Basic information

New Zealand in quick overview

Sub pages:

New Zealand in 5 minutes

1. NEW ZEALAND WORKING HOLIDAY VISA
There is an on-line application for visa on New Zealand Immigration Office website: https://www.immigration.govt.nz/

Conditions for obtaining a visa varies by country where you have citizenship. Check the website and go through all information you can get from there.

All information about visas:

2. MONEY
One of the conditions of entry is to have 4200NZD available. There is about 99,99% chance nobody will check on your money. But if so, you should prove it by bank statement, credit card limit or so. Don´t forget that this amount is reasonable to have. To live in New Zealand is not really cheap, you might buy a car upon arrival, you might be looking for a job for weeks. Everything costs a lot of money there, so if you want to avoid unnecessary stress, just have this money available.

3. JOB
It depends on you which way will you choose. If you want to find a long-term job or just to travel and make some money during seasonal works.
For long-term jobs check www.seek.co.nz.
For farms etc. check for example https://nzworker.com/

4. SALARY
Most of seasonal jobs are paid by minimum wage + 8% Holiday Pay. Holiday pay is an amount which you get instead of your vacation days. Holiday pay might be paid with every single salary or once at the end of the job. Wages are paid usually weekly or fortnightly. 
You can get higher wage by doing qualified jobs and also by working in hospitality in tourist regions.
Minimum wage is being raised every year by 0,5NZD. Actual minimum wage here.

5. TAXES
Taxes are deducted from every single salary. Employer usually deducts about 17,5%. Earnings up to 14 thousands dollars are taxed by 10,5%. That´s why it is good to ask for tax return when your stay finish or at the end of tax year (tax year is from April to March). Your tax return might be up to a thousand dollars, depending on your salaries and taxes deducted.
It is important to check if your employer is paying your taxes. When you get your IRD number, you get access to the IRD on-line system, where you can see and check all your earnings and taxes.

6. FLIGHT TICKETS
Prices for flight tickets to New Zealand can vary in huge amounts. Check following websites:

7. INSURANCE

Check our site INSURANCE to get detailed information about travel insurance and car insurance.

8. IRD 

IRD us tax number which you need to be able to work and being taxed by common tax (you can work without IRD number, but the tax is unbelievable then)

How to get your IRD number and all you need to get. 

9. BANK ACCOUNT

You need an active New Zealand bank account to get your IRD number. Check our page BANK ACCOUNT to see how you can open your account from overseas before you come to New Zealand.

10. CAR

There are car fairs in every bigger city where you can easily buy a car. Buying a car is as simple as it can be. You just fill in a form at post office, the owner fills in his one and in couple days you get a confirmation from New Zealand Transport Agency that you are the new owner. Don´t expect any written contract, this is how it works in New Zealand.
The cars you are buying are usually quite old with about 200-300 thousands kilometres and can be wrecks. There is always a risk your engine will blow up after couple kilometres. Even if the seller will promise you engine guarantee for 7 days you probably won´t see him again if any problem appears. Car is always uncertain investment. On the other hand the prices of those cars are about 3 weeks salary of 2 people, so you will survive even if you write your car completely off.
Think about buying a little bit newer car for more money, the car might be your home for a quite long time.

10a. CAR INSURANCE
Check detail information on our page CAR INSURANCE.

11. MONEY TRANSFERS
Wired transfers are expensive. After you get to New Zealand you can use your credit card or withdraw money from ATM. As soon as you activate your bank account, you can transfer money through TRANSFERWISE which is fast, safe and cheap. You can actually transfer your money even before activation your account, so you can have your money ready for you as soon as you get to New Zealand.

You can read more about MONEY TRANSFERS here.

Dlouhodobé cestovní pojištění nejen na Nový Zéland najdete na webu VisitKiwi.cz.