14 September 2010

New Zealand Working Holiday Visa changes for Chinese nationals

Immigration New Zealand has announced changes to some of the requirements for the New Zealand Working Holiday scheme for Chinese nationals.

New Zealand Working Holiday Visa

Changes to some of the requirements for a New Zealand Working Holiday Visa will come into effect on 1 October 2010.

The New Zealand Working Holiday Visa changes will come into effect on 1 October 2010.

The new requirements for Chinese applicants include providing a senior high school qualification (gao zhong xue li) verified by the China Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Development Centre (CDGDC), and a proven proficiency in English with a certificate from the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), showing an achievement of an average level of 5.5 over the four components of the test.

The IELTS certificate is now the only means of proving proficiency in English under the new Working Holiday Visa rules.

The verification from the CDGDC and the IELTS certificate must be provided with all the other documentation requested by the New Zealand Immigration branch processing the visa application.

All other requirements for Chinese nationals under the New Zealand Working Holiday Visa scheme remain unchanged.

The New Zealand Visa Bureau is an independent consulting company specialising in helping people with their New Zealand Visa applications to the New Zealand Embassy.