Hiring migrant workers for Peak Seasonal roles

These roles are:

• mussel or oyster farm worker 
• calf rearer 
• relief milker 
• forestry worker 
• meat oner and slicer 
• meat process worker 
• seafood process worker 
• winery cellar and 
• wool handler. 

You need to engage with us before you start your Job Check application with Immigration New Zealand. We'll check the labour market supply for your role. This is to ensure that New Zealanders are considered for jobs where there are no skills shortages.

You can read more information about Peak Seasonal Visa on the Immigration New Zealand website:

Engaging with us in good faith

You need to engage with us in good faith as part of this process. This means you need to:

• complete the online form below to get in touch with us, and respond within 3 days when we contact you back
• work with us to check if there's a skills shortage for this role in your area
• work with us directly - you can't have an immigration professional (e.g. a Licensed Immigration Adviser or LIA) do it for you
• keep evidence (e.g. copies of emails) to show you've engaged with us. You may need this for your job check application with Immigration New Zealand.

Contact us to start engagement process

Complete our online form to start engaging with us:

You need to tell us about:

• your business, including your NZ business number
• your contact information
• the role
• skills and experience needed
• any pre-employment checks required.

We'll contact you back within 5 working days. You need to make sure we can contact you during this time – this is part of your engagement in good faith.

Once you've submitted the form, you have 90 days to submit your Job Check application to Immigration New Zealand.

What happens next

We will contact you to discuss your next steps. These will be either:

• doing a Labour Market Test, or
• partnering with us to become an endorsed employer, if you're eligible.

Labour Market Test

We'll check the local labour market supply to see if there are people in the area who meet your requirements. 

• If there are, we'll contact you about listing the vacancy and refer these people to you. 
• If there aren't, we'll send you verification to support your application for accreditation.

If you need to list the role with us, your listing must:

• be advertised long enough for people to apply or be referred, usually around 10 working days
• allow enough time for recruitment activities, for example interviews
• only ask for qualifications and work experience that are genuinely required to do the role
• ask for the same qualifications and work experience as other adverts you place elsewhere for the same role
• make sure the job description genuinely reflects the role and will not be changed during recruitment.

During recruitment you must genuinely consider candidates referred by us, and interview and recruit any who are suitable.

Once your recruitment drive is complete, tell us the outcome. Let us know why candidates were not suitable or successful. This helps us provide better matches in future.

Partnering with us to become an endorsed employer

We'll work closely with you to understand your on-going recruitment needs and maintain our partnership. This includes providing immediate and future employment opportunities for New Zealand job seekers.

We will decide if you can become an endorsed employer. The terms and conditions of the endorsement agreement can vary. We will work with you to determine what these will be.

As an endorsed employer you could receive multi-year endorsement from us. This allows you to bypass our standard Labour Market Test requirements. There is more information about Peak Seasonal Visa Endorsement on the Immigration New Zealand website: