India and New Zealand has concluded negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) Monday that has opened a plenty of job opportunities by opening a new visa pathway for Indians. Under the deal, the New Zealand will offer a quota of 5,000 visa for people engaged in skilled occupations such as IT, engineering, healthcare, education, construction, Yoga Instructors, Indian Chefs, and Music Teacher. These professionals can stay up to 3 years in New Zealand.
Besides, the New Zealand will offer 1,000 working holiday visa (WHV) to young Indians with multiple entries allowed for a period of 12 months. The WHV is a temporary visa that allows people to travel and take up short-duration work in another country to build their skills or fund their travel expenses.
Numerical caps on post-study work visas for Indian students removed
The deal has additionally removed numerical caps on post-study work visas for Indian students for both STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programmes – post-graduate and undergraduate – and doctoral programmes. Starting next year, the New Zealand government will give post-study work rights of up to 3 years for STEM graduates, and up to 4 years for doctoral scholars.
Even though the deal also talks about allowing 25 hours per week of work rights for Indian students; this rule was introduced by the New Zealand in early November for all international students by enhancing the previous cap of 20 hours per week.
Number of Indian students in New Zealand
Estimates suggest that there are about 12,000 Indian students enrolled in different New Zealand academic institutions in 2025, which is at par with the 2024 enrolments. In 2023 and 2024, the New Zealand became a favourite hotspot for Indian students with 99% and 49% growth in student enrolments, respectively.
Karunn Kandoi, founder and CEO of Vidysea Education said that the removal of numerical cap on post-study visas is a game changer for Indian students as it directly addresses one of their biggest concerns – visa uncertainty after graduation. “Coupled with 5,000 temporary work visas under the trade deal, this signals New Zealand’s intent to actively welcome and retain Indian graduates and professionals,” he said.
Meanwhile, China remains the biggest source market for New Zealand with nearly 34% student enrolments followed by India at 14%.
Unlike its neighbouring country Australia which had substantially increased the study visa application fees this year, New Zealand has focussed on relaxing its immigration rules, thereby attracting a higher number of international students to meet its ambitious plan to get 35,000 more international students in the country by 2034.