If you trained overseas and you are thinking about working as a nurse in New Zealand, the single most useful thing to understand is the order of operations. You register first, you apply for a visa second, and you look for a job third. Get that order wrong and you can lose months.
This guide sets out the pathway as it works after the 1 July 2024 rule change, with the fees that applied as of August 2026. Rules and prices change, so treat every figure here as a starting point and confirm it with the Nursing Council of New Zealand before you pay for anything.
The short answer: register, then visa, then job
Three things have to line up before you can start work as a nurse in NZ.
- Registration. You have to become registered as a nurse by the Nursing Council of New Zealand (NCNZ) and hold a valid Annual Practising Certificate (APC). You cannot legally practise without one.
- A visa. Immigration New Zealand (INZ) states that for occupations requiring registration you have to obtain your New Zealand registration before you apply for a work visa, and it names the Nursing Council specifically.
- A job offer. For the residence route described below, the offer has to come from an employer INZ has accredited.
One clarification before we go further: this guide is about nurses. If you want to work as a midwife in New Zealand, the Nursing Council is not your regulator — midwifery is a separate register held by the Midwifery Council of New Zealand, and the process below does not apply to you. The only overlap is pay: the collective agreement covered later also includes some midwives.
The registration pathway for international nurses: seven steps
The most common mistake is assuming you can apply to the Nursing Council directly. You cannot. Since 1 July 2024, an internationally qualified nurse (IQN) has to go through TruMerit for credential verification first. TruMerit is the organisation formerly called CGFNS, and you will still see cgfns.org links and CGFNS account names on its site. The one exception is nurses already registered in Australia, who can register in New Zealand directly under Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition (TTMR).
- Create an account with TruMerit and order the CVS-NCNZ credentials verification service.
- Submit your identity, education, license, employment and English documents.
- TruMerit issues a verification report. You review it and authorise its release.
- NCNZ emails you an invitation to make your application for registration.
- NCNZ assesses you, runs an international criminal history check, and you complete the "Welcome to Aotearoa New Zealand" courses.
- If required, you sit the competence assessment.
- You are granted registration in New Zealand and issued your APC.
Do not send documents to NCNZ yourself. TruMerit sends verified documents to the Council directly, and NCNZ does not accept documents submitted by the applicant. Sending your own paperwork does not speed anything up — it simply will not be used.
You can track progress in two places: the MyIQN portal on the NCNZ side, and the Applicant Portal on the TruMerit side. You may withdraw at any point, but neither organisation refunds fees.
Two free online courses on culturally safe nursing practice in New Zealand
Overseas nurses must complete two free online courses before registration: "Foundations in Cultural Competency" and "Module 1 | Ngā Paerewa Te Tiriti o Waitangi". Module 2 is not required. Both are delivered on the Ko Awatea LEARN platform, and both deal with cultural safety rather than clinical skills.
A small administrative trap catches a lot of people here: if you do not enter your IQN number in the registration field on Ko Awatea LEARN, your account can be rejected.
What NCNZ registration costs (as of August 2026)
These were the published fees as of August 2026, quoted in the currency each body charges in — USD for TruMerit, NZD for the Council and the exams, AUD for the criminal history check.
| Item | Fee |
|---|---|
| TruMerit CVS-NCNZ credentials verification | USD 380 |
| NCNZ application fee (overseas qualified applicants) | NZD 485 |
| Registration via TTMR for nurses registered in Australia | NZD 340 |
| Annual Practising Certificate, 12 months (includes the NZD 10 disciplinary levy and GST) | NZD 130 (9 months NZD 97.50 / 6 months NZD 65 / 3 months NZD 32.50) |
| International criminal history check (Fit2Work) | AUD 155 per country |
| Document translation through TruMerit | USD 85 per page |
| Appeal against a TruMerit report | USD 500 (refunded if the appeal succeeds) |
| Theory exam, Part A and Part B (Pearson VUE) | NZD 140 (resit Part A NZD 32 / Part B NZD 108) |
| Two-day orientation for the clinical competence assessment | NZD 500 |
| OSCE | NZD 3,000 (a resit is also NZD 3,000) |
Two things to note. First, NCNZ does not publish a combined total for the pathway, so be sceptical of any site that gives you one — the honest version is "add up the lines above that apply to you". Second, if you have already lived in New Zealand for more than six months, your criminal history check goes through the NZ Ministry of Justice instead of Fit2Work.
English language requirements for overseas nurses
Two tests are accepted. The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Academic module requires 7.0 or above in reading, listening and speaking, and 6.5 or above in writing. The Occupational English Test (OET) requires 350 or above in reading, listening and speaking, and 300 or above in writing.
The rules around how you reach those scores matter as much as the scores themselves:
- You can combine results from more than one sitting, but every requirement has to be met within 12 months of your first sitting, and all sittings have to fall within 3 years of your NCNZ application.
- At-home online tests are not accepted. Computer-based testing at an approved test centre is fine, including OET on computer with the speaking component delivered online.
- PTE is not accepted at all. If you already hold a PTE result, it will not help you here.
Who is exempt from the English test
NCNZ can, at its discretion, waive the test on two routes. The first is education: your nursing education was taught and examined in English in the United Kingdom, Singapore, Ireland, Canada or the USA. The second is registration: you hold a current nursing license in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada or the USA, where an English test was itself a condition of that license.
If your country is not on either list — and most are not, including the Philippines, India and Japan — you will need an IELTS Academic or OET result, so budget time for it. Note also that asking NCNZ to consider an alternative way of proving your English language ability can lengthen your assessment, and if the request is declined you still have to sit the test.
The competence assessment: theory exam and OSCE
The competence assessment has two parts, and they are assessed separately.
Part one: the theory exam
This is a multiple-choice exam sat at a Pearson VUE test centre, and you can sit it in your own country or in New Zealand. It has two papers: Part A: Medication Safety and Part B: Nursing Knowledge. You sit both the first time. You get a maximum of 3 attempts, and you only resit the paper you failed.
Part two: the clinical competence assessment and OSCE
The clinical half is a two-day orientation and preparation course followed by a three-hour Objective Structured Clinical Examination. Both are held in person at the Nurse Maude Simulation & Assessment Centre in Christchurch — so coming to New Zealand is unavoidable if this applies to you.
The OSCE runs as timed stations: 10 stations for an RN applicant, 8 for an EN applicant. Each station lasts 12 minutes, made up of 2 minutes reading, 8 minutes on the scenario and 2 minutes to move. As with the theory exam, you get a maximum of 3 attempts.
Who has to sit it
Nurses will be required to complete the competence assessment in most cases: every EN applicant sits it, and some RN applicants do. Nurses educated in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Ontario, British Columbia, Singapore or the USA can be exempted from the competence assessment after NCNZ reviews their file.
If you were educated anywhere else, NCNZ's own self-assessment tool indicates that an RN holding a degree-level qualification from outside those six jurisdictions sits both the theory exam and the OSCE. In plain terms: unless you are on that list, plan on the full competence assessment.
The good news is that NCNZ publishes free preparation material — a theory exam handbook, sample questions for RN and EN candidates, a clinical competence assessment handbook, sample OSCE scenarios and preparation tips. Use them. They are the only officially sanctioned guide to the nursing knowledge actually being tested.
Nursing qualifications: do you need a Bachelor of Nursing degree?
For the RN scope of practice, yes in substance: your nursing education that led to registration overseas has to be a bachelor's degree in nursing, an equivalent, or a master's degree in nursing. For the EN scope, the benchmark is a Diploma in Enrolled Nursing or a comparable qualification.
Here is the part that no honest guide can shortcut. Verified credentials are compared with New Zealand nursing qualifications individually. There is no blanket country-by-country approval list, and NCNZ does not publish rulings on whether a particular country's three-year or four-year nursing program counts as degree-equivalent. Anyone who tells you your specific diploma is or is not accepted is guessing — the assessment happens on your file.
What NCNZ does say is useful: if your credential is not judged equivalent to the New Zealand bachelor's degree, registration as an RN will be difficult, but you may still be able to register as an enrolled nurse. That is a real pathway, not a consolation prize, and it is also a Green List occupation.
Nursing experience: the 1,800-hour rule
To be invited to apply, you have to declare at least 1,800 hours of post-registration practice to TruMerit. NCNZ advises you to reach 1,800 hours before approaching TruMerit at all. If you have done no practice since you first registered, you cannot apply.
You can order the CVS-NCNZ before you reach 1,800 hours, but your report will not be released to NCNZ until you get there — and the order expires 12 months after purchase. Nurses may be asked for more information if their practice is not within the last 10 years.
Keeping your APC after you register
Registration and practice are two different things, and the APC is what connects them. To renew, you declare 450 hours of practice (60 full-time days) in the last 36 months, 60 hours of professional development in the last 36 months, and that you meet the competence standards.
Below 450 hours, or with a gap of 3 to 5 years since you last practised, you may be issued a conditional APC. A gap of more than 5 years puts you on a return-to-practice route. Certification audits are currently paused pending a strategic review, but the requirements still have to be met when you make the declaration. Your APC expiry is set by the quarter your birthday falls in — 31 March, 30 June, 30 September or 31 December.
Visas: why nurses get Straight to Residence
New Zealand offers something unusual to nurses. Every registered nurse ANZSCO code, plus enrolled nurse (411411), sits in Tier 1 of the Green List. The listed requirement is registration with the Nursing Council, and the listed qualification is a Bachelor of Nursing. Codes include 254411 Nurse Practitioner, 254412 Aged Care, 254415 Critical Care and Emergency, 254422 Mental Health and 254424 Surgical.
Tier 1 means the Straight to Residence Visa: you can apply for residence immediately, rather than working for 24 months first as Tier 2 occupations require. To qualify you have to:
- be 55 or under at the time you apply;
- hold full-time employment or a job offer in a Tier 1 role with an accredited employer;
- meet the requirements of the Green List entry for qualification, registration and pay.
Where no occupation-specific wage is set, the threshold is the general median of NZD 35.00 per hour (the 2025 median wage). No separate nurse-specific Green List wage is published, so be wary of articles that quote one.
And to repeat the point that trips people up: registration comes before the visa, not after. Your visa application depends on holding it already.
Pay for nurses in New Zealand
NZ nursing pay in the public system is set by collective agreement rather than negotiated individually. The Health NZ / New Zealand Nurses Organisation agreement was settled on 15 May 2026 and ratified by members — roughly 35,000 nurses, healthcare assistants and some midwives are covered. It runs 20 months, with 2.5% in year one and 2.0% in year two, plus a lump sum of NZD 1,300 for designated senior nurses and NZD 1,000 for everyone else.
Base salaries for a registered nurse, effective 2 March 2026 and then 2 March 2027:
| Step | From 2 March 2026 | From 2 March 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Step 1 (new graduate) | NZD 77,667 | NZD 79,221 |
| Step 2 | NZD 83,725 | NZD 85,400 |
| Step 3 | NZD 88,682 | NZD 90,456 |
| Step 4 | NZD 93,458 | NZD 95,328 |
| Step 5 | NZD 103,370 | NZD 105,438 |
| Step 6 | NZD 106,344 | NZD 108,471 |
| Step 7 | NZD 109,407 | NZD 111,596 |
Enrolled nurses, obstetric nurses and Karitane nurses run from NZD 71,682 at Step 1 to NZD 87,433 at Step 5 from 2 March 2026. Designated senior nurses sit on Grade 1 at NZD 116,876 up to Grade 6 at NZD 166,872, and nurse practitioners on Grade 6 range from NZD 140,235 to NZD 166,872. Allowances include a professional development allowance for nurse practitioners rising from NZD 5,000 to NZD 6,000 a year, now bankable over 3 years instead of 2, and a shift coordinator allowance of NZD 24 per shift.
We deliberately do not quote "average salary" figures from third-party sites. The scale above is the published agreement; the averages you see elsewhere are not.
Finding nursing work in New Zealand
Kiwi Health Jobs is the official recruitment site for Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora, and it is the first place to look. The NCNZ pages for international nurses include a "Finding employment in health" section that links out to relocation information and to the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO).
One check to run before you accept anything: because the Green List residence route requires an accredited employer, confirm the employer holds INZ accreditation before you sign. A great job with a non-accredited employer does not get you the visa you were planning on.
On demand for nurses, we will stick to what is officially published rather than guessing. Nursing occupations are Tier 1 on the Green List, and Health NZ committed to offering employment to up to 1,800 registered nurse graduates, at an average of 0.8 FTE, in the year from 1 July 2025. We do not quote vacancy counts or the number of internationally qualified nurses arriving each year, because we could not verify those against an official source.
How long the nursing registration process takes
Only TruMerit publishes target timeframes, and they come in three blocks of roughly 30 days: about 30 days for TruMerit to verify your documents and produce the report once it has everything, then 30 days for you to review the report and authorise its release, then 30 days for you to lodge your NCNZ application after the report is received.
Your CVS-NCNZ order expires 12 months after purchase. If it lapses, you can reactivate it once, provided you order the reactivation within 12 months of expiry.
Beyond that, be straightforward with yourself: NCNZ does not publish a standard processing time to full registration — it says only that each case differs. Any blog promising you a specific number of months is inventing it.
Pitfalls that delay the nursing registration process
Most delays are documentation problems, and they are avoidable. Before applying for registration, work through this list.
- Identity documents. Send notarised colour copies of a currently valid passport plus one other ID, directly to TruMerit. Names cannot be abbreviated, and the ID has to be valid on the date you apply to TruMerit.
- Every former name. If any name appears differently across your documents, you need notarised evidence for all of them — marriage or divorce certificates, deed polls, statutory declarations of name change.
- No self-translation. Documents have to be in English or accompanied by an English translation, and translations you did yourself are rejected. TruMerit will translate at USD 85 per page.
- Every regulator from the last 10 years. You need information from every overseas nursing registration authority you have held a license with in that period, not just your current one.
- Applying before 1,800 hours. Going to TruMerit early delays your NCNZ application and triggers requests for more evidence.
- Missing the 30-day approval window. If you do not authorise release of the TruMerit report in time, the order expires.
- Assuming the old CAP route still exists. Older articles describe a Competence Assessment Programme bridging course lasting several weeks. The registration requirements changed on 1 July 2024, and the current route for international nurses is the theory exam plus OSCE. If a page still presents a CAP as standard, its other details are probably stale too.
Frequently asked questions
Can I apply to the Nursing Council directly?
No, unless you are registered in Australia and using TTMR. Everyone else starts with TruMerit, and the Council invites you to apply to become registered once it has your verification report.
How do I become a registered nurse if my degree is not equivalent?
You apply to be registered in the scope your credential supports. If it is not assessed as equivalent to the New Zealand bachelor's degree, the enrolled nurse scope may still be open to you, and it carries the same Tier 1 Green List status.
How much does the whole process cost?
NCNZ does not publish a total. Adding the lines that apply to a typical applicant — USD 380 to TruMerit, NZD 485 for the application, AUD 155 per country for the criminal history check, NZD 130 for the APC, plus exam fees if you sit them — gets you a working estimate, but it is your arithmetic, not an official figure.
Am I exempt from the English test?
Only if your nursing education was taught and examined in English in the UK, Singapore, Ireland, Canada or the USA, or you hold current registration in the UK, Ireland, Canada or the USA. Otherwise you sit IELTS Academic or OET, and PTE will not be accepted.
Do I have to travel to New Zealand for the exams?
Not for the theory exam — Pearson VUE centres overseas are fine. You do for the clinical half: the orientation and the OSCE are both held in Christchurch.
Can I get a visa first and register with the Nursing Council later?
No. INZ requires occupational registration first for occupations that need it, and the Green List Tier 1 entry for nurses lists Council registration as a requirement.
Before you start
Working in New Zealand as a nurse takes a long time to set up, but the route is unusually well documented: at every stage there is a published rule you can check. Get your identity and name-change documents notarised early, work out whether you fall inside an exemption list, reach 1,800 hours before you order the CVS-NCNZ, and plan backwards from there.
All fees, scores and rules in this guide are as of August 2026 and can change without much notice. Confirm the current position with the Nursing Council before you spend money, and take individual cases — your specific credential, your visa eligibility, your family situation — to NCNZ or a licensed immigration adviser rather than to a forum thread.