New Zealand and Australia both run employer-anchored skilled migration systems wrapped around a points test, which makes them look similar from a distance — small Anglophone economies, shared ANZSCO occupation coding, and immigration departments that publish their rules in English, in public. Look closer and the two systems pull in genuinely different directions: New Zealand gates almost everything behind a job offer first and lets a modest points score finish the job, while Australia runs a bigger, more competitive points pool with multiple parallel entry doors — and, as of late 2026, some of those doors have real queues behind them. Here’s what actually distinguishes the two if you’re deciding between them.
The shape of each system, side by side
| 🇳🇿 New Zealand | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
|---|---|---|
| Main work-first visa | Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) — temporary | Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) — temporary |
| Main points-tested PR route | Skilled Migrant Category (SMC) — 6-point threshold | Subclass 189 (no nomination) / 190 (state) / 491 (regional, provisional) — 65-point legislated floor |
| Fast-track shortage list | Green List — Tier 1 Straight to Residence, Tier 2 Work to Residence (after 2 years) | No direct equivalent; shortage occupations instead sit on the MLTSSL/Core Skills/Specialist Skills lists that feed the points-tested and 482 visas |
| Job offer required? | Yes, for every route that leads to residence | No for subclass 189; state/territory nomination (not a job) required instead for 190/491; yes for 482 |
| Work-visa application fee (primary applicant) | From NZD $1,540 (AEWV) | From AUD $4,015 (482, all streams) |
| PR-track visa application fee (primary applicant) | From NZD $6,450 (SMC) | From AUD $6,140 (190 and 491) |
| Work-visa processing benchmark | 80% of AEWV decisions within 5 weeks | No fixed benchmark — Home Affairs publishes a processing-time tool only |
| Current backlog signal (as of Nov 2026) | Not published as a backlog metric | 190/491 offshore, non-priority applications lodged February 2025 were still in the queue; 482 Core Skills offshore applications from October 2025 |
| PR on grant? | AEWV: no. Green List Tier 1 / SMC: yes | 190: yes. 491: no — provisional, converts via subclass 191 after 3 years |
Fee and processing figures are taken directly from Immigration New Zealand’s AEWV and Skilled Migrant Category pages and the Department of Home Affairs’ subclass 190, subclass 491 and Skills in Demand (482) listing pages, current as of this guide’s publish date — both departments revise fees and backlogs regularly, so confirm the live figures before budgeting or planning a move date.
New Zealand: a job offer first, a modest points bar second
New Zealand has no pure, job-offer-free points system at all. The Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) is almost always the entry door: an employer must first become INZ-accredited, then get the specific role through a job check, before a worker can even apply. Only once that’s cleared does the Skilled Migrant Category (SMC) become reachable — and SMC itself still requires a current skilled job or a genuine accredited-employer offer, not just a general skills profile. The points side of SMC is comparatively light: 6 skilled resident points, with qualifications, occupational registration, or income each capable of supplying the full amount alone, plus up to 3 supplementary points for NZ work experience. See our SMC guide for the full point bands.
The Green List is New Zealand’s genuine accelerant on top of that structure. Tier 1 occupations skip the work-first requirement entirely — a qualifying job offer plus the right qualification or registration lets you apply for residence directly. Tier 2 occupations still need 2 years of AEWV employment in that specific role before residence opens up. Our Green List guide breaks down which occupations sit in which tier. Nothing in Australia’s system works quite like Tier 1 — Australia’s closest equivalent, a job offer under 482, never bypasses a separate points or nomination step to reach permanent residence.
Australia: a bigger points pool, more doors, and real queues right now
Australia’s structure is more modular. The federal subclass 189 needs no job offer and no nomination — just a positive skills assessment and a strong points score. Subclass 190 swaps the job offer for a state or territory nomination (adding 5 points) and grants permanent residence immediately on approval; see our 190 guide. Subclass 491 is the regional variant — state or family nomination (adding 15 points), permanent residence only after 3 years via a separate subclass 191 application; see our 491 guide. All three sit on top of the same 65-point legislated floor for entering the SkillSelect pool, though in practice most 2026 invitations for popular occupations clear well above that minimum.
What the official Home Affairs listing pages make clear right now, and what most third-party comparisons miss, is the current backlog. As of this guide’s publish date, Home Affairs is prioritizing subclass 190 and 491 applications under Ministerial Direction No. 122, and its published priority dates show offshore, non-priority-sector applications lodged in February 2025 are only now reaching decision — well over a year and a half after lodgement. Subclass 482’s Core Skills stream shows a shorter but still substantial offshore queue, back to October 2025. New Zealand’s AEWV, by contrast, publishes a direct service standard — 80% of decisions within 5 weeks — rather than a backlog-by-lodgement-date figure, which makes it easier to plan around even though it says nothing about the slower SMC residence stage behind it.
Occupation lists: NZ’s two-tier shortage list vs Australia’s three-list, income-threshold structure
New Zealand ties its fast-track directly to one published list (Green List, Tier 1/Tier 2) plus a general ANZSCO skill-level and wage test for anything off that list. Australia runs several lists that interact with different visas: the MLTSSL feeds 189/190/491, the Core Skills Occupation List feeds the 482’s main stream, and the 482’s Specialist Skills stream instead uses an income threshold (no occupation list at all) — any ANZSCO Major Group 1, 2, 4, 5 or 6 role qualifies if it clears the Specialist Skills Income Threshold. That income-based alternative has no NZ equivalent: New Zealand’s wage thresholds (the market-rate test for AEWV, the 1.5x/2x/3x median-wage bands for SMC income points) always sit alongside an occupation or skill-level check, never replacing it outright.
Cost comparison in real numbers
New Zealand is consistently cheaper. The AEWV runs from NZD $1,540, and SMC’s residence application runs from NZD $6,450 — both confirmed on Immigration New Zealand’s own visa pages. Australia’s 482 runs from AUD $4,015 across all three streams (Core Skills, Specialist Skills, Labour Agreement), and both 190 and 491 run from AUD $6,140 for the primary applicant, confirmed on the Department of Home Affairs’ current listing pages. At current exchange rates the two PR-track fees (NZD $6,450 vs AUD $6,140) land in a similar ballpark, but Australia’s employer-borne costs — the nomination fee and the Skilling Australians Fund levy — sit on top for 482 sponsors, while New Zealand’s accreditation and job-check fees are likewise the employer’s, not the worker’s.
Who each system actually favors
- An occupation on NZ’s Green List Tier 1, with a confirmed job offer already in hand: nothing in Australia’s system gets you to residence faster — Tier 1 skips the work-first requirement that every Australian pathway still has in some form.
- A strong points profile but no job offer yet: Australia’s subclass 189 is the only route on either side of the Tasman that needs neither an employer nor a state government to say yes — but weigh that against its own current backlog before assuming it’s the fast option.
- An occupation that’s shortage-listed but not points-competitive: New Zealand’s SMC 6-point bar is easier to clear than Australia’s 65-point floor once you already have the job, making NZ the more forgiving system for someone whose profile is job-ready but points-light.
- Someone willing to commit to a regional area for several years: Australia’s 491 and NZ’s Green List Tier 2 both trade a multi-year commitment (3 years regional residence vs 2 years in-role) for a lower initial bar — compare the specific wait against your own timeline rather than assuming either is automatically faster.
- Employers and candidates who want cost certainty: New Zealand’s lower fees and published AEWV service standard make early-stage budgeting and timeline-setting more predictable than Australia’s current points-tested backlog.
This is preparation guidance, not legal advice
Points thresholds, occupation lists, fees, and processing backlogs are reviewed and revised frequently by both Immigration New Zealand and the Department of Home Affairs — every figure above reflects what each department’s own site showed as of this guide’s publish date, and both are revised without notice. Confirm current numbers directly on immigration.govt.nz and immi.homeaffairs.gov.au before relying on them, and have a licensed immigration adviser (NZ) or registered migration agent (Australia) review your specific occupation, points calculation, and documentation before you submit an Expression of Interest or job check.
VisaMet is building AI-assisted eligibility checks, document screening, and mock interview practice to help skilled migrants work out which country’s system actually fits their profile. Join the waitlist for early access. For the full detail behind each pathway, see our dedicated guides to New Zealand’s Green List, New Zealand’s Skilled Migrant Category, Australia’s subclass 190, and Australia’s subclass 491 — or browse the full New Zealand and Australia work-visa hubs.