The route people describe as “study, then work, then residence” is three separate visas with three separate sets of rules, and the joins between them are where plans come apart. Two of those three stages moved this year. The residence stage changed on 24 August 2026, and the post-study stage changes on 16 November 2026.

Bottom line up front: the chain works, and studying in New Zealand rather than overseas is now worth a point at the residence end. But every stage has a hard deadline or a once-only rule attached, and the level you study at decides whether the qualification is worth anything for residence at all. Below degree level, it is worth nothing on the points table. And if you are moving as a household, the level you study at also decides whether your partner can work and whether your children go to school for free.

Stage one: the student visa

A Fee Paying Student Visa runs for up to 4 years, costs from NZD $850, and needs an offer of place from an approved provider, tuition covered, and NZD $20,000 a year in living costs. Under a year of study, that is NZD $1,667 a month. School-age study is NZD $17,000 a year.

Work rights are 25 hours a week during the semester and full-time in scheduled breaks. That went up from 20 hours on 3 November 2025 and it is not retrospective: a student holding a 20-hour condition has to apply for a variation of conditions or a new visa to use the extra five (Immigration New Zealand · student visa work rights).

There is one exception to that cap and it is a large one. A master’s by research or a doctoral degree can carry unlimited work rights, with no weekly limit at all, provided the qualification is awarded by a New Zealand tertiary institution (Immigration Operational Manual, U13.15.15). A taught master’s does not get that. Research does.

Twenty-five hours at student wages is not a household income, and if you are coming alone that is the whole of the sum. If you have a partner it is not, because a student visa for a level 9 or 10 degree lets your partner apply for a work visa with fully open conditions. That changes the arithmetic completely, and it is the next section.

So the question to answer before anyone books a flight is not “can we live on 25 hours”. It is which of us enrols, and at what level. Get that pair wrong and the household spends the course on one capped income. Get it right and one adult works full time while the other studies.

If you are moving as a household

This is the part that decides a family’s whole plan, and it turns entirely on what the student enrols in. It is also the part nobody reads until the offer of place is already accepted.

The partner’s work visa

If one partner holds a student visa for a degree at level 9 or 10, a master’s or a doctorate, in any subject, the other partner can apply for a work visa. There is no list to check and no occupation test (Immigration Operational Manual, WF4.1).

A level 7 or 8 qualification can do the same job, but only if it is specified on either the Qualifications Eligible for a Post-Study Work Visa list or the Green List at Appendix 13. In practice that means engineering, construction, surveying, the registered health professions and teaching. A level 7 or 8 qualification in anything else supports no partner at all, however good the course is.

What that visa actually gives:

  • Conditions allowing any work in any occupation and any location. Self-employment is allowed, but the holder cannot employ anyone else.
  • The same period as the student’s visa, so the length of the course sets the length of the partner’s visa.
  • From NZD $1,630, 80% decided within 5 weeks, and the partner needs NZD $4,200 of their own for living costs (Immigration New Zealand · Partner of a Student Work Visa).

Two conditions inside that instruction catch people out.

The list is tested when the partner applies, not when the student enrols. If the qualification is on the Green List in March and off it in September, a September application fails. Appendix 13 was revised twice in March 2026 alone, so on a level 7 or 8 course this is a live risk for the whole length of the degree. A level 9 or 10 degree has no list behind it, which is why it is the safer choice for a family even when a shorter qualification would do the academic job.

Changing course can cost the partner their visa. If the student switches to study that no longer meets WF4.1, the partner stops meeting the requirements and, in the manual’s own words, “may be liable for deportation”. A change of major that feels purely academic is an immigration decision for the other adult in the house.

If none of that applies, the partner can still come on a Partner of a Student Visitor Visa at NZD $341, with no right to work in New Zealand.

The children attach to the working partner, never to the student

This is the rule that decides which of you enrols. A student visa holder cannot support dependent children’s student visas unless they are on a government-approved exchange, enrolled in a PhD at a New Zealand university, or holding a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade scholarship (Operational Manual, U8.25).

Read “PhD” literally. A professional doctorate, an EdD, a DClinPsy, a DMA, is a level 10 qualification and will get the partner a work visa. It is not a Doctor of Philosophy, so it does not bring the children through the studying parent.

For everyone else the route runs through the partner: the student gets the student visa, the partner gets the work visa, and then the children apply as dependent children of the work visa holder (Operational Manual, U8.20). Immigration New Zealand sets that sequence out itself on bringing family on a student visa.

A Dependent Child Student Visa is from NZD $750, covers primary and secondary school only, and needs NZD $17,000 a year or $1,417 a month per child, which can be waived if the working parent’s income covers it.

Free schooling, and the date it stops

Children on those visas are domestic students at state primary and secondary schools, so no international tuition (Operational Manual, U3.35). The limit is worth knowing precisely, because it is a school year rather than a visa date: the Education (Domestic Student: Primary and Secondary Education) Notice 2026 gives that status to the child of a work visa holder “but only until the end of the year in which the work visa expires”.

One more piece of the same puzzle, and it is why a PhD reads differently from everything else on this page: an international PhD student at a New Zealand university pays the domestic tuition fee, under the Education (Domestic Student: Tertiary Education and Vocational Education and Training) Notice 2025. Universities apply a residence condition with it, and research time spent overseas is generally capped at 12 months cumulative. Break the cap and international fees come back.

What it costs to land

Add the funds requirements up for a couple with two school-age children, one studying and one working.

Who Amount
Student, course of 36 weeks or more NZD $20,000 a year (U3.20.30)
Partner, on the work visa NZD $4,200
Each child, on a dependent child student visa NZD $17,000 a year, waivable on the working parent’s income

That is NZD $58,200 before a dollar of tuition. It is my arithmetic from the published requirements rather than a figure Immigration New Zealand quotes, and it is the ceiling rather than the likely number: if the working parent’s income covers the children, their amounts can be waived. The $4,200 is the one almost nobody has budgeted for.

Stage two: the post-study options

Until 16 November 2026 there is one option. From that date there are two, and the second one exists for people the first has always turned away.

The Post Study Work Visa, as it works now

Up to 3 years, from NZD $1,670, and you need NZD $5,000 in living funds (Immigration New Zealand · Post Study Work Visa).

  • A degree at level 7 or higher, studied full-time for at least 30 weeks in New Zealand, gives open work rights. Any job, any employer, anywhere.
  • A master’s or doctorate gets the full 3 years, and the 30 weeks has to sit inside the master’s itself: credit transferred in from a postgraduate diploma does not count towards it. A qualification at level 8 or below gets a visa equal to the time actually spent studying, confirmed by your provider (Immigration New Zealand · staying to work after finishing your study). For a full-time level 8 postgraduate diploma that comes out at 1 year, which is the figure Immigration New Zealand quotes directly (new and updated post-study work visa options). Failing a paper or taking longer does not extend it.
  • If you finish a postgraduate diploma and move straight into a master’s using credits transferred from it, you can still claim the 1 year on the diploma. The master’s is assessed separately and the transferred credits do not count towards its 30 weeks.
  • A non-degree qualification at level 7 or lower only counts if it is on the eligible list, and your job has to relate to what you studied. That restriction is written into your visa conditions.
  • You must apply within 3 months of your student visa expiring. Six months after a doctorate. Twelve months in one narrow case: you finished an eligible qualification, then went straight into a higher one that took less than 30 weeks, so it does not qualify on its own.
  • One per lifetime. There is no second Post Study Work Visa at any level, ever.
  • It supports a partner’s work visa and children as domestic students.

That 30-week line is the hinge of the entire chain. Below it, a degree produces no post-study visa at all.

What those post-study years are actually buying you

This is the part people skip, and it is the reason the post-study visa matters beyond the paycheque. The years you work on it are the years that count towards residence points. Immigration New Zealand prices them like this (Immigration Operational Manual, SR3.25.25):

Skilled work experience in New Zealand Gained within Points
2 years 4 years 3
1 year and 6 months 3 years 2
1 year 2 years 1

That middle column is the part most summaries leave out, and it matters. The experience has to sit inside a window of twice its own length, counted back from the day you lodge the residence application. Old experience expires. Two years of skilled work from five years ago is worth nothing today.

Three points is the ceiling, so two years is as much as this ever pays. Line that up against the post-study visa itself: a level 7 degree or higher, studied full-time for at least 30 weeks, can give up to 3 years of open work rights. That is comfortably enough time to bank the maximum, if the work is the right kind.

The “if” is doing real work in that sentence. Skilled work experience has to be full-time, at 30 hours a week or more, paid at least the SMC wage threshold of NZD $35.00 an hour for an ANZSCO skill level 1 to 3 job, and it has to closely match the job title and description for your occupation in ANZSCO, the classification that grades every job in the system. Hours at a job that does not meet those tests are hours worked, not points earned.

There is one more rule underneath that, and it is the sharpest of them. Your clock stops if your pay ever drops below the threshold it started at. Immigration New Zealand’s instructions say skilled work experience starts being counted when you first earn the required wage, and stops being counted if your income falls below it (Immigration Operational Manual, SR3.20.1). A reduction in hours, a move to a lower-paid role, a contract that pays less than the last one: any of those can quietly end the accrual, and the months after it do not count.

So the practical question at graduation is not “can I find a job”. It is “can I find a job that counts, and can I hold it at that rate”.

What arrives on 16 November 2026

Two changes, both confirmed by Immigration New Zealand (Immigration New Zealand · new and updated post-study work visa options).

A new Short-term Graduate Work Visa, giving 6 months of open work rights. It is for an NZQCF level 5 to 7 qualification studied full-time for at least 24 weeks in New Zealand, that is not an English language, foundation or bridging course, and that does not already qualify for a Post Study Work Visa. You need NZD $5,000, and you apply within 3 months of your student visa expiring.

Read the conditions before treating it as a soft landing. You can hold only one, ever, and it cannot be extended. You cannot support a partner for a work visa or children for a dependent child student visa, only visitor visas. You cannot own a business on it, and any work has to be under an employment agreement or contract for services. It is designed as a six-month runway to an Accredited Employer Work Visa, and that is the whole of its purpose.

Post Study Work Visa eligibility extends to level 7 graduate diplomas, but only if you also hold a bachelor’s degree, from New Zealand or overseas, with no time limit on when it was awarded and no International Qualification Assessment needed. The graduate diploma has to have been studied full-time in New Zealand for its full duration, and cross-crediting or recognition of prior learning disqualifies it. The visa runs for the time you spent on the diploma, capped at 1 year.

Without a bachelor’s behind it, a graduate diploma only earns a Post Study Work Visa if it appears in Appendix 13 of the Immigration Operational Manual, and then you are tied to the occupation named there. If it is not listed, the six-month visa is what is left.

Stage three: the SMC option

The Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa changed on 24 August 2026. It now has three pathways, costs from NZD $6,450, and is closed to anyone over 55 (Immigration New Zealand · Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa).

For a graduate, the points pathway is the relevant one. You need 6 points, claimed from one skill category: your qualification, your New Zealand occupational registration, or your income.

The qualification points, and why studying here is now worth more

This is the table that matters if you are deciding where to study. Every qualification is placed by its equivalent level on the New Zealand Qualifications and Credentials Framework, the NZQCF.

Points Qualification, at its NZQCF equivalent level
6 Level 10 doctoral degree
Level 9 New Zealand master’s degree, plus a bachelor’s degree from any country
Level 9 New Zealand combined master’s and bachelor’s degree
5 Level 9 New Zealand master’s degree
Level 9 overseas master’s degree, plus a bachelor’s degree from any country
Level 9 overseas combined master’s and bachelor’s degree
Level 8 New Zealand honours degree, postgraduate diploma or postgraduate certificate, plus a bachelor’s degree from any country
Level 7 New Zealand bachelor’s degree
4 Level 8 overseas honours degree, postgraduate diploma or postgraduate certificate, plus a bachelor’s degree from any country
Level 7 overseas bachelor’s degree

That is the table as the Immigration Operational Manual sets it out at SR3.25.15. Read down the rows rather than across, because the rule is not really about levels. It is about where you studied and what sits behind the qualification.

A New Zealand qualification is worth one point more than the same qualification earned overseas, at every level except a doctorate, where both score 6. A New Zealand bachelor’s is 5 and an overseas bachelor’s is 4. A New Zealand honours degree, postgraduate diploma or postgraduate certificate is 5, and its overseas equivalent is 4. That gap is the structural reward for studying here.

The 6-point New Zealand master’s carries one extra condition that is not visible in the table. You must have completed at least 30 weeks of full-time study in New Zealand as part of that master’s (SR3.25.15). Study weeks include exam preparation, and exclude holidays, time spent repeating failed components, and time studying a different qualification whose credits were transferred in. So the same 30 weeks that governs your post-study visa also governs whether your master’s is worth 6 points or 5.

There is a second asymmetry that is easy to miss. A New Zealand master’s degree scores 5 on its own, with no bachelor’s behind it. An overseas master’s on its own does not appear on the table at all. Every overseas postgraduate row requires a bachelor’s degree from somewhere. So the same academic history can be worth 5 points or nothing, depending only on which country awarded it.

Three things to read carefully before counting anything:

  • A non-degree qualification at level 7 or below earns no qualification points at all. Not fewer points. None. A level 5 or level 6 diploma may get you a student visa and a short work visa, and it will contribute nothing to this table.
  • Almost every postgraduate row needs a bachelor’s degree behind it. The one exception in the table is the New Zealand master’s at 5 points. Anyone who came up through a vocational route and finished with a postgraduate qualification, without a bachelor’s along the way, should get this checked before building a plan on it.
  • An overseas qualification needs an International Qualification Assessment from NZQA, unless it is on the List of Qualifications Exempt from Assessment. The IQA is what places your qualification on the framework, so it decides which row of that table you are actually on.
  • A vague IQA costs you a point. If the assessment does not confirm your qualification is equivalent to one of the specific New Zealand qualification types in the table, and instead just recognises it at a level, the points drop: a level 10 becomes 5 points instead of 6, a level 9 becomes 4 instead of 5, and a level 8 becomes 3 instead of 4 (SR3.25.15). The wording of the assessment is worth as much as the qualification behind it.

Studying here can also remove the English test

Every SMC applicant has to meet a minimum standard of English, and the usual route is a test: IELTS 6.5, TOEFL iBT 79, PTE Academic 58, B2 First 176, or OET grade C+ across all four skills. From 24 August the instructions also require the test to be sat in person at a test centre. Remote and at-home tests are no longer acceptable, and results must be no more than two years old, stretching to five years if you hold a recognised occupational registration (SR2.10.1).

But a qualification can satisfy the requirement instead of a test. A qualification comparable to a New Zealand level 7 bachelor’s degree, gained in New Zealand through at least two academic years of study here, meets the standard on its own. At level 8 or above, one academic year is enough (SR2.10.1).

Which means a New Zealand degree pays twice. It is worth a point more than the same degree earned overseas, and it can take the English test off your list entirely.

Getting from 5 points to 6

A New Zealand bachelor’s degree is 5 points. You need 6. The gap closes with the skilled work experience points set out earlier, which is where the post-study years come back in.

Which route is quickest depends entirely on what you already hold, and this is where people plan badly.

You already hold What to study in New Zealand Where that leaves you
A bachelor’s degree, from any country Master’s, at least 30 weeks of it full-time here 6 points at graduation, no further work experience to accrue
A bachelor’s degree, from any country Level 8 postgraduate diploma or certificate 5 points, so 1 year of skilled work to reach 6
No degree at all Bachelor’s degree 5 points, so 1 year of skilled work to reach 6

Read that last column carefully, because it is about points and nothing else. Reaching 6 points does not make you eligible for residence. Every row above still needs the same thing at the end: current skilled employment, or an offer of it, with an accredited employer, in a role that meets the ANZSCO skill level and is paid at or above the SMC wage threshold (SR3.25.1). Points get you into the queue. The job is what lets you join it.

So the top row is not “no work required”. It is “no accrued work experience required”. You still have to find a real job with an accredited employer, and until you do, six points are worth exactly nothing.

If you do not hold a degree, a master’s cannot do that for you. A New Zealand master’s without a bachelor’s behind it is worth 5 points, exactly the same as a New Zealand bachelor’s, so you would need the year of work either way. That is why the three-year bachelor’s plus one year of work is the realistic route for someone starting from nothing, and not a shortcut anyone else should copy.

One more caveat on the top row. It holds if you are an employee. If your skilled employment is under a contract for services rather than an employment agreement, you must still complete 1 year of skilled work experience in New Zealand in the prior 2 years, even with 6 points from your qualification (SR3.25.25). Graduates who go straight into contracting often miss that.

One trap sits underneath that arithmetic. The top-up has to come from the same side of the fence. If you are claiming points for your qualification, you can add work experience points, but not registration or income points. You cannot assemble 6 points out of a bit of everything.

So how do you actually apply, step by step

Here is the whole route in order, in plain English.

  1. Study at level 7 or higher, full-time, for at least 30 weeks in New Zealand. This one decision governs everything after it. A level 5 or 6 diploma does not lead here.

  2. Apply for the Post Study Work Visa within 3 months of your student visa expiring. Six months if you did a doctorate. Miss the window and there is no second chance, because you only ever get one of these. On a level 7 degree or higher it gives up to 3 years of open work rights.

  3. Find a job that counts, not just a job. For residence points, the work has to be full-time at 30 hours a week or more, paid at least NZD $35.00 an hour, in an ANZSCO skill level 1 to 3 occupation that closely matches your actual duties. For the SMC itself, the employer also has to be accredited.

  4. Work long enough to close your points gap, if you have one. A New Zealand master’s with a bachelor’s behind it is already 6 points, so there is no gap and no waiting. A New Zealand bachelor’s is 5, so you need 1 year. A level 8 postgraduate diploma or certificate with a bachelor’s behind it is also 5, so 1 year again. Closing the points gap is not the same as being eligible: the job in step 3 is still required either way.

  5. Keep a job or a job offer with an accredited employer when you apply. If your post-study visa runs out before you are ready, an Accredited Employer Work Visa is the usual bridge across the gap.

  6. Submit an expression of interest. You do not send documents at this stage. You declare how you meet the requirements, and if you need an International Qualification Assessment you include its reference number.

  7. Wait to be invited. If your EOI is accepted, Immigration New Zealand invites you to apply. Only then do you lodge the residence application itself, with all the evidence, from NZD $6,450.

  8. If your visa expires while they are deciding, you are normally covered automatically. A Skilled Migrant Category Interim Visa is granted without you applying, starts the day your current visa expires, and lasts 24 months. It is more restricted than most temporary visas, so read its conditions rather than assuming your old ones carry over.

Running underneath all of it, at every stage: you must be 55 or younger on the day you apply, and meet the English, health and character requirements.

The shortest honest version depends on where you are starting from.

Already hold a bachelor’s degree? A New Zealand master’s, at least 30 weeks of it full-time here, gets you to 6 points at graduation. One to two years of study, and then the whole thing rests on one step: a skilled job, or a written offer of one, with an accredited employer at or above the threshold. Get that and you can lodge an expression of interest immediately. That is the fastest route this system offers, and also the most exposed.

No degree at all? A three-year New Zealand bachelor’s, then one year of skilled work on a post-study visa. Roughly four years from landing, if nothing goes sideways and the job counts from day one.

Notice what the fast route does, though. It moves all of the risk onto the job. You arrive at 6 points with nothing accrued, and if the accredited-employer offer at the right pay rate does not appear, the points are worth nothing on their own. The slower route spreads that risk across three years of work rights, and only one of those years has to count.

What I would actually do

The steps above are the mechanics. These are the judgement calls, and they are where I spend most of my time with clients.

Check what you already hold before you enrol in anything. A bachelor’s degree you earned fifteen years ago in another country is doing more work in this system than most people realise. It unlocks every level 8 and level 9 points claim, and from November it unlocks the graduate diploma route as well. Sometimes the right advice is not a new qualification at all, but an assessment of the one already in the drawer.

Count backwards from 55. Study takes years. The post-study visa takes more. The residence application takes months on top. The Skilled Migrant Category closes at 55 and there is no discretion in that number. Anyone starting this in their late forties needs the timeline drawn on paper before they pay a tuition deposit.

Interview the job, not just the employer. Before accepting a role on a post-study visa, check three things: is the employer accredited, is the pay above the threshold, and does the ANZSCO description actually match what you will be doing all day. A job that fails any one of those can be a perfectly good job and still earn you zero points.

Do not let the post-study visa idle. It is a single, timed run at converting study into work that counts. A year spent in hospitality while you look for something in your field is a year that buys nothing towards residence.

Ask whether you would want the qualification anyway. If the answer is yes, the plan has a floor under it. If the qualification only makes sense as a visa tactic, you are betting several years and a lot of money on the rules staying still, and they have not stayed still once in the last three years.

If you want me to look at your own case, send me a few details. I will tell you plainly whether the qualification you are considering actually reaches the other end, and what it would take. This is the student visa side of my practice, and if you are moving as a household, send me the household rather than the course.

Sources