Yes, though not straight away as a nurse practitioner (NP), unless you already hold NP registration in Australia. The Nursing Council of New Zealand, which registers nurses, says only New Zealand registered nurses (RNs) can apply for the nurse practitioner scope, so NPs from other countries first register and work as RNs in New Zealand. Two separate permissions are involved: Council registration, which is your licence to practise, and a visa from Immigration New Zealand (INZ), the government's immigration agency, which lets you live and work in the country. Neither one gives you the other. The NP role itself is wide: the Council describes NPs as practising beyond the level of a registered nurse, including diagnosis, ordering and interpreting tests, prescribing medicines within their area of competence, and admitting and discharging patients.

Registering as a nurse practitioner in New Zealand

The NP scope is one of the Council's types of registration (it calls them scopes of practice). To enter it, the Council's guidelines for applicants say you must:

• be registered in New Zealand as an RN, with a current annual practising certificate;
• hold an approved clinical master's degree for NPs, or an overseas equivalent, with at least 300 hours of clinical learning;
• have at least four years' experience in an area of practice when you apply;
• pass an assessment against the NP competencies by a panel the Council approves.

If you are not registered in Australia, step one is RN registration through the Council's process for internationally qualified nurses, which begins with document checks by TruMerit; our nurse page walks through it. The guidelines then advise working in a senior RN role in New Zealand long enough to gather the evidence for your NP portfolio, including two detailed case studies of patients whose care you led, references from authorised prescribers (health professionals allowed to prescribe), and a competence assessment. The panel, normally an NP chair and two other NPs, interviews you for about an hour and a half, by videoconference unless you ask to meet in person, and uses a written clinical scenario. Once registered, NPs show every three years, when they apply for their practising certificate, that they have done at least 40 hours a year of professional development and 40 days a year of NP practice.

Green List, work visas and residence for nurse practitioners

On INZ's Green List, the nurse practitioner role is one where people who meet the requirements can apply for residence straight away, and it needs Nursing Council registration. Because an NP from outside Australia reaches NP registration only after time in New Zealand, the Green List's registered nurse roles, which have the same standing and also need Council registration, are the ones to check while you work as an RN. For either, INZ's Straight to Residence Visa asks for a full-time job or offer from an accredited employer (one INZ has approved to hire migrants), an age of 55 or younger, and its other requirements. Our Green List guide explains the list.

The job offer comes first, and for jobs that need registration, INZ expects you to hold that registration before you apply for a visa. The Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) needs a full-time offer from an accredited employer with an approved job check, plus that registration. Our AEWV guide covers the details.

The Skilled Migrant Category (SMC) is a residence visa that also starts from a job or job offer with an accredited employer: you send an expression of interest and wait to be invited to apply. Its points-based pathway needs 6 points. INZ's search of registrations gives 6 points for NP registration, listed there as nursing practitioner, and 3 for RN registration. An RN can top up those 3 points with up to 3 more for skilled New Zealand work done after registering, and 2 years of such work gives the maximum. Our SMC guide and points calculator show the combinations.

How long must I work as a registered nurse first?

The Council's guidelines set no fixed period of work in New Zealand. They ask internationally qualified nurses to work in a senior RN role in New Zealand for "sufficient time" to build the portfolio and show how they meet the NP competencies. What matters is where the evidence comes from: for applicants from abroad, the references and the competence assessment must relate to practice in New Zealand, and letters of support must come from colleagues you have worked with there. The Council explains why: the competencies are built around the New Zealand clinical setting, so an NP from another country who has not nursed there may find it hard to move straight into a different health system, culture and set of laws, especially on prescribing.

Will my overseas master's degree count?

If you are a licensed, practising NP from the United States or Canada, the Council accepts your clinical master's or doctoral program as meeting its education requirement, and you include your transcripts in the portfolio without a separate assessment. Everyone else asks a New Zealand tertiary education provider that teaches the NP master's to assess the degree for equivalence, and includes that provider's letter. If your degree falls short, the provider identifies the extra courses you need; the guidelines say the required courses focus on advanced pathophysiology, pharmacology, and assessment and diagnostic reasoning, all applied to caring for and prescribing for patients in New Zealand. You also include transcripts showing the papers you completed and the date your master's was awarded.

A common mistake nurse practitioners make

Planning the first visa around an NP job. INZ's registration search lists nurse practitioner as a job that needs registration, and for such jobs registration comes before the visa application. Unless you hold NP registration in Australia, the Council needs New Zealand RN registration and evidence from your New Zealand practice before it considers you for the NP scope, so an NP job offer cannot be the basis of your first visa. Look first for RN roles with an accredited employer, then apply for the NP scope once you have the New Zealand evidence the panel needs.

First steps

1. Use the Council's self-assessment tool and TruMerit steps to start RN registration.
2. Unless you are a licensed, practising NP in the United States or Canada, ask a New Zealand NP programme provider to assess your degree (guidelines).
3. Look for a senior RN job with an accredited employer, the kind of offer the AEWV needs.
4. Once working in New Zealand, collect case studies and references from local authorised prescribers for your portfolio.
5. Apply for the NP scope and prepare for the panel interview (Council).