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The route most people from China take, the mistake to avoid, and the facts that change because you are applying from China, each read from the official page it links.
After New Zealanders themselves, citizens of China were the largest group of migrants arriving in New Zealand in the year to July 2026, according to provisional figures from Stats NZ, and China was the largest source of international students in 2025, according to Education New Zealand. For a student, the path to residence can run from a New Zealand degree to a Post-Study Work Visa, which lets graduates work after their studies, then to a skilled job with an accredited employer, a business Immigration New Zealand (INZ) has accredited to hire migrants, and on to the Skilled Migrant Category, the residence visa for skilled workers. The China Working Holiday Visa is only for Chinese citizens living in China when they apply, and INZ says its places fill quickly every year.
Much of the paperwork from China runs through CSSD, the Ministry of Education's centre for verifying qualifications. The working holiday visa asks for your senior high school qualification verified by CSSD, English translations of both the qualification and the verification report, and a supplementary form for Chinese citizens (INZ 1027). If a Chinese degree needs an International Qualification Assessment, the check by NZQA (the New Zealand Qualifications Authority) of how an overseas qualification compares with New Zealand's, NZQA accepts CSSD's verification but not notarised or certified copies. Start with the verification and an English test, and leave time for the two-step police certificate.
The mistake to avoid is sending INZ the police station's letter on its own. For China, INZ asks for a Notarised Police Certificate: the local Public Security Bureau (the police) first issues a police clearance letter, a Notary Office then issues the notarised certificate from it, and only the notarised one goes with the visa application. Students already in New Zealand meet this too, because a Post-Study Work Visa can require a police certificate from your country of citizenship; someone in China can apply for you with your authorisation letter, original identity card and hukou booklet (your household registration record).
The Skilled Migrant Category sets no settlement-funds figure: it checks a skilled job offer and a points test instead.
A qualification from China is assessed for New Zealand by one of these organisations: New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA), International Qualification Assessment.
The Public Security Bureau (the police) for your household registration (hukou) address or usual residence issues a Certificate of No Criminal Record; Chinese embassies cannot. Canada asks for that certificate, while New Zealand wants the Notarised Police Certificate a Notary Office issues from it.
New Zealand runs a working holiday scheme for citizens of China aged 18 to 30, for a stay of up to 12 months.
Tests New Zealand accepts with centres in China include IELTS General Training, IELTS Academic, PTE Academic, TOEFL iBT, OET and Cambridge English.
In the 2023 census, 74% of people born in China who live in New Zealand lived in the Auckland region, more than in any other region.
The Auckland region is also where they are most concentrated compared with other people born overseas.
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