Moving to United Kingdom from New Zealand

To be safe, more than 2,600 pounds in savings, held for 28 days: GOV.UK says the Youth Mobility Scheme visa needs a minimum balance in your bank account, held for 28 days in a row, with day 28 within 31 days of applying (to be safe, hold more than 2,600 pounds, which is about NZ$6,100 at the ECB-derived rate of 15 October 2026). The visa is for New Zealanders aged 18 to 35 (you must be 18 or over when it starts and 35 or under when you apply), costs 340 pounds plus the immigration health surcharge of 776 pounds a year, and lasts up to 2 years, with one 1-year extension for New Zealanders. The UK Ancestry visa has no savings figure in the Immigration Rules: you must show you can support and house yourself without public funds, and we found no pound amount for that. The Skilled Worker visa, for a job offer from an approved employer, asks for a salary above a set minimum or the going rate for the job, if higher (to be safe, a job paying more than 42,000 pounds a year), and a minimum balance in the bank for 28 days (to be safe, hold more than 1,300 pounds) unless your employer certifies your first month. The figures can change, so confirm them on GOV.UK when you apply.

There is no ballot for New Zealanders (the ballot is for Hong Kong, India and Taiwan), but places are capped: the Immigration Rules allow 8,000 places for New Zealand in 2026. You cannot apply if you have children under 18 who live with you or depend on you financially, or if you have already been in the UK under the scheme. It costs 340 pounds plus the immigration health surcharge of 776 pounds a year (1,552 pounds for 2 years), and you need a minimum balance in your bank account for 28 days in a row (to be safe, hold more than 2,600 pounds), with day 28 within 31 days of applying. You can apply up to 6 months before you travel, and a decision usually comes within 3 weeks. The visa lasts up to 24 months, and New Zealanders can extend once for a year (340 pounds plus 776 pounds, applying no more than 28 days before it expires), so 3 years at most. New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade says the two countries have enhanced their youth mobility schemes, and the UK-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement has been in force since May 2023. You can work in most jobs and study. Self-employment is allowed only if you have no business premises other than your home, your business equipment is worth no more than 5,000 pounds and you have no employees; you cannot work as a professional sportsperson. You cannot bring a partner or children on your application, you cannot get public funds, and time on this visa does not lead to settlement. UK Ancestry. If you are a Commonwealth citizen (New Zealand is on the list in the British Nationality Act 1981) aged 17 or over with a grandparent born in the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, you can apply for a UK Ancestry visa. A grandparent born before 31 March 1922 in what is now Ireland, or on a UK-registered ship or aircraft, also counts; adoption and parents who were not married do not stop a claim; a step-parent does not count. It costs 726 pounds from outside the UK plus the immigration health surcharge of 1,035 pounds a year (5,175 pounds for 5 years, by our arithmetic at the standard rate), and it lasts 5 years. You can apply up to 3 months before you travel and a decision usually comes within 3 weeks. You can work in any job, full or part time, or be self-employed, study, and bring your partner and children, but you cannot get public funds and you cannot switch into this visa from another visa, such as a visitor visa. You must show you can support and house yourself and any dependants without public funds and that you can and plan to work, for example with job offers or a business plan. The Immigration Rules give no set pound figure for the money, so that figure is unknown. After 5 years you can extend for another 5 (1,407 pounds plus the health surcharge, as many times as you still qualify) or apply to settle, which costs 3,226 pounds and needs 5 continuous years, usually no more than 180 days outside the UK in any 12 months, the Life in the UK test and English at level B1 (level B2 for applications from 26 March 2027). Work and talent visas. The Skilled Worker visa needs a job offer from an approved employer, a certificate of sponsorship, a job on the list of eligible occupations and a salary above a set minimum (to be safe, a job paying more than 42,000 pounds a year) or the going rate for the job, whichever is higher. Lower floors apply in set cases (a relevant PhD, a job on the Immigration Salary List, a new entrant at the start of a career, or some healthcare and education jobs on national pay scales), and across them the floors run about 25,000 to 37,500 pounds a year; if you rely on one of those cases, to be safe, have a job paying more than 38,000 pounds a year. It lasts up to 5 years. From outside the UK the application fee is 819 pounds for up to 3 years or 1,618 pounds for more than 3 years (628 and 1,235 pounds for jobs on the Immigration Salary List), plus the health surcharge of 1,035 pounds for each year. You also need a minimum balance in your bank account for 28 days in a row (to be safe, hold more than 1,300 pounds), unless your employer certifies it will cover your first month. New Zealand is on GOV.UK's list of nationalities that need not prove English. A decision usually comes within 3 weeks from outside the UK. The Global Talent visa needs no job offer: it is for leaders or potential leaders in academia or research, arts and culture or digital technology, with an endorsement from a Home Office approved body (or a named prize). It costs 766 pounds (561 for the endorsement and 205 for the visa) plus the health surcharge, lasts up to 5 years at a time, and the Immigration Rules allow self-employment. The High Potential Individual visa is for people awarded a degree in the last 5 years by a university on the Home Office list for that year; the 2025 list we read names no New Zealand university, so it fits someone with a degree from a listed university elsewhere. It needs no job offer, lasts 2 years (3 for a doctorate), cannot be extended, has a yearly limit on applications, and costs 880 pounds plus 252 pounds for the Ecctis qualification check and the health surcharge, with a minimum amount in savings (to be safe, hold more than 1,300 pounds). The Innovator Founder visa is for a new, innovative and scalable business endorsed by an approved body: 1,357 pounds from outside the UK, 1,000 pounds for the endorsement, a minimum bank balance (to be safe, hold more than 1,300 pounds), and 3 years' permission. None of the work and talent pages states an upper age limit; Global Talent and Innovator Founder require you to be at least 18. Work visa holders usually need 5 years in the UK before applying to settle, and Global Talent and Innovator Founder holders can need 3. Rules for settlement are separate from these visas, so check the Home Office page when you apply.

You usually get a decision by email within a day, and it can take up to 3 working days. An ETA does not guarantee entry, and if you also hold British or Irish citizenship you cannot get one and travel on that citizenship instead. The Atlas Visa Map records the ETA cost as about 25 US dollars, which is an old conversion; GOV.UK now says 20 pounds, and we follow GOV.UK. As a visitor you cannot do paid or unpaid work for a UK company or as a self-employed person, and you cannot live in the UK through frequent or successive visits. The Immigration Rules do let a visitor carry out activities relating to their employment overseas remotely from within the UK, if that is not the primary purpose of the visit. That rule names employment overseas; we found nothing saying how it treats a freelancer's overseas clients, so that is unknown. The Common Travel Area lets British and Irish citizens move and live freely in either country, and it gives a New Zealand citizen no right to live in the UK. There is no digital nomad, remote-worker or retirement visa: GOV.UK's list of work visas has none. If one of your parents was born in the UK and a citizen of the United Kingdom and colonies when you were born, you were a Commonwealth citizen on 31 December 1982 and you have never stopped being one since, you may have the right of abode, which means no visa, no ETA and no time limit; you would apply for a certificate of entitlement. We did not research that application's fee or timing, so they are unknown.

You prove your identity with the UK Immigration: ID Check app or by giving fingerprints and a photo at a visa application centre, and GOV.UK says how depends on where you are from and the passport you hold; you are told when you apply. You apply online to UK Visas and Immigration: the New Zealand High Commission in London says it has no role in UK visa processes, and the British High Commission in Wellington's page describes services for British nationals and lists no visa applications. For a Skilled Worker application you provide your certificate of sponsorship reference number, a valid passport, your job title and salary, the occupation code, and the employer's name and sponsor licence number, with bank statements for the minimum balance (to be safe, hold more than 1,300 pounds) unless the certificate shows your employer will cover your costs. A Global Talent application starts with the endorsement letter and must be made within 3 months of getting it; a High Potential Individual application needs the Ecctis certificate for your degree and proof of savings. A criminal record certificate is asked for only in certain Skilled Worker jobs. The Youth Mobility Scheme and UK Ancestry pages ask for no police certificate from New Zealanders, though GOV.UK says you may need more documents depending on your circumstances. GOV.UK says you can apply for a Youth Mobility Scheme visa up to 6 months before you travel and a decision usually comes within 3 weeks; you can apply for a UK Ancestry visa up to 3 months before you travel, also with a decision usually within 3 weeks. You can apply for a Skilled Worker visa up to 3 months before the start date on your certificate of sponsorship, with a decision usually within 3 weeks from outside the UK. Global Talent decisions also usually come within 3 weeks, and a High Potential Individual visa can be applied for up to 3 months before you travel. An ETA decision usually comes within a day. Whether you can switch from visitor status to a work visa from inside the UK is not something we researched; the UK Ancestry visa cannot be switched into from another visa.

Whether you are UK resident depends on how many days you spend in the UK in the tax year, which runs from 6 April to 5 April. You are resident if you meet an automatic UK test or the sufficient ties test and no automatic overseas test. The automatic UK tests include 183 or more days in the UK, having your only home in the UK for 91 days or more in a row with at least 30 days spent there in the year, and working full-time in the UK for any 365 days that overlap the year. You are usually non-resident if you spend fewer than 16 days in the UK (46 if you were not UK resident in the 3 previous tax years), or work full-time abroad, spend fewer than 91 days in the UK and work no more than 30 of them. Between 16 and 182 days the test counts ties such as family, accommodation and work. UK residents normally pay UK tax on income from the UK and abroad. When you move in, the year is usually split into a non-resident and a resident part. The statutory residence test is in Schedule 45 to the Finance Act 2013. A stay of 183 days or more in one tax year meets the first automatic UK test, so a full 6 months as a visitor can make you UK resident. New Zealand treats you as resident if you have a permanent place of abode there (a place you usually live, even if you rent it out while you are away) or are there more than 183 days in a 12-month period, and you stop being a resident taxpayer only if you have no permanent place of abode and are away more than 325 days in a 12-month period. Part days count as whole days towards the 183 and do not count towards the 325. If both countries count you as resident, Article 4 of the 1983 New Zealand-UK convention decides: first the country where you have a permanent home available, then where your personal and economic relations are closer, then where you have a habitual abode, then your nationality, and the two tax authorities settle it if you are a national of both or neither. A new convention signed on 1 June 2026 is not yet in force, so the 1983 convention applies.

Employees pay Class 1 National Insurance of 8% on weekly earnings between 242.01 and 967 pounds and 2% above. Self-employed people pay Class 4 of 6% on profits from 12,570 to 50,270 pounds and 2% above, and no Class 2 contributions where profit is 7,105 pounds or more. Capital gains are taxed at 18% and 24% for individuals, with a 3,000 pound annual exempt amount. We have not worked out any person's bill.

It covers eligible foreign income and gains such as foreign interest, dividends from non-UK companies and profits of a trade carried on wholly outside the UK, but foreign earnings are not eligible. If you claim, you lose the tax-free allowances for Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax. Overseas Workday Relief covers employment income for duties you perform outside the UK in those years, up to the lower of 30% of the qualifying employment income or 300,000 pounds, and electing for it also loses the Personal Allowance and annual exempt amount for the year. Work you do while physically in the UK is not covered, so a New Zealand employee working remotely from the UK gains little from it. These are UK reliefs: they do not change what New Zealand taxes while you remain a New Zealand tax resident, so ask an adviser whether either regime changes your total.

A new convention signed in London on 1 June 2026 is listed by both as not yet in force; once it is, it replaces the 1983 convention for the taxes it covers, starting from the next 1 April for New Zealand tax and the next 6 April for UK income tax. Under the 1983 convention, income from independent professional services is taxable only in the country where you are resident unless you are present in the other for more than 183 days in any 12 months or have a fixed base there, and then only the part earned there. Salary can be taxed in the country where the work is done; it stays taxable only in your country of residence if you are in the other country 183 days or less in 12 months, the employer is not resident there and the pay is not borne by the employer's permanent establishment there. Pensions, including social security pensions, are taxable only in the country you live in. Dividends can be taxed at source up to 15%, and interest and royalties up to 10%. Each country gives a credit for the other's tax on income from sources there, subject to its own credit rules. The text does not say how these rules apply to a remote worker who lives in the UK and is paid by a New Zealand employer, so that is a question for an adviser. If you do become a non-resident taxpayer in New Zealand you can still owe New Zealand tax on New Zealand-source income, the change is backdated to the day you left, and you should tell your New Zealand bank so the right non-resident withholding tax is taken.

If you have lived in New Zealand and now live in the UK, it can help you claim UK State Pension, Widow's and Bereavement Benefits, Incapacity Benefits, Guardian's Allowance, Child Benefit and Jobseeker's Allowance from the UK International Pension Centre, and you can add up periods of residence in either country to meet their conditions. You cannot get any New Zealand payments under it, and Work and Income says that if you live in the UK you cannot get NZ Super or Veteran's Pension; you may get a UK pension instead. The pages list payments and say nothing about who pays social contributions on work income, so we found no rule for a New Zealander who moves to the UK on their own; UK National Insurance applies to UK earnings under UK rules, and whether anything else applies is unknown. New Zealand has reciprocal health agreements only with Australia and the UK. For the UK, Health New Zealand says the agreement is for temporary stays (the UK treats that as up to 6 months), and that New Zealanders in the UK for longer than 6 months still have access to the NHS but pay the immigration health surcharge with their visa application. The UK's own charging guidance lists an arrangement for necessary healthcare for New Zealand nationals who live in New Zealand, which Health New Zealand describes as covering temporary stays. So the surcharge still applies to a long stay. The government KiwiSaver contribution needs you to live mainly in New Zealand; after a year living overseas (not in Australia) you can withdraw most of your savings, but not the government contributions. You are overseas-based for a student loan if you are in New Zealand 31 days or fewer in a 184-day period, and the loan then stops being interest-free from the day after you leave.

If you are UK resident with foreign income or gains you usually report them on a Self Assessment return; if you have not filed before, tell HMRC by 5 October after the tax year in which you had the income. On the New Zealand side, tell Inland Revenue and your bank when you leave, and file an IR3 for any year you are still a New Zealand tax resident with overseas income. We found no official figure for how long HMRC registration takes.