ProVisas Free Tool · Updated for the 24 August 2026 instructions

NZ Skilled Residence Wage Threshold & Work Experience Calculator

Find your wage threshold and check whether your NZ work experience counts — one question at a time. Answer and press OK.

Rules and rates last verified against INZ sources: . Your calculation runs entirely in your browser.

Skilled Migrant Category

Your wage threshold is usually locked in when you start gaining skilled work experience — not when you apply. Let's find yours.

Which SMC pathway are you assessing?

Skill category you are claiming points from

Points from that category

ANZSCO skill level of your job / job offer (check on INZ's ANZSCO lookup)

Date you gained your occupational registration (experience before this cannot count)

Is your occupation on the Amber List?

What else this pathway requires

This pathway also requires a job in an ANZSCO skill level 1–3 occupation and at least 3 years of directly relevant work experience (in NZ or overseas; self-employment excluded). The 3 years is not wage-tested, so it is not calculated here — this tool assesses the 2 years of NZ skilled work experience that is wage-tested. Red List occupations cannot use this pathway.

Date you completed your relevant Level 4+ qualification (only post-qualification experience counts)

What else this pathway requires

This pathway also requires an eligible trades/technician occupation, a relevant NZQCF Level 4+ qualification (or comparable), and at least 2.5 years of relevant post-qualification work experience (self-employment excluded). The 2.5 years is not wage-tested and is not calculated here — this tool assesses the 1.5 years of post-qualification NZ skilled work experience that is wage-tested.

Key dates

EOI submission date (actual or planned)

Residence application date (planned) experience keeps counting until this date

Date your work visa was granted (optional — used for the 5-month grace period)

Your NZ employment history (add a new row for every pay change or job change)

Hourly rate of your current job or job offer (NZD) salary ÷ (max. contracted hours × 52)

Work to Residence

You need 24 months of qualifying work in the 30 months before you apply, at a rate locked in when you start counting. Let's check yours.

Which Work to Residence pathway are you on?

Your Green List Tier 2 role's wage requirement

Specified rate for your role, as a multiple of the median wage (from the Green List / Appendix 13 — e.g. 1.15, 1.3, 1.5)

Not sure? Search your role on the official Green List — its wage requirement (if any) is listed there.

Which transport workforce role?

Removed roles — the transitional rules (7 April 2024)

Six road roles (Bus Driver, Truck Driver, Aircraft Refueller, Furniture Removalist, Tanker Driver, Tow Truck Driver) were removed from the transport workforce list on 7 April 2024. Work in them can only count if, on or before 6 April 2024, you had started the job, been granted an AEWV to work in it, or held or applied for another work visa with a job offer or signed employment agreement for it (and started within 4 weeks of the visa grant or signing). Ship's Master and Deck Hand also carry maritime certificate requirements — check the INZ Transport Work to Residence page.

Care workforce — your rate is set for you

Care workforce sector wage rate: NZD $28.25/hr from 1 July 2022 ($27.00 from 29 September 2021 to 30 June 2022). Your required rate is the one in place when you start counting.

Eligible roles & details

Eligible roles: Aged or Disabled Carer · Personal Care Assistant · Nursing Support Worker · Māori Health Assistant — Kaiawhina (Hauora) · Disabilities Services Officer · Residential Care Officer · Therapy Aide · Child or Youth Residential Care Assistant · Diversional Therapist. See the INZ Care Workforce Work to Residence page.

Key dates

Residence application date (planned)

Date your work visa was granted (optional — 5-month grace period)

Your NZ employment in this pathway's eligible roles (add a row per job / pay change)

Ready when you are

Also required (not calculated here)

Aged 55 or younger at application · full-time work (at least 30 hours/week) · a work visa covering the full 24 months before you apply · current job/offer with an accredited employer, permanent or fixed-term of 12+ months · English, health and character requirements · your role's qualification/registration requirements. Paid leave you are legally entitled to (including parental leave) counts as work. If your job is removed from the Green List after you start, your time still counts.

Green List Tier 1 — Straight to Residence

No look-back here: your job or offer just has to meet your role's wage requirement as at the date you apply.

Your Green List Tier 1 role's wage requirement

How is the rate specified?

Value

Hourly rate of your job or job offer (NZD)

Also required (not calculated here)

The role's specific qualification, registration and/or experience requirements on the Green List · full-time job or offer with an accredited employer, permanent or fixed-term of 12+ months · aged 55 or younger · English, health and character. Since 24 August 2026, INZ applies closer scrutiny to whether Tier 1 employment is genuine — expect your role's duties, your employer's need for the role, and your pay to be tested against the occupation claimed.

How this calculator works — methodology, rates & official sources

The rules applied

Threshold setting (SMC): if your pathway requires NZ skilled work experience, the SMC wage threshold in place when you start gaining that experience applies, and is locked. Work starts counting from the first day your pay meets the threshold in place at that time. You cannot adopt an earlier, lower threshold and meet it later.
Eligible timeframe to set the threshold (SMC): twice the required experience, counted back from your EOI date (e.g. 2 years required → 4-year window). Experience continues to count after the EOI, up to your residence application date, within the same-length window counted back from the application date.
Rate locking (Work to Residence): the required rate is your Green List job's specified rate (a multiple of the median wage) or the median wage, as at the date you start counting. INZ can only look at rates in place within the 30 months before application (plus up to 5 months earlier under the grace period).
Transport & Care Workforce (Work to Residence): the same rate locking, 30-month look-back and grace period apply. Transport roles use the median wage, except Bus Driver (a flat NZD $28/hr). Six road roles (Bus Driver, Truck Driver, Aircraft Refueller, Furniture Removalist, Tanker Driver, Tow Truck Driver) were removed from the transport list on 7 April 2024 — that work counts only under INZ's transitional rules, which turn on your job, AEWV or signed offer being in place on or before 6 April 2024. The care workforce uses the sector wage rate: $28.25/hr from 1 July 2022 ($27.00 from 29 September 2021).
Grace period (all Work to Residence pathways and SMC): if you started work within 5 months of your work visa being granted, the rate increased in between, and you were paid at least the rate in place at grant, the grant-date rate applies. The grant date itself must be within 35 months of your application (the 30-month window plus the 5-month grace) — INZ's worked example: a visa granted 25 February 2026 can use its grant-date rate in an application made no later than 25 January 2029.
Job changes: you keep your locked rate when changing employer or role (for WTR, the new Green List job's specified rate is still read as at your original counting-start date). Exception noted for SMC Points-based moves from ANZSCO 1–3 into 4–5 (1.5× applies).
Pay drops: any period paid below your locked required rate does not count; time already banked is kept, and counting resumes when pay meets the locked rate again.
Qualification/registration pathways: only experience gained after the relevant qualification (Trades & Technician) or registration (Points-based, registration category) can count.

SMC wage threshold history (base rate, hourly NZD)

Pathway multipliers: Points-based 1.0× (ANZSCO 1–3) / 1.5× (ANZSCO 4–5, unlisted, or claiming 3 income points) / 2× (4 income points) / 3× (6 income points, current job only) · Trades & Technician 1.0× · Skilled Work Experience 1.1× (1.2× for Amber List roles). Green List Tier 2 roles use the median wage or the role's specified multiple.

Rounding note: INZ truncates multiplied rates to the cent in its SMC tables (e.g. $31.61 × 1.5 = $47.41) and this calculator does the same everywhere. A couple of historical cells in INZ's published Work to Residence table are instead rounded up by one cent (e.g. $33.56 × 1.3 shown there as $43.63). If your pay sits within a cent of a threshold, treat the result as borderline and confirm it with an adviser.

Official sources

Borderline result? Complicated history? Get a straight answer.

Threshold locking, grace periods, job changes and pay drops interact in ways a calculator can only estimate. ProVisas has assessed skilled residence eligibility for 13+ years — we'll tell you exactly where you stand and, true to our 100% Honest Answers promise, if you don't qualify yet we'll tell you that too, and map the fastest route to when you will.

📱 WhatsApp / call +64 22 112 1112 · ✉️ contact@provisas.co.nz · Licensed Immigration Adviser (IAA 201301110)

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Disclaimer: This calculator provides general information only and is not immigration advice. It estimates outcomes based on the information you enter and on Immigration New Zealand instructions and published rates as at the "last verified" date above; immigration instructions change and INZ decides every application on its full facts. Results do not determine visa eligibility, and other requirements (occupation eligibility, accredited employment, qualifications, registration, English, health, character, hours of work and evidence standards) apply. All calculations run in your browser and your dates and pay rates are not stored or transmitted; only the contact details (and result summary) you choose to submit reach ProVisas, and are handled per our privacy policy. For advice about your situation, speak to a Licensed Immigration Adviser. Professional Visa Solutions Ltd (ProVisas), IAA 201301110.