Legal compliance for AEWV accreditation

To get and keep accreditation for the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV), you and key people in your business must comply with immigration and employment law. There are penalties for non-compliance.

Meeting your AEWV accredited employer obligations

We complete checks to confirm Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) employers are meeting their obligations.

Your obligations as an Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) employer

To get and keep your accreditation, you must:

meet the commitments you made during your application to be an accredited employer

comply with immigration, employment and business standards.

How to apply for AEWV employer accreditation

Extra requirements for controlling third party accreditation

You and key people in your business must not have:

employed a migrant who did not have the right visa or visa conditions to work in that role

provided false or misleading information to us

a pattern of immigration breaches in other businesses you, or your key people, have been involved in

been banned from acting as a director

been subject to a stand-down period for breaching minimum employment standards or committing immigration offences

been permanently banned from sponsoring work visas for committing serious immigration offences.

How we check if you are meeting your obligations

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) may complete checks to confirm you are meeting your obligations as an AEWV employer.

We check about 15% of accredited employers each year. A check can occur at any time while you are accredited.

Our checks can be either desk-based or through site visits.

We try to do these checks in a non-intrusive manner where possible. You may not even know that one has taken place.

We select employers from a range of sizes and types. We use selection criteria designed to get a representative sample of New Zealand employers. 

Information we may request

We try to do our checks using public information and information already held by MBIE. We may contact you if we need more information.

We may ask for information including but not limited to:

financial statements to show financial viability

evidence of PAYE payments to migrant employees

evidence of how you paid offshore recruitment agents of your migrant employees

hiring dates of migrant employees

evidence that you provided settlement information to your migrant employees

logs of hours worked by migrant workers

information on key persons involved in your business and their role.

In some cases where we need more information we may do a site visit.

If you are not meeting your employment obligations

We expect employers to take their responsibilities seriously and comply with AEWV conditions.

If we believe you are not meeting your obligations, we will send you a letter outlining our concerns and ask you for your feedback.

We will assess your feedback and decide if any further action is required.

The further action required depends on the significance of our findings.

If the issue is minor we may give suggestions for improvement.

Major issues can result in a stand-down, fines, or a permanent ban from supporting migrants on work visas.

Non-compliance, stand-downs and permanent bans for accredited employers

If you are concerned an employer is not meeting their obligations

Anybody with concerns about employers who are not complying with the law can help us take action.

Non-compliance, stand-downs and permanent bans for accredited employers

There are penalties for Accredited Employers Work Visa (AEWV) employers who do not comply with employment or immigration laws.

Stand-down periods for breaching minimum employment standards

If you breach minimum employment standards you may be stood-down or permanently banned from supporting migrants on work visas.

The Labour Inspectorate maintains a list of employers who are subject to a stand-down for breaches of employment standards and we check this list when you apply for accreditation to hire migrants.

Labour inspectorate — Employment New Zealand

Employers who have breached minimum employment standards — Employment New Zealand

Stand-down periods for Immigration Act offences

There are some offences under the Immigration Act 2009 where the court imposes a fine, but no other penalty. If you are convicted of one of these offences you will be stood-down for a defined amount of time. This means you will not be able to sponsor work visas during that time. 

The offences leading to a stand-down period are:

knowingly providing false or misleading information

aiding and abetting someone to remain in New Zealand unlawfully or breach their visa

resisting or obstructing an Immigration Officer

publishing false or misleading information

allowing someone to work for you when they are not entitled to.

Immigration Act - Part 10 Offences, penalties, and proceedings — New Zealand Legislation

Your stand-down period is determined by the fines you are given in court. If you are fined:

up to NZD $999.99 — you are stood down for 6 months from the time the penalty is imposed

between NZD $1,000 to 9,999.99 — you are stood down for 12 months from the time the penalty is imposed

between NZD $10,000 to 24,999.99 — you are stood down for 18 months from the time the penalty is imposed

NZD $25,000 or more — you are stood down for 24 months from the time the penalty is imposed.

Regaining accreditation

After the stand-down period has ended you must show you have addressed the non-compliance and taken steps to make sure it does not happen again. A business with compliance failures cannot be closed and opened again under a new name to avoid those failures. We still take the compliance issues in the previous business into account.

NOTE

This only applies to stand-downs for Immigration Act offences, not the Labour Inspectorate stand-down list for breaches of employment standards.

Permanent bans for serious immigration offences

You will be permanently banned from sponsoring work visas and sentenced to prison if you are convicted of any of the following Immigration Act offences:

helping someone to remain in New Zealand unlawfully

assisting someone to breach the conditions of their visa, or

resisting or obstructing an immigration officer.

You will also be permanently banned from sponsoring work visas if you are convicted, regardless of the penalty, under the Immigration Act for offences including:

helping someone to remain in New Zealand unlawfully or to breach their visa conditions for your material benefit

falsifying documents, or

knowingly providing false and misleading information.

Immigration Act - Part 10 Offences, penalties, and proceedings — New Zealand Legislation

You will also be permanently banned from sponsoring work visas if you are convicted, regardless of the penalty, under the Crimes Act for:

exploiting migrants or illegal employees

slavery

smuggling or trafficking migrants.

Crimes Act - Sections 98 to 98D — New Zealand Legislation

Call us for help

Our employer line is open between 08:00 and 18:00, Monday to Friday.

Freephone from New Zealand landlines: 0508 967 569