Whether you are an Emirati citizen or live in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on another passport, the skilled route to New Zealand runs through a job with an employer that Immigration New Zealand (INZ) has accredited. The Accredited Employer Work Visa ties you to that full-time job, and the employer sends you the link to apply. Residence can follow through the Skilled Migrant Category, the residence visa for skilled workers, which needs a skilled job or job offer from such an employer plus a qualification, high pay, a New Zealand occupational registration or skilled work that includes time in New Zealand.

Start these checks while job-hunting. INZ's list of qualifications exempt from assessment names none from the UAE, so a UAE degree normally needs an International Qualification Assessment by NZQA, New Zealand's qualifications authority, before it can count. Book an English test too: INZ's exemptions do not count work or study in the UAE, even at a British or Australian university's campus there. Police certificates are the last step, as INZ accepts only recent ones. For residence, INZ wants one from every country you are a citizen of, even one you have never lived in, and from other countries where you have spent a set length of time, which for a long-term resident includes the UAE.

The mistake to avoid, for a family living together in the UAE, is accepting a job before checking whether your family can come with you. On the Accredited Employer Work Visa, your pay and the kind of job you hold decide which visas your family can get: some jobs let a partner come only as a visitor, not to work, and some pay levels are too low for a child's student visa. If you sponsor your family's UAE residence, their permits are linked to yours and must be cancelled when yours is, so compare the offer with INZ's rules before you resign.