About Visa Pilot
A plain-English guide to moving to New Zealand: which visa fits your situation, what the process actually involves, and when it's worth paying for professional help.
Why we built this
New Zealand immigration is genuinely confusing. There are dozens of visa categories, the rules change often, and most of what you find online is either an official page written for caseworkers or a sales pitch dressed up as advice. It's hard to figure out where you stand before you've already spent money.
Visa Pilot is the page we wished existed: what each visa is for, who it suits, roughly what it costs, and what tends to trip people up. Read as much as you want without making an account. When you decide you need a professional, we'll point you to a licensed one.
Find the visa that fits
Answer a few questions and see which categories you could realistically qualify for, so you don't waste weeks researching a pathway that was never open to you.
Guides that answer the question
Every major visa type explained in plain English: work, residence, student, partner and family. Current fees, eligibility, and the parts INZ's own pages gloss over.
No surprises in the process
Documents to gather, typical processing times, and the common reasons applications stall or get declined. You'll know what's coming before you start.
Help when you actually need it
Some cases are simple enough to do yourself; others need a professional. When yours does, we match you to a licensed adviser or immigration lawyer by visa type, location and language.
How it works, and how we make money
The guides, eligibility checker, FAQ and city guides are free, with no account and no paywall. We'd rather you read everything and decide you don't need us than gate it behind a sign-up.
When you do want professional help, we match you with someone from our network and they pay us a referral fee. We only refer to people licensed by the Immigration Advisers Authority (IAA), or to those exempt from licensing (such as holders of a current New Zealand Law Society practising certificate). That fee is how the free side stays free — we're telling you so you can weigh it for yourself.
Important Disclosure
Visa Pilot provides general immigration information only — this is not immigration advice. Advisers in our referral network may pay a fee for priority matching. We do not verify the quality of advice given, nor guarantee any visa outcome. Always verify an adviser's licence through the official IAA public register before engaging their services.
For Advisers
If you are an IAA-licensed adviser or immigration lawyer, you can join our referral network to receive matched client enquiries. We refer people who are ready for professional help — high-intent leads matched to your location, visa specialisation, and languages spoken.
Learn more about joining the network →
Who builds Visa Pilot
Visa Pilot is built and run by Keinu, a small software studio. We're not an immigration agency and we don't employ advisers — we build the tools and guides, keep the information current, and connect people with licensed professionals when they ask. You can see our other work at keinu.com.
Contact
Spotted something out of date, or have a question? Email hello@visapilot.nz and a real person will read it.
Ready to find the right specialist?
Tell us your situation and we'll match you with a licensed immigration adviser or lawyer who handles your type of case — free to submit.