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Every New Zealand residence application, and many work visa applications, includes two checks that have nothing to do with your job, your qualifications or your points: a character check and a health check. Immigration New Zealand (INZ, the government department that decides visas) wants to know that you have no serious criminal history, and that you are healthy enough not to place a heavy load on the country's health system. You prove the first with police certificates and the second with a medical examination and a chest X-ray. Both take time, and both have expiry rules that catch people out.
This post is for anyone preparing a New Zealand residence application, such as the Skilled Migrant Category or a partner visa, and for anyone applying for a longer work visa such as the Accredited Employer Work Visa. If Canada is also on your list, these checks work differently there.
INZ states it plainly: to be given a New Zealand visa, you must be of good character. In practice that means telling INZ about anything that could affect your application: involvement in criminal activity or human rights abuses, having been removed or deported from another country, and having given false or misleading information. If you have a criminal conviction, or INZ believes you could be a risk to New Zealand, it might not give you a visa (INZ: character requirements).
A police certificate is how you show your record: INZ describes it as a document issued by the police or a government agency that gives information about any criminal record you have.
It depends on the visa. Two examples cover most readers.
For the Skilled Migrant Category, INZ asks everyone in the application aged 17 or older for police certificates from the countries they are a citizen of, and from every country where they have spent 12 months or more over the last 10 years, even if those 12 months were not all in one stay (INZ: Skilled Migrant Category). Add up your time in each country: several short stays that total a year count. The certificates must show any criminal record you have had at any time in those countries.
INZ's general rule for temporary visas: if you plan to stay in New Zealand for 24 months or longer, you must provide a police certificate with your application (INZ: police certificates). The Accredited Employer Work Visa follows that rule: applicants aged 17 or older whose total time in New Zealand will be 24 months or longer need certificates from the countries they are a citizen of, and from any country they have spent more than 5 years in since turning 17 (INZ: Accredited Employer Work Visa).
Less than 6 months old on the day you submit your visa application. If a certificate turns a year old before INZ decides your application, INZ may ask for a new one. You may not need certificates again if you gave them with an earlier application; for the Accredited Employer Work Visa, that applies if they were issued in the last 24 months.
Each country issues its own, under its own name: a criminal record check, a police clearance certificate, a penal record. INZ keeps a country-by-country guide on its how to get a police certificate page: choose the country and it tells you which authority issues the certificate and how to ask for it. Some authorities need your fingerprints first. A certificate that is not in English must be sent with a translation.
Not every conviction ends an application. INZ says it can waive (remove) a character requirement, or grant a visa by "special direction", while adding that this happens only in rare circumstances. You ask for a character waiver in your application. What you must never do is leave a conviction out: giving false or misleading information is itself a character failure.
INZ checks four things: whether you are a risk to public health, whether you would add significant cost to or place demands on New Zealand's health services, whether your health may stop you working or studying if that is what the visa is for, and whether you would need significant learning support at school. For residence applications, INZ publishes a list of conditions that can lead to a decline, and it treats likely health costs above NZ$81,000 as grounds to decline (INZ: why you may need to provide evidence you are in good health). Both change, so read INZ's page rather than this summary.
INZ uses three kinds of medical certificate: a general medical certificate, a limited medical certificate and a chest X-ray certificate. Which you need depends on the visa, how long you plan to stay, which country you are from, and whether you have given INZ a medical certificate before (INZ: who needs an X-ray or medical examination).
For residence, the answer is usually both. The Skilled Migrant Category asks everyone in the application aged 15 or older to complete a chest X-ray and a medical examination; children aged 10 or younger have the medical examination but not the X-ray unless INZ asks for one.
For a temporary visa of 6 months or longer, the chest X-ray depends on tuberculosis (TB) risk. You need one if you are a citizen of a country that is not on INZ's list of countries with a low incidence of TB, or if you have spent more than a total of 3 months in the past 5 years in such a country (INZ: countries with a low incidence of tuberculosis).
You cannot use your family doctor. Outside New Zealand you must use a panel physician: a doctor or radiologist INZ has approved to do these examinations, listed by country on INZ's doctors who can do X-rays and medical examinations page. The examination has three parts: your medical history and a physical examination, urine and blood tests, and a chest X-ray if required (INZ: how to get an X-ray or medical examination). Most panel physicians use eMedical, INZ's electronic system: you sign a consent form, the clinic sends your results to INZ directly, and you receive an eMedical reference code to enter in your visa application. You pay the clinic yourself.
Medical evidence must be less than 3 months old when you submit your application. That is half the police certificate window, so book the medical last, once your certificates are in hand.
INZ can grant a medical waiver, which lets it approve a visa even though you do not meet the health standard. You cannot apply for one: INZ decides during assessment whether to consider it, weighing whether you meet everything else, the likely demands on health and education services, and your ties to New Zealand. For residence, waivers are mainly for partners and dependent children of citizens and residents, and some conditions are excluded outright (INZ: medical waivers). A waiver is possible but uncommon, and the decision is INZ's alone.
Order matters: police certificates come from other governments and last 6 months, while medicals are quick to book and last 3 months. Request certificates first, and book the panel physician when you are close to submitting.
The mistakes INZ's own pages warn about:
Our questionnaire does not ask about your health or your criminal record. On every New Zealand residence pathway, the report assumes you meet the character and health requirements and says so beside the result. It then lists two checklist steps, "Get a police certificate from each country you have lived in" and "Book your medical examination and chest X-ray", each linking to the INZ page that governs it. These are steps you complete at application time, not conditions the report judges; it leaves both checks to INZ.
If you are weighing up New Zealand, start with our New Zealand hub to see what the report covers, then take the free questionnaire for a free summary of your pathways; the full report adds the checklist, these two steps included.
Answer our free questionnaire and see your eligibility summary instantly. You only pay to unlock your full personalized immigration report.