Study in New ZealandStudent Visa Guidance from Jalandhar

Information on this page was checked against official New Zealand Government sources on 22 October 2026. Reviewed by Mandeep Sandhu, Sandhu Overseas, Jalandhar. Next scheduled review: January 2027. Two changes land on 16 November 2026 — both are marked below. Always confirm on the Immigration New Zealand page linked beside each point before you act.

Why students from Jalandhar look at New Zealand

New Zealand is usually the quieter option on a Punjabi student’s shortlist, and that is part of its appeal. It is a smaller system with fewer applicants, a published provider quality rating that anyone can look up, and a post-study work route that is generous at master’s level. It also tends to be the destination where the gap between what agents say and what the rules say is widest, because the rules changed in November 2025 and much of what circulates in Jalandhar predates that.

What changed, and what is about to

Sources: INZ — new Short-Term Graduate Work Visa · INZ — changes to student visa work rights · INZ — staying to work after study.

Check your college before anything else

New Zealand gives you something most destinations do not: a public quality rating for every non-university provider. NZQA runs External Evaluation and Review and places organisations in Category One through Category Four, One being the strongest. Immigration New Zealand will not grant a student visa for a programme at a Category Four provider. That single rule has saved several of our students a deposit.

The same register tells you whether a provider is a signatory to the Code of Practice. A New Zealand provider must be an approved signatory before it can enrol international students at all, so a college that is not on that list is not in a position to take you.

• Search the provider by name or provider number on NZQA’s Find Education Organisations register
• Check the performance category — avoid Category Four entirely, and ask questions about Category Three
• Confirm Code of Practice signatory status shows as Yes
• Note that full English language work rights on a short course require a university or a Category One provider

Official sources: NZQA — Find Education Organisations · NZQA — the Code of Practice 2021.

Money you must show

New Zealand states its living-cost requirement as a flat annual figure, which makes it easier to plan than systems that calculate per month and per location.

Tuition is separate. If you have prepaid accommodation, such as a school homestay fee, that can be deducted from the living-costs figure, but you must evidence any shortfall.

What Immigration New Zealand accepts as evidence:

• Bank statements showing the account holder’s name and the last three months of transactions
• A fixed-term deposit certificate for funds held at least three months
• A scholarship award letter
• An education loan disbursal letter together with the sanction letter from a nationalised or multinational bank, secured against fixed assets
• Evidence of a withdrawable provident fund

If someone is sponsoring you, note three rules that catch people out: the sponsor is legally responsible for all your living costs even if you pay some yourself; you cannot change your sponsor later; and you cannot be sponsored for a second visa if you were not sponsored for the first. An individual sponsor must be a New Zealand citizen or resident and a family member or friend, and must evidence that they can afford it.

Official source: INZ — student fund requirements. Amounts are set by instruction and change; confirm the current figures before you move money.

English: who actually decides

This is the point on which most Jalandhar pages about New Zealand are simply wrong. For a Fee Paying Student Visa, Immigration New Zealand does not set an English test or a minimum band score. The requirement sits in the offer of place: your education provider must confirm that it has assessed your English proficiency and academic capability and is satisfied you can succeed on the programme.

In practice that means your test requirement comes from the provider, and it varies by institution and by programme. A university master’s and a private training establishment diploma can ask for quite different things. So the correct question is not “what IELTS does New Zealand need” but “what does this provider need for this course”.

There is one place where a test score does bite for the visa itself: if your work rights depend on being on an English language programme, English test requirements apply to those work rights.

We do not publish an IELTS table for New Zealand on this page, because publishing one would imply Immigration New Zealand sets it. If you want to prepare, our IELTS guide covers the test itself.

The medical requirement for applicants from India

New Zealand ties its health requirements to how long you intend to stay and to where you have lived. India is not on Immigration New Zealand’s list of low tuberculosis incidence countries, so Indian applicants almost always have a health step.

Children under 11 and pregnant women do not need the x-ray unless a special report is called for. Because the x-ray certificate has a three-month shelf life, the order in which you do things matters: book it to land inside the window in which you will actually apply, not as the first thing you tick off.

Official source: INZ — health requirements. Confirm the current forms and the low-incidence country list before booking.

How the application works, step by step

Official source: INZ — Fee Paying Student Visa. Visa fees, the immigration levy and the International Visitor Levy are set by regulation and change; check the current amounts on the INZ fees page rather than relying on any figure quoted elsewhere.

Working while you study

The limit is 25 hours a week during study, raised from 20 on 3 November 2025. It is not automatic — your visa must carry the condition, and you qualify for it if you meet one of these:

• A full-time programme of at least two academic years
• A full-time programme leading to a New Zealand level 4 or higher qualification, micro-credentials excluded
• Full-time study on an approved tertiary student exchange scheme
• A full-time English language programme of at least 24 teaching weeks, meeting the English test requirements
• Full-time English study of at least 14 consecutive weeks at a university or a Category One provider
• A full-time Study Abroad programme under a New Zealand institution’s partner agreement

Full-time work during scheduled vacations is allowed where your programme is full-time and at least one academic year, which New Zealand defines as at least 120 credits over at least eight months. If your programme runs eight months or more but carries fewer than 120 credits, full-time work is limited to the Christmas and New Year holiday period. Your provider’s schedule sets the vacation dates, not your own calendar.

One more point that surprises people: on in-study work rights you can only work as an employee. Self-employment and contracting are not permitted.

Official source: INZ — working while studying.

After you finish: post-study work options

Three details decide more cases than the table does. You must apply within three months of your student visa’s end date, or six months for a doctoral degree. You must have at least NZ$5,000 (approx. ₹2.62 lakh) available for maintenance. And you can hold a Post-Study Work Visa only once in your life — which is why the choice of programme is also a choice about this visa.

Note that the visa length for level 8 and below follows the offer of place, not how long you actually took. A thirty-two week programme gives a thirty-two week visa. Failing a paper and taking longer does not extend it.

At degree level 7 and above there is no occupation restriction and no employer restriction — you can work in any lawful job anywhere in New Zealand, subject to any occupational registration your field requires. At non-degree level 7 and below, your work must match the occupation your qualification is listed against.

Official sources: INZ — qualifications needed for a Post-Study Work Visa · INZ — how long you can stay.

The new Short-Term Graduate Work Visa

From 16 November 2026 New Zealand opens a six-month open work visa for a group that previously had no post-study route at all: graduates of Level 5 to 7 qualifications who are not eligible for the Post-Study Work Visa. For a Jalandhar student weighing a diploma rather than a degree, this changes the calculation.

• Six months of open work rights, working for an employer under an employment agreement or contract for services
• Qualification at NZQCF Level 5 to 7, studied full-time for at least 24 weeks in New Zealand
• Not available for English language, foundation or bridging qualifications
• Not available if your qualification already makes you eligible for the Post-Study Work Visa
• At least NZ$5,000 (approx. ₹2.62 lakh) available, and a medical or chest x-ray depending on your intended stay
• Apply within three months of your New Zealand student visa expiring
• Not eligible if your student visa expired before 16 August 2026
• Business ownership is not permitted, and you cannot get a second one or extend it
• You cannot support a partner for a work visa or children for a Dependent Child Student Visa on this visa

Official source: INZ — new Short-Term Graduate Work Visa. This visa is new; confirm the fee and the final detail on the INZ page when applications open.

Can your partner and children come?

New Zealand ties partner work rights to the level of your study, which makes the course choice a family decision as much as an academic one.

Your partner may apply for an open work visa if you hold a student visa to study:

• A level 9 or 10 qualification — master’s and doctoral level
• A level 7 or 8 qualification that appears on the Green List, or on the list of qualifications eligible for a Post-Study Work Visa
• Or you are a New Zealand scholarship student funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

At other study levels, your partner can usually apply only for a visitor visa based on your partnership. Where a partner work visa is granted, it is generally open — any employer, any lawful job — and runs for the same period as your student visa.

Dependent school-age children of a partner holding that work visa can be treated as domestic students and pay no school tuition fees. If you hold the student visa directly, your children can only get student visas in narrow circumstances, mainly if you are a foreign PhD student at a New Zealand university, on a government-approved exchange, or an MFAT scholarship holder.

You cannot include family members on your own student visa application — they apply separately. A child under ten must be accompanied by a legal guardian unless they are a domestic student or living in an approved school hostel. Our spouse visa and dependent visa pages cover the wider family routes.

Official source: INZ — partner of a student.

If your application is declined

An immigration officer must decline a temporary entry application where they are not satisfied that the applicant meets all the relevant instructions and no exception is justified, and must give written reasons. Read those reasons carefully — they are the only reliable guide to what a second application has to fix.

For applicants who are in New Zealand, reconsideration must be requested within 14 days of receiving notice of the decline, while still lawfully in the country, with a fee. It is decided by an officer of equal or higher grade, and the outcome is final. Appeals to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal are available for residence class visas, not for temporary visas such as student visas.

Visa fees and levies are not refunded if an application is declined.

Immigration New Zealand publishes offshore student visa decision data broken down by nationality, but it does not publish reasons for decline. Any “top ten reasons for New Zealand student visa rejection” list you find online is somebody’s opinion, including when it is ours. Our observations from practice are offered as observations.

Official sources: INZ — if your visa is declined · INZ — offshore student visa decision data.

Starting your New Zealand application from Jalandhar

A New Zealand file has three moving parts that have to be sequenced: the NZQA check before you apply for admission, the three-month shelf life of the chest x-ray certificate, and three months of clean bank history behind the funds. Get those in the wrong order and you lose an intake, not a day.

Jalandhar has a great many immigration offices and the quality varies. Whoever you work with, ask them to show you the Immigration New Zealand or NZQA page behind any rule they quote. If they tell you the work limit is twenty hours, you have your answer.

How Sandhu Overseas helps

We are an immigration and visa consultancy in Jalandhar. We are not part of Immigration New Zealand, we do not represent it, and no consultancy can guarantee a visa. What we can do is make sure your file is complete, current and consistent, and that you understand each requirement before you spend money against it.

Other New Zealand services from our Jalandhar office

This page covers the student visa. If your New Zealand plan takes a different route, these pages go into each one:

Frequently asked questions