Yes, and the move rests on two separate decisions. Immigration New Zealand (INZ), the government's immigration agency, decides whether you get a visa. The Pharmacy Council of New Zealand decides whether you may work as a pharmacist, and pharmacist is on INZ's list of jobs that need registration. For those jobs, INZ says your registration must come first, before you apply for a visa to work in the role. What registration involves depends on where you trained and where you are registered now. Pharmacists registered in Australia, and those registered and practising in Canada, Ireland, the UK or the USA, have their own routes. Pharmacists registered in any other country follow the Council's Non-Comparable Pathway, which ends with supervised practice in New Zealand as an intern pharmacist and a final registration exam.

Registering as a pharmacist in New Zealand

The Council's registration routes follow your current registration:

• Registered in Australia: under the Trans-Tasman mutual recognition route, you register first and then, within three months, complete at least four weeks of supervised practice and pass a law and ethics interview.
• Registered and practising in the UK, Ireland, the USA or Canada, with a pharmacy qualification from one of those countries, or one from elsewhere plus PEBC in Canada, OSPAP in the UK or NAPLEX in the USA: the Comparable Pathway registers you with conditions, including supervised practice (at least four weeks for the UK and Ireland, three months for Canada and the USA) and the law and ethics interview.
• Registered anywhere else: the Non-Comparable Pathway.

On the Non-Comparable Pathway, you first apply for a preliminary review, which needs a pharmacy degree, current registration as a pharmacist in the country where you got that degree, clinical work as a registered pharmacist and a Council-approved English test. Approval lets you continue, but it is not registration. Next come OPRA, the Overseas Pharmacist Readiness Assessment set by the Australian Pharmacy Council (two attempts at most), and NZPL, a course on New Zealand pharmacy law and ethics run by the University of Auckland, and you must pass both within 2 years of approval. You then register as an intern pharmacist, complete the Intern Training Programme, which starts each February, and pass the Council's Assessment Centre exam, with 2 years allowed for both. After that, you can apply to register in the full pharmacist scope.

If you are not registered in Australia, Canada, Ireland, the UK or the USA, the Council asks for IELTS Academic with 7.0 in each of the four bands, or an A or B in all four OET bands, achieved within the two years before you apply.

Green List, work visas and residence for pharmacists

The Green List is INZ's list of roles New Zealand needs workers for, and its entries for hospital, industrial and retail pharmacists are all marked as roles that can lead to residence straight away. If you meet an entry's requirements, which include Pharmacy Council registration, you can apply from inside or outside New Zealand for a Straight to Residence Visa, a resident visa that lets you stay indefinitely. You must be 55 or younger and hold, or have been offered, a full-time job with an accredited employer that meets INZ's pay and length rules. Our Green List guide explains how the list works.

An accredited employer is one INZ has approved to hire migrants, and these visas all start from a job or job offer with one. For the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV), the offer must be for at least 30 hours a week in a job INZ has cleared through a job check, and because the job needs registration, you provide your full or provisional registration or the Council's confirmation that the job is eligible for it. Our AEWV guide covers the rest.

The Skilled Migrant Category (SMC) is another residence visa. With a job or job offer from an accredited employer, you send an expression of interest, an online form setting out how you meet the rules, and INZ may invite you to apply. Its points route needs 6 points: Pharmacy Council registration as a pharmacist counts for 5, or 6 for a pharmacist prescriber, and 1 year of skilled work in New Zealand after you register adds 1 more. Our SMC guide and points calculator show how the points combine.

What is the intern stage, and do I need a job for it?

On the Non-Comparable Pathway, yes. Before you register as an intern pharmacist, the Council says you need a suitable training site or job lined up in New Zealand, because the internship is supervised practice there. Once registered, you hold an intern annual practising certificate, train under supervision and finish with the Assessment Centre exam. The Council is clear that its preliminary review approval does not give you the legal right to work in New Zealand, so the visa for that job is a separate matter for INZ. If you are in New Zealand after approval, the Council also gives you special approval to work as a pharmacy graduate, dispensing under a registered pharmacist's supervision while you work toward OPRA and NZPL, for up to 2 years. Beyond those cases, the Council says working in a dispensary is illegal without registration and a practising certificate, or a recognised technician qualification.

A common mistake pharmacists make

Pressing submit before your documents are on their way. For the preliminary review, some papers, such as degree transcripts and registration certificates, must reach the Council directly from your university or registration authority, and the Council gives you 90 working days after you apply for them to arrive. It starts the review only when everything is in. If papers are late, incomplete or in the wrong format, the Council can reject the application and close it without a full review, and you would apply again with a new fee. Arrange with each authority early, so the papers arrive within that window.

First steps

1. Find your route on the Council's registration routes page.
2. If you need a test, reach IELTS Academic 7.0 in every band, or an A or B in every OET band.
3. Arrange for your transcripts and registration certificates to be sent to the Council, then apply for preliminary review.
4. Look for a pharmacy employer accredited by INZ, because each of these visas starts from its offer.
5. When your registration and a job offer are both in place, read the Straight to Residence Visa requirements.