Why this site is not immigration advice

New Zealand regulates immigration advice more tightly than most countries do. It is worth being exact about which side of the line this site sits on, because the line is drawn in a statute and the penalty for crossing it is serious.

What the Act actually says

The Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007 makes it an offence to provide immigration advice without a licence. It then defines immigration advice very broadly — and carves three things out of it. Section 7(1) reads, in the relevant part:

immigration advice means using, or purporting to use, knowledge of or experience in immigration to advise, direct, assist, or represent another person in regard to an immigration matter relating to New Zealand, whether directly or indirectly and whether or not for gain or reward; but does not include —

(i) providing information that is publicly available, or that is prepared or made available by the Department:

(ii) directing a person to the Minister or the Department, or to an immigration officer or a refugee and protection officer …, or to a list of licensed immigration advisers:

(iii) carrying out clerical work, translation or interpreting services, or settlement services …

Where each half of this site sits

The free half lives in (i) and (ii). Every visa page, every figure in every tool and every guide is information the Department — Immigration New Zealand — has published, restated with the source URL and the date we read it. Where INZ publishes nothing, we publish nothing: you will see gaps in the tables rather than estimates. Where a question is about your own case, every page points you at INZ or at the licensed adviser register, which is what (ii) contemplates.

The paid half lives in (iii): settlement services.The relocation pack is about living here — an IRD number, a bank account, a tenancy, a school zone, a GP, a driver licence, shipping, pets, power and internet. It is sold to people who already hold a visa or already have a decision. We will not bundle visa help into it, we will not comment on your visa or your eligibility as part of it, and it cannot improve anybody’s chance of getting a visa. If you ask us a visa question inside it, the answer will be a link to INZ and to the IAA register.

Rules we hold ourselves to

• Every figure comes from an Immigration New Zealand page, cited with the source URL and the date checked.
• If a source will not load, the claim comes off the page rather than being written from memory.
• No page assesses an individual’s situation, recommends a visa, or reviews an application.
• No adviser is listed, ranked, rated or recommended here, and no referral fee is taken from anyone.
• Immigration rules change. If this site and the INZ page disagree, the INZ page is right — tell us and we will fix it.

Who can advise you

A licensed immigration adviser, or a New Zealand lawyer holding a current practising certificate (section 11 of the Act exempts lawyers and their employees). Immigration New Zealand itself can also tell you about your own application. Nobody else may, no matter how confident they sound.

Search the IAA licensed adviser registerGo to immigration.govt.nz

Found something wrong?

Tell us and we will check it against the source the same way we wrote it. Use the corrections form. Corrections are free and we would rather have them than not.