Yes. You need two separate permissions: a visa from Immigration New Zealand (INZ), the government's immigration agency, to live and work there, and registration with the Medical Radiation Technologists Board to practise. INZ lists medical radiation technologists among the jobs that need occupational registration, and says you must get it before applying for a visa to work in one of them. Holding a visa does not register you, and being registered does not give you a visa. The Board registers people in a scope of practice, the type of practice they are qualified for, such as medical imaging, nuclear medicine or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and it assesses your qualification and experience against the New Zealand qualification for that scope. Residence points also differ between these jobs, as the visa section below shows.

Registering as a radiographer in New Zealand

The Board accepts applications from people who hold an overseas qualification relevant to medical radiation technology. Among the documents it asks for are a complete academic transcript, a syllabus showing the content and hours of each subject, your clinical logbook if you have one, a personal and a professional reference, and a criminal conviction check from each country where you have lived for more than 12 months since the age of 16. Its overseas application page also lists certificates of employment from each employer you have had in the last 5 years.

Radiographers registered with the Australian regulator, AHPRA, can use a Trans-Tasman route instead, but only in the medical imaging, radiation therapy and nuclear medicine scopes. For MRI, they apply as internationally qualified candidates like everyone else.

After registering, you apply for a practising certificate, and the Board first issues an interim practising certificate. You must complete courses in cultural competency and cultural safety and in Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi) within six months of starting practice in New Zealand, and you then receive the annual practising certificate, which you renew before 1 April each year.

Green List, work visas and residence for radiographers

INZ's Green List names jobs New Zealand needs workers for, and it splits them into roles that can lead to residence straight away and roles that lead there after 2 years of work in New Zealand. The medical imaging, nuclear medicine and MRI technologist roles are all in the first group, and each gives registration with the Board as its Green List requirement. In practice, that points to the Straight to Residence Visa, a resident visa that lets you stay in New Zealand indefinitely. You apply with Board registration, a full-time job or job offer with an accredited employer at the pay rate INZ sets, an age of 55 or younger and enough English, and you must meet the visa's other requirements; INZ lets you apply from inside or outside the country. Our Green List guide explains the list.

INZ approves accredited employers to hire migrants, so the offer comes first. For a work visa, the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) needs a full-time offer from an accredited employer with an approved job check (INZ's check of that particular job), plus your New Zealand registration or the Board's confirmation that your job is eligible for it. 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, and one of its routes works on points. That route needs 6 points, and INZ's list gives Board registration 6 points for an MRI or nuclear medicine technologist but 3 for a medical imaging technologist. With 3, the rest can come from skilled work in New Zealand after you register: 2 years of it adds 3 points. Our SMC guide and points calculator show how the numbers combine.

What if the Board finds your qualification is not equivalent?

It may offer you another route: the Board's online examination, a formal pathway to registration under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003, the law that governs registered health professions. The Board offers it only to overseas-trained applicants who have sent a complete application and paid the fee, and whose qualification it has judged not equivalent to the New Zealand standard. The exam covers the Board's scopes, medical imaging, nuclear medicine and MRI technologists among them. A company in Arizona, in the United States, delivers it with online proctoring: you sit it on a computer while a proctor watches through your webcam, and you tell the Board which country you will sit it from. Every attempt needs a new fee and a new exam agreement.

Which English test should a radiographer take?

Check the Board's rules first, because they are narrower than INZ's. Unless you graduated from a Board-accredited programme, have English as your first language and a qualification taught and assessed only in English in a country the Board recognises, or have worked as a registered practitioner in such a country for at least 2 of the last 5 years and can name senior referees, the Board's English policy asks for one of two tests. IELTS must be the Academic version, with at least 7 in each of the four parts; OET must be taken in radiology, with at least a B in all four sections. Either way, the result must come from one sitting and, apart from limited exceptions, within the two years before you apply. INZ's skilled residence visas accept a wider range of tests, IELTS General Training included, at lower minimums, so a result that meets the Board's standard is the one that can count for both. Our guide to accepted English tests lists INZ's options.

A common mistake radiographers make

Treating registration as permission to start work. The Board says being registered and holding a current annual practising certificate (APC) are two different things: you register once, you renew the APC every year, and practising without a current APC is an offence. For people registering from overseas, the Board adds that you can apply for an APC only once you live in New Zealand or can show evidence of your move. Plan your first day at work around the APC, not the letter confirming registration.

First steps

1. Fill in the Board's eligibility check for internationally qualified applicants.
2. Gather the papers on the Board's document list, such as your transcript, syllabus and logbook.
3. Reach the Board's English standard, or confirm that one of its other pathways fits you.
4. Look for full-time roles with employers accredited for the AEWV.
5. Once you are registered and hold an offer, check the Straight to Residence Visa requirements.