The government has announced two new work visas for seasonal workers, aimed at helping employers retain experienced staff across multiple seasons, RNZ has reported.
Immigration Minister Erica Stanford said the visas would make it easier to bring back skilled workers and fill short-term roles that are often hard to staff locally.
The Global Workforce Seasonal Visa will allow experienced seasonal workers in roles such as rural contracting, sheep scanning, winemaking, and snow instruction to work in New Zealand for up to three years. Workers will be required to return to their home countries for at least three months each year.
The Peak Seasonal Visa, valid for up to seven months, will cover short-term seasonal roles including meat and seafood processing, calf-rearing, and wool handling, RNZ reported. Applicants must have at least one season of relevant experience and will need to leave the country for at least four months before the visa can be renewed.
For visas exceeding three months, there will be a new requirement for insurance with health coverage.
Stanford stressed the importance of seasonal industries to the economy, noting that these visas would help employers rehire experienced seasonal workers and address labour shortages.
Meat Industry Association chief executive Sirma Karapeeva said meat processors often faced difficulties finding enough staff during peak season, when hundreds of workers were needed. She added that while the industry prioritised employing New Zealanders first, a shortage of local labour often forced them to recruit from overseas.
Business New Zealand chief executive Katherine Rich said the policy offered sectors with high seasonal demand a chance to have consistency in their workforce. She explained that agriculture and tourism operators would no longer have to train new staff from scratch each year, as they would already know the workers’ skills and organisational fit. Rich added that simpler processes and certainty about workforce quality would provide better value for many businesses, and she was confident the changes would not disadvantage local workers because employers still had to prove no New Zealander could fill the role.
Federated Farmers described the move as a significant boost for the agriculture sector. Immigration spokesperson Karl Dean said the ability to bring back staff for three consecutive years would save businesses money, as training workers and familiarising them with processes, health and safety, and local farms was costly.
Applications for both visas will open on 8 December. The existing Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme will continue unchanged. The new visas will replace the interim seasonal Specific Purpose Work Visa, which was introduced in 2024 as a short-term measure to meet workforce needs.