NZ's Rising Visa Costs Are Pushing SMEs to Hire Offshore (2026)

New Zealand's Accredited Employer Work Visa application fee has more than doubled since October 2024, from $750 to $1,540, while the median wage employers must pay to sponsor a migrant has risen 18% since 2023, from $29.66 to $35.00 an hour. Add employer accreditation ($775) and job check fees ($735), and sponsoring a single migrant worker now costs a New Zealand SME more than $3,150 in government fees alone, before wages, advertising or agent costs. That is pushing a growing number of New Zealand businesses toward offshore hiring instead: Pear Tree places vetted Filipino and South African professionals directly with New Zealand SMEs, with no visa process, no accreditation and no wage-threshold test at all.

How much has it started costing to sponsor a migrant worker on a New Zealand work visa?

Considerably more than it did two years ago. Immigration New Zealand's Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) application fee rose from $750 to $1,540 on 1 October 2024, a 105% increase, as part of a wider shift toward full cost-recovery funding for the immigration system. On top of that visa fee, an employer needs standard accreditation ($775 for up to 5 migrants, more for high-volume or triangular employers), a job check for the specific role ($735), and the migrant pays an Immigration Levy ($100). Add those together and the government fees for one hire come to $3,150, before a lawyer or immigration adviser is involved.

Why has the median wage threshold for work visas gone up so much?

Because it is designed to rise with it, and it has been rising fast. The median wage figure that sets the minimum pay rate for most AEWV roles has climbed from $29.66 an hour in February 2023 to $35.00 an hour in March 2026, an 18% increase in three years, recalculated annually from Stats NZ's Quarterly Employment Survey. At $35.00 an hour, a full-time role must pay at least $72,800 a year to qualify for standard sponsorship. Lower-skilled roles (ANZSCO skill level 4 and 5) need 1.5 times the median wage unless covered by a sector agreement, which works out to $52.50 an hour, or $109,200 a year, a bar that prices most SME admin, support and entry-level roles out of visa sponsorship altogether.

How does the cost of visa sponsorship compare to hiring offshore instead?

There is no equivalent list of fees for offshore hiring, and that gap is the whole point.

Sponsoring one migrant worker onshore costs a New Zealand SME at least $3,150 in accreditation, job check, visa and levy fees in year one, before the wage floor is even factored in. A Pear Tree offshore hire has none of these costs: no accreditation, no job check, no visa application, no median wage test, because the professional works remotely from their own country rather than relocating to New Zealand. The only Pear Tree-side costs are the offshore professional's monthly rate, a one-time placement fee, and a flat $400 monthly management fee.

Does offshore hiring cost less than a locally employed New Zealander too?

Yes, independent of the visa question entirely.

A locally employed Administrative/Support role on a $55,000 salary costs a New Zealand company $63,035 a year once 3.5% KiwiSaver employer contributions, ACC work levies and desk space are added. Across three years, including first-year recruitment costs, that comes to $200,205. The equivalent Pear Tree offshore hire, at NZ$1,525 a month plus the NZ$400 monthly management fee and software seats, totals $72,900 over the same three years: a saving of $127,305, or 63.6%. That is the baseline saving before a business has even considered what it would have cost to sponsor the local role's overseas equivalent on a work visa instead.

What roles are NZ SMEs shifting to offshore instead of visa sponsorship?

Mostly the roles that no longer clear the wage bar for sponsorship in the first place. Admin and back-office support, bookkeeping and data entry, customer service, and junior-to-mid marketing and CRM roles typically pay $50,000 to $75,000 in New Zealand, at or below the $72,800 standard threshold and well under the $109,200 lower-skilled threshold. Rather than restructure a role's pay just to make it visa-eligible, or take on the accreditation and job check process for a role that was never going to justify it, SMEs are increasingly filling that gap with an offshore hire instead, at a fraction of the local cost and with no immigration process at all.

How does Pear Tree's hiring process work for NZ SMEs?

Pear Tree screens 200 to 400 applicants per role and shortlists 3 to 5 candidates through a six-step process: tailored talent search, initial candidate review, custom skill evaluation, practical skill test, personal candidate assessment, and final validation and hire. Onboarding, including VPN, two-factor authentication and compliant cloud workflow setup, takes 1 to 2 weeks, considerably faster than an AEWV job check and visa application, which can take weeks to months even before the migrant relocates.

Every placement carries a six-month replacement guarantee, and Pear Tree's talent retention rate sits at 90%, against an industry average of around 60%.

The bottom line for New Zealand SMEs

Rising visa costs are not a reason to stop hiring the skills a business needs. They are a reason to look at where those skills can come from without the accreditation fee, the job check, the doubled visa charge and a wage floor that keeps climbing every year. Pear Tree, with a New Zealand base in Auckland and Hawke's Bay alongside offices in Sydney, Cebu, Manila and Cape Town, has placed talent with 750+ Australian and New Zealand businesses on a direct-hire model: one placement fee, full transparency on what the offshore professional earns, and no visa process to manage.

About the author

Matt (Matthew Lyne) is Country Manager - New Zealand at Pear Tree, a direct offshore talent placement company helping Kiwi businesses hire world-class Filipino and South African professionals, without the agency markup. Based in New Zealand, he works with New Zealand SMEs to scale their teams cost-effectively through Pear Tree's transparent, direct-hire model. With offices in Auckland, Hawke's Bay, Cebu, Manila, Cape Town and Sydney, Pear Tree has placed talent with 750+ companies and maintains a 90% retention rate.