Immigration

A comprehensive array of information regarding immigration requirements can be found on Immigration New Zealand’s website.  Currently amongst teaching occupations secondary teachers and early childhood teachers are listed in the Long Term Skill Shortage list. Primary teachers with a minimum of three years' teaching experience, are now listed on Immigration New Zealand's Immediate Skill Shortgage List for work permits or residency.

Overseas teachers can be in New Zealand on work permits for a maximum of three years. At the end of that time they must either have residency or leave the country.

Spouses, partners and families

The partner or spouse of a person holding a work visa or permit allowing a stay of more than 6 months in New Zealand may apply for and be granted an Open Work Permit or Visa for the same period as their spouse. The teaching partner or spouse should apply for their work permit/visa first and the partner/spouse provides evidence of this when making their own application.

Where teachers hold long term work permits and their partners are not seeking work, proof will be required that they are either able to support their partners for the duration of their stay or that their partners have sufficient funds to support themselves.

For purposes of immigration, Immigration New Zealand has definitions for partners including marriage, de facto and homosexual relationships as part of the Family Category.

Children

The children of overseas teachers who are in New Zealand on a work permit are entitled to free compulsory education in the same way as children of New Zealand citizens or residents.

If children of overseas teachers undertake tertiary study while their parents are on a work permit, they will be treated as full fee paying students by the institutions they enrol with.