Relocation and settlement help
Getting the visa is the part everyone worries about. Landing is the part that actually goes wrong: no IRD number so your first pay is taxed at the wrong rate, no bank account because you have no address, no address because you have no bank account, and a school you cannot enrol in because of where you signed the lease. This is the order to do all of it in, with the document checklists, for $79.
The ten things in the pack
Each one has the same shape: what the problem actually is, the steps in order, the documents to have ready, and a link to the official New Zealand government page it comes from.
01 IRD number
Without one you are taxed at the no-notification rate on every dollar you earn.
- Which application route applies to you as a new arrival, and the order to do it in
- The documents to have ready before you start
- A checklist for giving your IRD number to your employer, bank and KiwiSaver provider
- Links to every official Inland Revenue page, so you can check each step yourself
02 Bank account
Most landlords and employers want an account before you have an address or an IRD number.
- What identity documents New Zealand banks ask for under the anti-money-laundering rules
- Which banks let you open an account from overseas before you arrive, and what that involves
- The order that avoids the circular wait of address-before-account-before-address
- A one-page document checklist to take into a branch
03 Renting and tenancy
You have no New Zealand rental history, no local references and a bond to find.
- The rules that protect you: maximum bond, where bond must be lodged, rent in advance limits, notice periods
- What to put in a rental application when you have no New Zealand history
- A property inspection checklist, including insulation and heating standards
- What to do, and who to go to, when something goes wrong with a tenancy
04 School enrolment and zoning
Where you sign a lease decides which schools your children can enrol at.
- How enrolment schemes and home zones work, and how to check a zone before you sign a lease
- The official school-zone lookup, and how to read a school's own enrolment scheme
- Enrolment paperwork, school year dates, and what schools ask new arrivals for
- Early childhood education and the options for younger children
05 Enrolling with a GP
Enrolment, not just registration, is what makes appointments affordable — and waiting lists are long.
- Who is eligible for publicly funded health services and who is not
- What enrolling with a practice does to what you pay per visit
- How to find a practice taking new patients in the area you are moving to
- What to bring, and what to do about prescriptions and repeat medication from overseas
06 Converting your driver licence
There is a hard deadline on driving here with an overseas licence, and missing it is expensive.
- How long you may drive on an overseas licence, and what happens after
- Which countries' licences convert without a practical test, and which do not
- The conversion steps, the documents, the published fees and where to book
- Translation requirements for a licence not in English
07 Shipping and customs
The concession on household effects is real, and it is lost by filling a form in wrong.
- The customs concession for a new migrant's personal and household effects, and its conditions
- The declaration form and the inventory customs expects with it
- What biosecurity stops at the border — outdoor gear, timber, food, plants and used machinery
- Sea freight versus air freight versus buying here, with the questions to ask a shipper
08 Bringing pets
Cats and dogs take months of preparation, and the sequence of tests cannot be compressed.
- Which countries pets may come from, and the import health standard that applies
- The timeline working backwards from your arrival date
- Quarantine on arrival, and what to ask a pet transport agent
- What it realistically costs, and which costs are unavoidable
09 Utilities and connections
Power, internet and a mobile number all want an address, an account and an ID you may not have yet.
- Connecting power and gas, including what a new customer is asked for
- Broadband: what is available at an address, and how long installation takes
- Mobile plans and porting a number from overseas
- Rubbish, recycling and council rates — what is the tenant's job and what is the landlord's
10 First-week orientation checklist
Everything above has an order, and doing it in the wrong one costs weeks.
- A day-by-day first-week checklist, sequenced so nothing blocks anything else
- A week-by-week first-month plan
- The documents to carry with you on the plane rather than in the container
- What can wait, which is more than people expect
What is not in it, and never will be
- Any advice about which visa to apply for, or whether you qualify for one
- Any review, check or comment on a visa application, a decision or your eligibility
- Any dealing with Immigration New Zealand on your behalf
- Any assessment of your own immigration situation, however it is asked
- Any effect whatsoever on an immigration decision — buying this changes nothing about your application
- Legal, tax, financial or medical advice of any kind
This list is not fine print — it is the reason the service can exist at all. If you need any of the above, the people who can lawfully help you are on the Immigration Advisers Authority register, and here is how to check a licence.
How the price was set
$79 for the pack and $189 for a session are proposed prices, benchmarked against what relocation and destination-services firms publish. They have not yet been tested against paying customers. The comparisons are below so you can judge them yourself.
| Seller | What you get | Published price |
|---|---|---|
| Relocations International (Auckland and Wellington) checked 2026-09-16 | Welcome Pack: a 40-page guide to living and working in New Zealand, a city guide, a cost-of-living and property guide, and a satchel of maps. The only published price we could find from a New Zealand relocation firm. | NZ$250 |
| The NZ Dream checked 2026-09-16 | “First 90 Days in New Zealand” digital guide: IRD number and tax setup, opening a bank account, converting a driver licence, phone, internet and utilities. The closest match to our pack that we could find at a published price. | US$47 (about NZ$81) |
| Lemonaide (New Zealand) checked 2026-09-16 | A 45-minute video consultation about moving to New Zealand — process, job search and relocation questions — with a checklist afterwards. The closest New Zealand comparison for the session tier. | NZ$200 for 45 minutes |
| Expat Teacher's Lounge checked 2026-09-16 | A 60-minute relocation strategy video session with a written plan afterwards. | US$97 (about NZ$168) |
| Relocate Australia checked 2026-09-16 | Destination services beyond a package, charged by the hour. The nearest published hourly rate in this market — no New Zealand firm publishes one. | A$100 + GST an hour (about NZ$124) |
| Immigration New Zealand checked 2026-09-16 | NZ Ready, INZ's own free move-planning tool. Worth knowing about before you buy anything from anybody, including us. | Free |
The pack at $79 sits on the only close scope-match we could find at a published price — The NZ Dream's “First 90 Days in New Zealand” at US$47, about NZ$81 — and at under a third of the NZ$250 a New Zealand relocation firm charges for its serviced welcome pack. Below about $50 it would be competing with genuinely free checklists, including Immigration New Zealand's own NZ Ready tool, which is linked above.
The session at $189 for 60 minutes sits just under Lemonaide's NZ$200 for 45 minutes, which is the closest New Zealand comparison we could find, and above the US$97 an American operator charges for the same hour. It is deliberately below what licensed immigration advisers publish for an hour of their time — NZ$250 to NZ$315 at the firms that publish rates — because this is not that, and the price should not suggest it is.
Both were benchmarked against small operators rather than a settled market, so treat them as launch prices that have not yet been tested against paying customers. If they turn out to be wrong, they will change, and this page will say so.
Questions
Is this immigration advice?
No, and it must not be. Section 7(1)(b)(iii) of the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007 excludes settlement services from the definition of immigration advice, and settlement services is exactly and only what this is. We will not review your visa, comment on your eligibility, recommend a visa, or deal with Immigration New Zealand for you — not as part of this, not as a favour, not at any price. See why this site is not immigration advice.
Will this improve my chances of getting a visa?
No. It has no effect on any immigration application whatsoever. Anybody who tells you a relocation service improves a visa outcome is either confused or selling you something they should not be. If you need help with a visa, you need a licensed immigration adviser or a New Zealand lawyer.
I don't have a visa yet. Can I still buy it?
You can, but think about whether you should. The pack is written for the period between a decision and your first month here, and most of it cannot be acted on before you have one. If you are still deciding whether to apply, read the free visa pages and the free settling-in guide instead — they cost nothing.
Why should I pay for this when the information is on government websites?
Because it is on about nine different government websites, in no particular order, written for people who already live here. What you are paying for is the sequence, the document checklists, and somebody having already worked out which step blocks which. Every link in the pack goes to the official page, so you can check any of it yourself — and if you would rather do the assembling, the free settling-in guide gives you the map.
What happens after I pay?
Your pack is emailed to you within one working day, as a PDF and as a web version you can work through and tick off. If it is not what this page described, tell us within 14 days and we refund it in full.
How was the price set?
Against published prices for comparable relocation and destination services, listed on this page with their sources. The price is proposed rather than proven — it has not yet been tested against a market of paying customers, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise.
Buy the pack
$79 one-off, NZD
A digital relocation and settlement pack: the ten things you have to arrange when you move to New Zealand, in the order that works, with document checklists and links to every official source.
- All ten settlement areas, sequenced so nothing blocks anything else
- Document checklists you can take into a bank, a school or a licensing agent
- Every step linked to the official New Zealand government page it came from
- Free updates for 12 months when a rule or a fee changes
One-to-one settlement session — $189
A 60-minute video call to work through your own settling-in plan — the order to do things in, what to arrange before you fly, and what can wait. Includes the relocation pack. Not open yet: join the list above and nothing is charged until a time can be offered.
Not ready to buy anything?
The free settling-in guide covers the same ten areas, with the official sources, and costs nothing. The pack is the sequence and the checklists on top of it.
Read the free settling-in guide