Working as a nurse in New Zealand
What official sources say about working as a nurse in New Zealand: how foreign qualifications are recognised and which shortage list names it.
Nurse is a regulated profession in New Zealand. Foreign qualifications go through: Apply to the Nursing Council under the overseas-qualified route for the exact nursing title; education and competence are assessed, and route-specific competence steps may follow. Midwives apply separately to the Midwifery Council. In New Zealand, nurses are listed on the Appendix 13 Green List.
- Regulation
- Regulated
- Recognition route
- Apply to the Nursing Council under the overseas-qualified route for the exact nursing title; education and competence are assessed, and route-specific competence steps may follow. Midwives apply separately to the Midwifery Council.
- Shortage list
- Listed
Regulation and recognition
Nurse is a regulated profession in New Zealand.
- Recognition route
- Apply to the Nursing Council under the overseas-qualified route for the exact nursing title; education and competence are assessed, and route-specific competence steps may follow. Midwives apply separately to the Midwifery Council.
- Recognition authority
- Nursing Council of New Zealand for nurse/enrolled-nurse registrations and Midwifery Council for midwife registration; authority follows the exact title.
- Language requirement
- For internationally qualified nurse registration, accepted evidence includes IELTS Academic at least 7.0 in reading, listening and speaking and 6.5 in writing, or the Council's OET standard. Midwives in the frozen family have a separate Midwifery Council IELTS/OET route; exemptions and alternatives are route-specific.
Shortage list
An exact current shortage-list record is published for nurse in New Zealand: Appendix 13 Green List.
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APA citation
ImmigrationDB. (2026, October 16). Nurse in New Zealand: recognition and shortage status [ImmigrationDB compilation; version 680e5e2a8053fc9c4a54b5a993bf3143]. ImmigrationDB. https://immigrationdb.com/move-as/nurse/new-zealand/ Retrieved 2026-10-16. Compilation license: CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/BibTeX citation
@misc{immigrationdb_immigrationdb_nurse-in-new-zealand-recognition-and-shortage-status_afe7b2575c03,
author = {ImmigrationDB},
title = {Nurse in New Zealand: recognition and shortage status},
publisher = {ImmigrationDB},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-16},
version = {680e5e2a8053fc9c4a54b5a993bf3143},
url = {https://immigrationdb.com/move-as/nurse/new-zealand/},
note = {Retrieved 2026-10-16. ImmigrationDB compilation. Compilation license: CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/},
}Markdown citation
[Nurse in New Zealand: recognition and shortage status](https://immigrationdb.com/move-as/nurse/new-zealand/) — ImmigrationDB; ImmigrationDB; version 680e5e2a8053fc9c4a54b5a993bf3143; retrieved 2026-10-16; built 2026-10-16.This citation identifies the ImmigrationDB compilation/page. Underlying source publishers and datasets retain their own terms; inspect the Sources section and cite those records separately. View the underlying source records.