45, a Chinese-cuisine head chef at a five-star hotel, 18 years in the trade, specialising in Cantonese cooking. His opening to us: "A friend told me I'd need to come over and do a chef's certificate course first, and then I could stay on."
A lot of consultants would have said yes. Study courses generate extra fees.
We told him: he didn't need to study at all.
The reality of his case:
- 18 years of experience, far exceeding any work-experience threshold for chefs in New Zealand
- Senior Chinese-cuisine chef is a recognised skilled occupation
- What he needed wasn't a qualification. He needed an employer willing to sponsor him.
He'd been searching online and through his own networks. He'd found a high-end Cantonese restaurant in Auckland whose owner was happy to take him on. But the owner had never sponsored an overseas worker before, and the restaurant hadn't yet gone through Immigration NZ's employer accreditation process.
This was where Edustar actually went to work.
Step one: getting the restaurant accredited. New Zealand's work-visa system requires employers to be accredited before they can sponsor overseas workers. Accreditation requires a stack of evidence: financial statements, employment policies, recruitment processes, compliance with labour standards. Most Chinese restaurant owners have never dealt with anything like this. We worked through it with the owner item by item over a couple of months.
Step two: the Job Check. Once accreditation came through, the restaurant still had to lodge a Job Check for this specific position — proving the role actually needed an overseas worker, that the pay met the threshold (chef positions need to meet the median wage of NZD 35/hour or above), and that the recruitment process had been compliant.
Step three: his work visa application. With the Job Check approved, he could finally apply using the employer's accreditation details. We prepared his visa materials, organised proof of his 18 years of work history, and ran a compliance review on his employment contract.
The whole process took about five months. He's now working at that Cantonese restaurant, hourly wage NZD 36, two-year contract. The next step is residence after two years of work.
He didn't study a single day — saving roughly NZD 30,000 in tuition and a full year of his life.
“I'd thought finding an employer was half the battle. It turned out the owner was doing this for the first time too. Both of us got walked through it by Edustar, step by step.”
This case has been anonymised. Outcomes depend on individual circumstances and policy changes.