FAQs: Recovery Visa

Recovery Visa is a newly introduced 6-month visa category that sits under the Specific Purpose Work Visas. The candidates come to NZ to work in a ‘specific purpose’ and the intended purpose in this category is directly assisting with the rebuild and recovery from devastation caused by Cyclone Gabrielle.

Roles coming to NZ under this category must support the North Island recovery from Jan and Feb 23 weather events. This includes

• providing emergency response
• immediate clean-up
• assessing risk or loss
• infrastructure, building and housing stabilisation and/or repair (including planning functions)
• work that directly supports the recovery (e.g. producing relevant materials for road rebuild, transport drivers etc).

If successful, this visa will only be granted for 6 months. Employers wanting to recruit migrant workers for longer term roles are encouraged to use the existing Accredited Employer Work Visa. Changes are being considered by INZ to this visa to support faster processing for identified roles that will support the recovery and rebuild.

If your business is keen to look at this option to bring workers in immediately, please contact us.

Here are some quick FAQs from INZ about this new category, kindly shared to their members by NZAMI.

When do these changes come into force? Can people apply for the recovery visa right now?

Yes, they can apply now.

Does the flexibility to change region / location work include both inward and outward flow of workers to a region to temporarily cover for staff who have been affected?

Yes, inward and outward flow are both fine as long as the movement is required as a direct result of extreme weather events.

Will people already in NZ be eligible to change visa in order to do this work e.g. students or visitors, partners or family, who have the necessary skills but are currently precluded from working?

The flexibility is only for work visa holders with conditions that specify their role, region and employer, and where it is required because of circumstances related to the extreme weather events. It does not apply to people who do not have the right to work.

Can onshore people apply for this visa or can only offshore people apply for it? Including, but not limited to, onshore RSE workers?

Both onshore and offshore can apply. However, RSE Limited Visa holders cannot apply for a different kind of visa as they are prohibited from doing so by the Immigration Act. 

Can individuals move around for up to two months without a VOC (as outlined in the stakeholder email) if the movement is not to do with the extreme weather? i.e. can anyone in NZ do this or will there be instruction changes outlining that only people working on the recovery can do this?

No, it is only for situations where the worker needs to work outside their conditions as a direct result of extreme weather events. As above, there are no instructions changes for this (and instructions can’t change the visa conditions of existing visa holders).