All AEWV holders have a Maximum Continuous Stay and must leave New Zealand for 12 months before they can make a new AEWV application if they haven't been able to apply for residence. Depending on the role and when they applied, that stay is either 3 years or 5 years. If it's not in your workforce plan, it could destabilise your operations at a critical point.
It's one of the most overlooked things in workforce planning, because it doesn't feel urgent until it is. A worker's visa isn't expiring this month, so it drops off the radar - and then the stand-down arrives as a sudden gap in a role you can't easily backfill.
Why it belongs in the plan now, not later
The point of putting it in the plan early is that you usually have options - but only if you see it coming. A worker approaching their stand-down might be able to move onto a residence pathway instead, which takes the stand-down off the table entirely. They might be able to shift to a different visa, although applying for a different type of visa while staying in New Zealand does not relieve the requirement to leave the country for 12 months at some point before making a new AEWV application. Or you might need a phased plan to cover the gap while they're away.
All of those need lead time. The residence route in particular can't be started in the final weeks. If you find the stand-down when it's already here, most of your good options have closed.
The residence rules coming into effect in August 2026 seemed to close the gap, but will not help everyone. They depend on look-back windows for skilled work experience, and your employees must have been paid at the right SMC median wage at the right times to qualify. We are seeing a number of employers who supported AEWV applications in good faith based on market rate, but did not make significant adjustments when the median wage increased each year because it was not a requirement of the visa. Now they are stuck, with a sizeable chunk of their workforce unable to qualify for residence since they were not historically paid enough. And some are watching their current migrant workers jump ship for other employers who promise they can make them eligible for residence (although in many cases that may not be true if they don't have enough time left on their visa).
What to map
This is exactly the kind of thing that's easy to lose across a team of any size. One or two visa holders you can track in your head. Ten or fifteen, across different roles and skill levels and start dates, you can't - and that's where a proper visa-expiry plan earns its keep.
For every AEWV holder on your team, it's worth knowing: when their current visa expires, when they'd hit the maximum continuous stay, whether they're on a pathway that avoids the stand-down, and whether residence is realistic before you get to that point. Once that's mapped, the stand-down stops being a surprise and becomes a date you plan around.
Other important factors include the cost of opening up a residence pathway if it would require a significant pay increase, and the affordability of that if you also have a large number of New Zealand workers you would need to level up at the same time. If you may need to replace staff you need to build in the costs and timeframes and weigh up the costs and benefits. They may be more than monetary - would your productivity take a hit if you had to replace a large portion of your experienced workforce?
If you employ Filipinos there will be added Philippines government requirements to build in. We are helping employers work through all these issues and the mitigation strategies they could put in place on a regular basis.
If you've got migrant staff and no clear picture of who's due for what and when, that's the first thing we'd build with you. Send us the team and we'll figure it out.
