The big changes landed on 24 August 2026. Here are the answers to the questions people are actually asking now.
Most of what you've read about the Skilled Migrant Category changes was written before they took effect. Two new pathways, a Red List and an Amber List, simpler wage thresholds — you've probably seen the headlines.
What you may not have seen is Visa Pak 687, the guidance Immigration New Zealand released to its own immigration officers on 21 August 2026. It's not written for migrants. It's written for the people assessing your application, and it answers the awkward edge cases — what happens when your pay rate moved, when you changed jobs, when your occupation sits on the Amber List, when your employer put you on the wrong payroll entity.
Those edge cases are where applications get declined. So here's what the guidance actually says, in plain English.
A note before we start: this is general information, not advice about your case. Timing and evidence matter enormously under the new rules, and small differences in your history change the answer. If your situation looks anything like the scenarios below, get it checked properly.
Part 1: Skilled Migrant Category FAQs
My overseas work experience isn't backed by tax records. Can I still use it?
Yes — and this is one of the more practical improvements.
For overseas work experience to count as directly relevant work experience, you need an employment agreement, employment contract or service agreement, together with a job description. On top of that, you need either a tax statement or summary of earnings, or a certificate of service confirming your employment details and income for that period.
That "or" matters. Tax records simply aren't obtainable in every country, and INZ has recognised that.
The catch: certificates of service are not accepted as evidence of New Zealand work experience. For your NZ experience, INZ expects the tax and payroll trail.
I'm on a work visa using a National Occupation List code. Does that carry over to the new pathways?
No. NOL occupations are not currently recognised under the new SMC pathways.
If you hold a work visa based on an Appendix 20 NOL occupation and you want to apply under SMC, you'll need to pick the ANZSCO 1.3 occupation that best matches your actual job. Be prepared for a possible sting: the ANZSCO skill level of your role may come out lower than it was under your NOL code, and skill level feeds into your wage threshold and pathway eligibility.
INZ will then run its standard ANZSCO assessment, checking whether your role is substantially consistent with the job title and occupation description at the six-digit level. Where needed, a substantial match assessment looks at both the six-digit occupation description and the tasks listed at the four-digit Unit Group, excluding tasks that aren't relevant to your occupation description.
If there's genuinely no suitable ANZSCO 1.3 occupation for what you do, the points-based pathway remains open to you.
Not sure where your role lands? Our Green List Occupation Matcher and SMC Pathfinder are a useful starting point.
Have the English language requirements changed?
Largely, no. The one real change is validity: English test results are now valid for five years if you hold a valid occupational registration.
Here's the part people miss — you don't have to be applying for residence in a role connected to that registration to get the extended validity. Holding the registration is enough (SR2.10.1(a)(ii) and (f)).
My employment agreement says "variable hours". How is my pay rate calculated?
This one trips up a lot of applications, because remuneration is calculated from hours.
Under SR2.5.1, your hours are treated as variable if your agreement lets your employer request or require extra hours from time to time. Where hours are variable and you're paid a salary rather than hourly, an immigration officer can ask your employer to declare the range of hours you work, including the maximum.
Where a maximum is specified, that maximum is what gets used in the calculation. If you're salaried and your agreement names a maximum, expect INZ to divide by that number — which can pull your effective hourly rate below the threshold.
If there's no specified maximum, just a general statement that hours vary, the officer can either ask for clarification or accept a statement from your employer — provided it lines up with everything else on file, like your payslips.
Practical takeaway: before you apply, do the maths yourself on your maximum hours, and make sure your employer's account of your hours matches your payslips.
Points-based pathway: does my degree have to relate to my job?
No. Your bachelor's degree doesn't need to be relevant to your occupation or to your skilled work experience. That holds whether you're claiming points for the bachelor's itself, or for a higher qualification that requires a supporting bachelor's.
And if you're claiming points for an overseas master's degree, you generally won't need a separate IQA for your bachelor's, as long as you've provided an IQA for the master's. An officer can still ask for more if something doesn't add up.
New pathways: does my experience have to be in chronological order?
It doesn't. INZ has confirmed that directly relevant work experience and skilled work experience don't need to be earned in order — though in practice they usually will be.
There's a genuine planning opportunity here. If you want to use earlier skilled work experience to lock in a lower wage threshold, and then count later work as your directly relevant experience, you can.
The hard limit: the periods cannot be concurrent. One block of time can't do two jobs.
My occupation is on the Amber List. What does that cost me?
Two things.
On the wage side: skilled work experience in an Amber List role must be paid at least 1.2 times the SMC wage threshold (SR3.35.5.5(a)(iv)). That applies even where your current skilled employment isn't an Amber List role but your experience was.
On the location side: if you're applying with skilled employment in an Amber List occupation under the Skilled Work Experience pathway, all three years of your directly relevant work experience must have been gained in New Zealand.
The one piece of good news: for the directly relevant work experience itself under SR3.35.5.1, there is no remuneration or wage threshold to meet.
Why are there two different look-back windows?
Because they do different jobs, and confusing them is one of the easiest ways to get your assessment wrong.
- The window for setting your wage threshold counts back from your invitation to apply (ITA) date.
- The window for counting skilled work experience counts back from your resident visa application date.
Both windows are twice as long as the amount of skilled work experience you need.
The reason for the split is actually in your favour: it means you can lodge an EOI knowing your wage threshold won't shift on you before you lodge the residence application, while still accruing more skilled work experience right up to the day you apply.
My ANZSCO skill level changed. Which wage threshold applies?
If your skill level moved between ANZSCO 1–3 and ANZSCO 4–5, INZ uses the date you first began accruing your skilled work experience to fix the point in time for your wage threshold. That single fixed point is then applied across the different skill levels under the points-based pathway.
Does the grace period only apply to AEWV holders?
No. The grace period rule can apply to any work visa — AEWV, open work visas, others.
Part 2: Work to Residence FAQs (Tier 2 Green List, Care Workforce, Transport)
If you're on the SR5 Tier 2 Green List, SR6 Care Workforce or SR7 Transport pathway, the wage rules changed on the same date — and the change is genuinely good news.
What's different?
Under the old settings, you had to be paid the relevant wage rate when you started accruing experience, and then meet the higher rate in force when you applied for residence. A mid-stream median wage increase could quietly break your application.
From 24 August 2026, you only need to meet the wage rate relevant to your occupation at one fixed point, and then maintain at least that rate throughout your work experience period. Your pay can't drop below the rate at which you became eligible — but you're no longer chasing a moving target. That same rate applies to your acceptable employment at the residence stage (SR5.5(b)(iv) and SR5.5(c)).
How is that fixed point determined?
The wage rate that applies is the rate for your occupation in effect at one of these points:
- The date your work visa was granted — provided you began working and earning at or above the relevant rate within five months of grant, and within the eligible period; or
- The start date of the eligible period; or
- The date you began work within the eligible period; or
- The date you were first paid at or above the relevant rate within the eligible period.
The "eligible period" is always 30 months counting back from the date your residence application is made, and you need 24 months of work experience inside it. Anything earlier simply doesn't count.
How exactly do I count the 30 months?
The period includes the day of the triggering event and runs to the same calendar day in the earlier month or year. INZ's own worked example: a WtR application made on 1 September 2026 gives an eligible period starting 1 March 2024.
Where the equivalent calendar day doesn't exist, use the last day of that earlier month. So if the first day you begin accruing work experience is 31 July 2026, the grace period start date is 28 February 2026 — because 31 February doesn't exist.
When does the grace period actually help me?
The grace period lets INZ apply the wage rate that was in place when your work visa was granted, which protects offshore applicants who had five months to arrive and started work after a rate increase.
It applies if:
- you started work earning at least that amount within five months of your work visa being granted; and
- that work falls within the 30 months before your residence application.
Where it does not help you: if your work visa was granted more than five months before the eligible period begins, the grace period is unavailable — even if you did start work within five months of grant. INZ's example is blunt: a visa granted five years ago, with the wage rate maintained ever since, still can't reach back. Only the 30-month window counts.
I changed occupation partway through. What happens?
You can combine work experience across different recognised occupations — but each occupation has its own required rate, and you must meet the rate for the occupation you're actually in.
The fixed "point in time" established when you first earned at least the required rate is then carried across the eligible period to your later roles. You need to meet the rate for each new occupation as it stood at that earlier fixed date (SR5.15(i)).
If you change occupation and your new income falls below the required rate for that occupation — either the median wage or the Tier 2 Appendix 13 hourly rate — your work period stops being counted (SR5.15(g)(ii)).
I left New Zealand for a few months mid-way. Have I lost my start date?
Not necessarily. If you'd started work in New Zealand and met the applicable wage rate when you started, you can begin accruing from that date. On return you can resume at the wage rate used when you started counting — provided you're in the same occupation, paid at least that rate, and the required experience is completed within the 30 months before you apply.
My employer put me on the wrong legal entity and I breached my visa conditions. Does that period count?
No — and this is the hardest answer in the guidance.
Any period worked in breach of visa conditions cannot count towards your work experience. That holds even where the breach came from employer-side administrative or structural problems (a business sale, an HR arrangement), even where the employer proactively declared it, and even where it was promptly fixed with a new visa and no change to your role or pay.
Employer fault and voluntary disclosure don't create a basis to apply the earlier, lower wage rate. Your applicable rate becomes the rate in effect when the subsequent visa was granted, provided you started work within five months of that grant and the visa was granted within the acceptable period.
If this describes your situation, don't lodge on hope. Talk to us first — the numbers can often be rebuilt around the compliant period, but only if someone maps it before you apply.
What you should do now
- Fix your dates on paper. Work visa grant date, first day of work, first day paid at or above the rate, EOI/ITA date, intended residence application date. Almost every question above turns on one of these.
- Count backwards 30 months from your realistic residence application date and see what actually falls inside the window.
- Check your ANZSCO code, not your NOL code, and check whether it sits on the Red or Amber List.
- Do the variable-hours maths on your maximum hours, not your usual hours.
- Gather evidence early — employment agreements, job descriptions, and either tax summaries or certificates of service for overseas work.
The changes have genuinely opened residence to people who had no realistic pathway before. But the new rules are more date-sensitive than the old ones, and a current pay rate on its own tells you very little about whether you qualify.
Start with our SMC Pathfinder for a first read on your position. If it looks close either way, book a free 15-minute consultation with Ishvinder Singh (IAA 201401130) or Shaveta Khanna (IAA 202100174) — or message us on WhatsApp at +64 21 227 4246 or call +64 9 213 1677. We'll map your dates with you before anything gets lodged.
Source: Immigration New Zealand, Visa Pak Issue 687 — 21 August 2026, and the SMC and Work to Residence Q&A documents released alongside it.