A new six-month Short-term Graduate Work Visa and expanding eligibility has been introduced for the Post Study Work Visa in a move aimed at strengthening New Zealand’s international education sector while better aligning graduate pathways with labour market needs, Immigration New Zealand (INZ) claims.
INZ announced the changes will take effect from 16 November 2026, providing more options for international students seeking to remain in the country after completing their studies.
The new Short-term Graduate Work Visa will offer open work rights for up to six months, allowing eligible graduates time to secure employment and potentially transition to an Accredited Employer Work Visa.
The visa will be available to graduates who have completed eligible Level 5 to 7 qualifications in New Zealand but do not qualify for a Post Study Work Visa. Applicants must have studied full-time in New Zealand for at least 24 weeks, hold at least $5,000 in available funds, and apply within three months of their student visa expiring.
Visa holders will be permitted to work for employers under an employment agreement or contract for services but will not be able to operate their own business or sponsor partners and children for work or student visas. The visa cannot be renewed or granted more than once.
At the same time, INZ will broaden eligibility for the Post Study Work Visa to include graduates who complete a Level 7 graduate diploma and also hold a bachelor’s degree, whether earned in New Zealand or overseas. Applicants will need to provide evidence of both qualifications, including academic transcripts and degree certificates.
The Post Study Work Visa will be issued for the length of time spent studying the graduate diploma in New Zealand, up to a maximum of one year. Unlike the Short-term Graduate Work Visa, holders may be able to support partners and dependent children for visitor, work, or student visas, provided they meet the relevant requirements.
INZ said the changes are intended to attract and retain skilled international graduates while maintaining education standards and “supporting the country’s workforce needs”. The agency also confirmed that individuals who have previously held a Post Study Work Visa will not be eligible for a second one, nor will they be able to obtain a Short-term Graduate Work Visa.
The main parties have made New Zealander unlivable for most Kiwi’s, who are leaving, so now they want to prop up the place with cheap imported labour that will, in turn, accelerate the departure of people who made this country, in the first place. More managed decline, from the experts in “how to ruin a nation”.
Globi, don’t fret too much. All that planning is as vapid as vain. Kindergarten ‘s playing musing games while the energy tsunami looms.
God I hate auto-incorrect.
I hate touch screens with a passion. Never needed autocorrect when my blackberry had buttons. Nice firm, solid, rock hard buttons that you could feel at your fingertips. Never made a single spelling error in all the years I had one.
Now even the cars are losing buttons, knobs and cranks, and it’s all about disgusting smudgy screens all over the place, and having to keep thumbing it over and over without getting what you actually want. Everything is just designed to slow you down and irritate you in every possible way now.
Technology sucks. I want to go back.
“Skilled” after a 24 week b.s. course on what exactly?
No wonder they put Immigration NZ offices on the dark side.
Our kids are being replaced and their jobs taken.
National – globalist pid off sell outs and they are making us pay for it.
The visa will be available to all Indian graduates as per the FTA was omitted.
“Legal” migration has done far more damage to western nations than illegal migration. Millions must go, including the sellouts, backstabbers and professional liars who facilitated all of this treachery.
A reckoning is LONG overdue.
The Tertiary institutions are cultural Marxist. Look at the graduate Health – from Drs, Dentists to Nurses – 90% Non Caucasian. This is off record by design. Fee paying, often corrupt average IQ Indians with false degrees, shortly will occupy all the high income streams in NZ. We are the useful idiots whose kids predominantly do not stand a chance. Heck, the appoint Grant Robertson as VC of Otago Uni, a poof with nil qualifications for the role. Immigration is a tool for cultural replacement.
Agree 100%
🌎🧑🚀🔫🧑🚀
The government needs to investigate some of the Sikh temples. Word on the street is they are financing a lot of this stuff, plus giving out loans to their people to buy businesses. This is a stealth takeover. Even the local Chinese owned coin save has been sold to the Indians. Vape shops, pizza places, booze outlets. The best thing you can do is NOT a buy anything from them.
Our local town has very few restaurants left that are not Indian owned. If I want an Indian to cook my dinner I go to an Indian restaurant, which I do. However when I want Italian, or kiwi food I don’t want an Indian to be making it. So, that said, we only ever go out for a curry as the other food is terrible. My point is, everything has limits.