Visa work hours in New Zealand: the 25-hour student limit, the 30-hour work visa minimum, and how to count your week

This article describes the rules as Immigration New Zealand publishes them, as at 6 October 2026. It is not immigration advice. Visa rules change, and Immigration New Zealand, or a licensed immigration adviser or lawyer, can tell you how they apply to you.

Student visas: 25 hours a week, and full-time in breaks

Immigration New Zealand says a student visa may allow part-time work of up to 25 hours a week, and full-time work in mid-year breaks and over Christmas and New Year. Whether yours does depends on its conditions, which are on your eVisa or in the visa letter Immigration New Zealand sent you. Work conditions are only given to students aged 16 or older.

• The 25-hour limit. On 3 November 2025 the limit rose from 20 to 25 hours a week, for all student visas granted from that date. If your visa was granted earlier and still says 20 hours, you need a variation of conditions or a new student visa before you can work 25.
• Full-time in breaks. For tertiary students, conditions allow full-time work in scheduled breaks if you study full-time for at least one academic year, on a course worth at least 120 credits with at least two semesters over at least eight months.
• PhD and research masters. There is no limit on hours if you are enrolled in a doctoral degree or a Research Masters programme at a New Zealand tertiary institution, as long as you keep studying full-time.
• Secondary school. Students in years 12 and 13 can work up to 25 hours a week in the school year, and full-time over Christmas and New Year, with written permission from their school and parents or guardians.

Immigration New Zealand also says international students cannot be self-employed: you must work for an employer, under an employment agreement. And a 25-hour condition applies for as long as the visa is valid, including before and after your course. Our guide to working while studying covers the rest of student work, from tax codes to student loans.

Counting your week across two jobs

The limit is on how many hours you work in a week. Immigration New Zealand's instructions describe it as work "for up to 25 hours in any given week". The condition limits your hours in a week, not your hours in each job, so if you have two part-time jobs, add the hours from both.

The wording "in any given week" also means each week stands on its own. A quiet week does not make room for a busy one. If your shifts are uneven, or you are unsure how a week that crosses into a holiday period is counted, ask Immigration New Zealand before you rely on it.

Working more than your conditions allow is a breach of your visa, and that stays true if an employer asked you to stay late or pick up an extra shift. Immigration New Zealand lists breaching visa conditions among the reasons a person may be deported. Employers carry risk too: in August 2025 it announced that a company and its former director had been fined for allowing migrant workers to work outside their visa conditions, and that the company had lost its accreditation. Its message was that visa conditions are not optional.

So the practical rule is to know your total before you accept another shift. That means adding up every job, every week, including the shift you are about to say yes to.

The Accredited Employer Work Visa: at least 30 hours, one employer

The Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) works the other way round. Instead of a maximum, it comes with a minimum. Immigration New Zealand says your employer must offer you at least 30 hours of work a week, and its job check requires the employment agreement to set hours of work of at least 30 each week.

The visa ties you to that job. You may work only in the job, for the employer and in the location stated on your visa, and Immigration New Zealand says you cannot work a second job while on an AEWV. To change your employer, job or location, you must apply to vary your conditions or apply for a Job Change, or apply for a new visa. Your employer must also keep paying you the amount in your job offer, which is listed in your visa conditions.

Immigration New Zealand adds that migrant workers have the same rights as New Zealand workers, and that if your employer is mistreating you, reporting them will not affect your visa. Our guide to getting a job in New Zealand as a migrant covers accreditation and the job check from the job seeker's side.

Working holiday and partner visas in brief

Working holiday visas are for young people from recognised countries, normally aged 18 to 30, or 18 to 35 for a few countries, and generally last up to 12 months. Immigration New Zealand says you can do short-term and seasonal work, but you cannot take a permanent job, and the conditions vary with your country's scheme. Check the details for yours.

A Partner of a Worker Work Visa lets you work while your partner is in New Zealand on an eligible work visa. An open one lets you do any legal work, in any job, anywhere in New Zealand. Some are granted with conditions, and Immigration New Zealand says you can apply to change to an open work visa if your partner meets the requirements. As always, your eVisa says which you have.

A record of every shift, as evidence both ways

A record of the hours you work protects you whichever way your visa runs. On a student visa, it shows each week stayed within your limit across every job. On an AEWV, it shows the weeks you were offered fewer than 30 hours, or paid less than your visa conditions say, which is useful evidence if you raise it with your employer, with Employment New Zealand or with Immigration New Zealand.

Write each shift down on the day: the date, the employer, the start and finish, and the unpaid break. A payslip shows what you were paid, often a week or two late; your own record shows what you worked, as you worked it.

Your Timesheets at jobtracker.co.nz is free for this on every plan. Each place you work gets its own row in a week grid that runs Monday to Sunday, and the total for the week, across every job, sits along the foot. The Immigration New Zealand pages we checked do not say which day a week starts on, so if a run of shifts near your limit crosses a weekend, check how it is counted. Every change to an entry is kept in its history, and the record is yours, not your employer's.

Every shift, on one record