New Zealand, topic by topic
Seven chapters that apply to everyone. Start at the beginning or jump to what you need.
Bureaucracy
The paperwork that turns a landing card into a working, taxed, insured life in New Zealand — IRD numbers, GP enrolment, driving, and the long road to citizenship.
Free IRD number application Read bureaucracy 02Banking
Which of the big four banks will open an account before you land, what the everyday fees look like, and why your card will mostly be tapping, not swiping.
4 Major banks: ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Westpac Read banking 03Visas & Immigration
From the six-point Skilled Migrant Category to the NZD 5 million Active Investor Plus visa — how New Zealand’s reshaped 2026 immigration system actually works.
6 pts Skilled Migrant Category threshold Read visas & immigration 04Work
Minimum wage, KiwiSaver, getting your overseas qualification recognised, and what a safety net looks like if the job search takes longer than planned.
$23.95 Minimum wage / hr (from 1 Apr 2026) Read work 05Education
Free state schooling funded by an equity index instead of deciles, steep international university fees, and 20 hours a week of funded early childhood education.
Free State schooling, ages 5–19 Read education 06Housing
Auckland rents lead the country by a wide margin, every rental now has to meet Healthy Homes Standards, and foreign buyers are locked out of the market outside one narrow investor-visa exception.
$700–760 Auckland median rent, 3-bed / wk Read housing 07Cost of Living
How far a paycheck actually stretches once rent, groceries and healthcare are accounted for — and where ACC quietly replaces a chunk of what you’d otherwise pay for insurance.
0.59 NZD / USD exchange rate Read cost of livingSources & how current this is
Government
Immigration New Zealand — visas, AEWV, Skilled Migrant CategoryInland Revenue (IRD) — IRD numbers, tax residency, KiwiSaverWork and Income — benefits, Jobseeker Support residency rulesTenancy Services — bonds, Healthy Homes StandardsWaka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency — driver licence conversionNew Zealand rewrote its points system, median wage, investor visa and foreign-buyer rules across 2025–2026 — several of the figures below (the SMC threshold, AEWV wage settings, Active Investor Plus tiers) are recent enough that Immigration New Zealand’s own settings can still shift. Confirm live numbers on the linked government pages before you commit to a plan.