 15 July | Open |
| Slovakia | 100 | 5 May | Open |
| Slovenia | 100 | 1 April | Open |
| Thailand | 100 | 5 August | Open |
| Turkey | 100 | 27 August | Opens |
| Luxembourg | 50 | 8 July | Open |
| Malta | 50 | 12 August | Open |
| Portugal | 50 | 19 February | Open |
The United Kingdom scheme is capped
This is the correction that matters most on this page, because the error is everywhere.
The United Kingdom scheme has a hard quota of 15,000 places a year, and it opened on 25 June 2026 like every other capped scheme. It is very frequently described as uncapped. That description is simply wrong, and it has practical consequences: someone who believes there is no quota may not bother checking the opening date at all.
What is true is that 15,000 places is a very large number relative to demand. The scheme was still open on 20 August 2026, eight weeks after opening. British applicants have room. They do not have unlimited time.
Full detail: the UK scheme.
Cap size does not predict urgency
This is the most useful thing on the page, and it runs against intuition.
The five schemes that filled in 2026 were not the small ones as a group, and the big ones did not fill at all.
| Filled in 2026 | Places | Opened |
|---|---|---|
| Malaysia | 1,150 | 11 February — first scheme to open, first to fill |
| Mexico | 200 | 26 February |
| Philippines | 100 | 12 March |
| Taiwan | 600 | 28 May |
| China | 1,000 | 2 July |
| Still open on 20 August 2026 | Places | Opened |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 15,000 | 25 June |
| Korea | 3,000 | 14 May |
| Spain | 2,000 | 9 April |
| Czech Republic | 1,200 | 18 June |
Korea's 3,000 places were still available fourteen weeks after its 14 May opening. Spain's 2,000 were still available in the fifth month. Meanwhile the Philippines' 100 places went, and Malaysia's 1,150 went first of all.
What separates them is not quota size. It is the ratio between the quota and the number of people who actually want it. Malaysia is a visa-waiver country with a large young population, a 6-month scheme, a low funds requirement and the earliest opening slot in the calendar. Korea has three thousand places and a smaller applicant pool for them.
Plan around fill history, not the headline number.
What INZ does and does not publish
INZ publishes the quota, the opening date and whether a scheme is currently open. That is all.
It publishes no fill-time data at all. No hourly counter, no "sold out in X minutes", no share-of-quota-remaining figure. Any page that gives you a fill time to the minute is repeating traveller anecdote. It may even be roughly right — but it is not sourced, and it should not be the thing you plan against.
The honest planning rule is: if your scheme filled last year, treat opening day as a hard deadline. If it did not, you still have a real window, but it is not an unlimited one.
Leftover places from the previous year
A scheme that did not use its full quota in the previous year stays open until that quota is reached. The quota then resets on the new opening date.
That is why several small European schemes appear to be permanently open. They are not uncapped — they simply have not exhausted a 50 or 100-place quota, so the scheme never closed.
Step 1: Work out which group you are in
Uncapped: apply whenever you are ready. Capped: everything below applies.
Step 2: Look up your scheme's fill history, not just its cap
Did it fill last year? How quickly did it open relative to the calendar? A 100-place scheme that has never filled is a different proposition from a 1,000-place scheme that filled in February.
Step 3: Diarise the opening date and the 10:00 New Zealand time
The full calendar is at opening dates. Convert 10:00 NZT to your own time zone for the specific date — New Zealand observes daylight saving from late September to early April, so the offset changes across the year.
Step 4: Have the whole application ready beforehand
Passport, bank statements, return ticket evidence, medical insurance and any qualification or English evidence your scheme requires. See how to apply.
Step 5: Submit early, and pay the NZ$770
Submission is what holds your place. A saved draft does not.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which New Zealand working holiday schemes are uncapped?
Thirteen: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the USA. They accept applications year-round with no quota and no opening date.
Does the UK working holiday scheme have a cap?
Yes. The United Kingdom scheme is capped at 15,000 places a year and opens on a published date — 25 June in 2026. It is very often described as having no cap. That is wrong. It is simply the largest scheme by a factor of five.
How many New Zealand working holiday places are there?
The 32 capped schemes hold 29,940 places in 2026, a figure we have summed from INZ's published quotas. The 13 uncapped schemes have no limit, so there is no total for the system as a whole.
Which schemes sell out?
Five filled in 2026: Malaysia (opened 11 February), Mexico (26 February), the Philippines (12 March), Taiwan (28 May) and China (2 July). The rest, including the three largest, were still open on 20 August 2026.
Does a bigger cap mean less competition?
Usually, but not reliably. The three biggest schemes — the UK at 15,000, Korea at 3,000 and Spain at 2,000 — do not fill. But Malaysia's 1,150 places filled before Mexico's 200 did. Demand, not quota, decides it.
What happens when a capped scheme fills?
It closes to new applications until its next opening date. Applications already submitted are still processed. No service can obtain a place in a closed scheme, and anyone offering to is committing fraud.
Why do some capped schemes seem to be open all the time?
Because places left over from the previous year keep a scheme open until the quota is reached. The quota resets on the new opening date. That is common on the 50 and 100-place schemes.
Do the caps change from year to year?
They did not change between 2024, 2025 and 2026. Only the opening dates move, by roughly a week each year.
