Yes, but registration and your visa are separate decisions made by separate bodies. Immigration New Zealand (INZ), the government's immigration agency, issues visas, and it lists physiotherapist as a job that requires registration, which must be in place before you apply for a visa to work in it. The Physiotherapy Board of New Zealand registers physiotherapists, and it says you need both registration and an annual practising certificate for any role, paid or voluntary, where your physiotherapy skills or knowledge are used. The Board's International General pathway works by assessment rather than a sit-down exam: it compares your degree with the Physiotherapy practice thresholds in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, which set out the competence both countries require for first registration.

Registering as a physiotherapist in New Zealand

Everyone registers first in the General scope of practice, and your pathway depends on where you trained or are registered:

• Australian TTMR: for physiotherapists with full or limited registration in Australia, under the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Act.
• International Express: for those with unrestricted registration, or a recognised physiotherapy qualification, from the UK, Ireland, Canada or South Africa. The Board checks the application and, if it meets the criteria, puts it forward for registration.
• International General: for everyone else. After a document check, an assessor compares the curriculum of your physiotherapy degree with each key competency in the practice thresholds. Where the curriculum falls short, the Board asks for supporting evidence from your training or work, and you have 3 months to send it.

Both international pathways ask for proof of English, certificates of good standing from every physiotherapy regulator you have been registered with, police certificates, and certificates from two cultural competency courses from the Board's list. The good standing and police certificates must be less than 3 months old on the day you apply. Proof of English can be English as your first language, a physiotherapy qualification from the UK, Ireland, Canada or South Africa, or a test: the Board accepts IELTS Academic, OET, PTE Academic and TOEFL iBT, and for IELTS Academic asks for at least 7 in reading, listening and speaking and 6.5 in writing, with results less than 2 years old. It does not accept IELTS General Training results. Once registered, you apply for your annual practising certificate, and you cannot practise until you hold it.

Green List, work visas and residence for physiotherapists

INZ's Green List marks the physiotherapist role as one that can lead to residence right away, rather than after 2 years of work in New Zealand. With Board registration, the requirement INZ lists for the role, you can apply for the Straight to Residence Visa from inside or outside New Zealand. INZ also asks that you be 55 or younger, speak and understand English, and have a full-time job or job offer with an accredited employer that meets its pay and duration rules. Our Green List guide explains the list.

INZ approves, or accredits, the employers that may hire migrants, and your visa rests on a job or offer from one of them. To come on a work visa first, the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) needs an offer of 30 hours a week or more, with an approved job check (INZ's approval for that employer to hire a migrant into the role), plus your registration or the Board's confirmation that the job is eligible for it. Our AEWV guide has the details.

The Skilled Migrant Category (SMC) is a residence visa with a points-based route, and it also needs a job or job offer from an accredited employer before you can send an expression of interest and be invited to apply. Physiotherapist registration is worth 4 of the 6 points that route needs, so if you claim for registration, the other 2 must come from at least 18 months of skilled work in New Zealand after you register. Advanced Practice Physiotherapist and Physiotherapy Specialist registrations are worth all 6. Our SMC guide and points calculator show the options.

Can I work as a physiotherapy assistant while I wait?

The Board says physiotherapy assistant and healthcare assistant roles are not regulated under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003, the law behind registration, so the registration rule does not cover such a job until you are registered. In that job you must not present yourself in any way as a registered physiotherapist, even if you can practise as one overseas. If the Board registers you while you work as an assistant, you must stop that work until you hold an annual practising certificate, which you can apply for only after registration. You do not need a visa to apply for registration, and the Board calls immigration an entirely separate issue that you must settle before you work in New Zealand.

A common mistake physiotherapists make

Accepting a New Zealand job before the Board has registered you. The Board strongly recommends not accepting an offer of work as a physiotherapist, or making travel plans, until it has granted your registration and issued your annual practising certificate. A job offer does not move your application up the queue either, because the Board handles applications in the order they arrive. Get your registration and practising certificate first, then accept the offer your visa will rest on.

First steps

1. Use the Board's pathway page to find your route.
2. Check the Board's English evidence options, and if you need a test, reach its scores in an accepted one.
3. Complete two cultural competency courses and collect certificates of good standing and police certificates less than 3 months old (International General pathway).
4. Apply to the Board, and wait for registration and your practising certificate.
5. Then look for an employer accredited by INZ and check the Straight to Residence Visa requirements.