Working and settling in New Zealand as an occupational therapist
Registration with the Occupational Therapy Board of New Zealand comes first, and we prepare and file it; the visa after it is the New Zealand government's decision.
We prepare and file; the regulator decides.
Credentis Global prepares and files
You are here
Fit check
Registration with the Occupational Therapy Board of New Zealand
Credentis Global prepares and filesThe government decides · with a licensed adviser
A job offer and the Accredited Employer Work Visa, or the Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa from home
Arrive and start
The government decidesSettle
The government decides
Is your occupation wanted here?
What the New Zealand government's own lists say about occupational therapists.
- Listed
Green List
252411
Occupational Therapist (252411) is on Tier 1, Straight to Residence; INZ’s requirement is registration with the Occupational Therapy Board of New Zealand.
Immigration New Zealand · Operations Manual, Appendix 13 – Green List · 23 Mar 2026
What the official pages leave open
- The Green List also offers a Straight to Residence Visa for Tier 1 roles, which needs a job or job offer in New Zealand; INZ’s Green List search tool could not be read, so status is taken from Appendix 13.
Two lanes after registration.
Both are the government's routes, named as it names them.
We prepare and fileRegistration with the Occupational Therapy Board of New Zealand
With a job offer · the government decides
Accredited Employer Work Visa
You need an offer of full-time work from an accredited employer, and a wage threshold applies. You must also meet the job skill requirements INZ sets, and where your job needs registration (occupational registration) INZ asks for evidence of it.
Registration requiredYes
Immigration New Zealand · Accredited Employer Work Visa · read 5 Oct 2026
On your own · the government decides
Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa
You can submit an expression of interest if you have a job or job offer from an accredited employer and meet one of the Skilled Migrant Category pathways, one of which is points-based. Occupational registration is one way to claim points on that pathway rather than a condition of the visa.
Registration requiredNo
Immigration New Zealand · Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa · read 5 Oct 2026
Immigration steps are decided by the New Zealand government and handled with a licensed adviser. Under the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007, anyone giving New Zealand immigration advice, onshore or offshore, must hold a licence from the Immigration Advisers Authority unless they are exempt, as New Zealand lawyers are. We handle the registration that comes first. Immigration Advisers Authority · Who needs a licence? · read 5 Oct 2026
The numbers.
Published figures, named at source. The sentence under each chart is the publisher's own.
Accredited Employer Work Visa approvals in our occupations
120 applications approved
Occupational therapist · Approved, 1 Jul 2022 to 3 Sep 2026
Occupational therapists holding a practising certificate
Unit: occupational therapists · Practising certificate holders
| Period | Practising certificate holders |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 3,319 |
| 2023 | 3,393 |
| 2024 | 3,555 |
| 2025 | 3,640 |
| 2026 | 3,559 |
Accredited Employer Work Visa approvals in our occupations
Unit: applications approved
| Category | Approved, 1 Jul 2022 to 3 Sep 2026 |
|---|---|
| Physiotherapist | 633 |
| Medical diagnostic radiographer | 245 |
| Anaesthetic technician (nearest equivalent to ODP) | 126 |
| Occupational therapist | 120 |
| Social worker | 74 |
| Medical laboratory technician | 66 |
| Medical laboratory scientist | 63 |
| Speech language therapist | 40 |
| Podiatrist | 14 |
What we do
How Credentis Global helps with this route
You trained. We file. The regulator decides. Here is what that means for a occupational therapist in New Zealand.
Prepared to your own board’s standard
In New Zealand each profession has its own board. we prepare the file to that board’s published standard and in its own terms.
Every document, in the order the regulator reads it
Each item is checked against the regulator’s own list: names matched to your passport, hours in writing, copies certified by the person the list names.
One portal, and a person who answers
Upload your documents, see every stage of the file and message us in one place. The person who replies is the specialist preparing your file.
We prepare and file. The regulator decides.
Your application goes in from your own regulator account with every page prepared, and every query is drafted against the regulator’s exact question.
One specialist owns your file
The specialist who reads your documents builds the file and answers the regulator’s queries. You always know who has it, and you pay the regulator directly.