Government opens 1,150 slots for Malaysian workers
The New Zealand government will be opening its doors to workers from over 30 markets this year under the Working Holiday Scheme.
It already commenced last week the scheme for Malaysians, where it is opening 1,150 slots for workers there this year.
Other schemes opening this month will be for Portugal (February 20) and Mexico (February 27), where the government is opening 50 and 200 slots, respectively.
"Once each scheme opens, applications will be open until the quota is filled. Once the quota is filled, the scheme will close until 2025," the Immigration New Zealand said on its website.
Working holiday schemes that still have available slots from 2023 will remain open until the quota is reached or gets reset on the 2024 opening date, it added.
Highest quota in holiday scheme
The highest cap for the Working Holiday Scheme is in the United Kingdom, where the government imposed a 15,000-cap that will be opened on June 25.
It follows the recent changes implemented by the government in 2023, allowing more citizens from the UK to live and work in New Zealand for a longer period.
Other markets where the government will be opening thousands-high slots for workers include:
- Spain (2,000) - Opening on April 11
- Korea (3,000) - Opening on May 16
- Czech (1,200) - Opening on June 20
- China (1,000) - Opening on July 2
- Argentina (1,000) - Opening on September 24
Out of the over 30 markets under the Working Holiday Scheme, only Vietnam has no date confirmed for opening.
"Work is under way to have formal agreements in place to allow these changes to be implemented," Immigration NZ said. "Further information will be made available on the Immigration New Zealand website once the opening date for the Viet Nam scheme can be confirmed."
