Ōtautahi – New Zealand’s health system now has thousands more health workers thanks to new visa pathways put in place.
A year on since the borders reopened more than 6300 overseas health workers have joined our health workforce through the Accredited Employer Work Visa scheme and the green list straight to residence pathways.
“This includes 2,500 nurses, and more than 2300 workers in the aged care, disabled and personal care sectors.
The evidence is clear that at time of global health worker shortages, New Zealand’s immigration settings are helping to attract more health workers to our shores to bolster our health system.
The green list was created in 2022 to help attract highly skilled workers in nationally significant roles amidst global workforce shortages. There is now a total of 48 health sector roles on the list of which are on the straight to residence pathway.
This includes enrolled nurses, nurse practitioners, dentists and dental technicians, MRI scanning technologists, paramedics, optometrists, pharmacists and counsellors.
Growing the health workforce is a top priority and the visa pathways are part of the work being done to improve healthcare for New Zealanders.
A recent OECD report ranked New Zealand as the number one country in the world for attracting highly skilled workers, which gives New Zealand an advantage in a highly competitive global market.
There are also a further 800 people offshore who have been approved an accredited employer work visa, who are yet to make the move to New Zealand.
The government also created a residence pathway for some care workers under the Accredited Employer Work Visa to gain residence after 24 months.
The new additions to the workforce represent people who have been:
approved an accredited employer work visa or straight to resident visa in healthcare roles from offshore and since arrived in New Zealand
