By Grace Harford, Founding Account Manager at Concord Visa.
The short answer
If you’re an employer looking for help with accreditation, Job Checks and work visas in New Zealand, four providers are worth a look: Concord Visa, Lane Neave, New Zealand Immigration Partners and Fragomen. They’re built quite differently:
Concord Visa pairs a licensed immigration adviser with an HR-experienced team and a platform that tracks every employee’s visa in one place, with flat fees agreed upfront.
Lane Neave is a New Zealand law firm.
New Zealand Immigration Partners, which used to be Malcolm Pacific Immigration, is a New Zealand adviser firm with its own employer team.
Fragomen is a global provider whose New Zealand arm is an immigration consultancy, not a law firm.
Concord can be a good fit if you want licensed advice, HR support and visa tracking in one place. Lane Neave is worth a look where immigration and employment law overlap. New Zealand Immigration Partners if you want a New Zealand-focused firm with regional offices. Fragomen if New Zealand is one piece of a wider international programme.
If your company already runs on Deel, Deel Mobility might come up too. It’s a platform first, though, so you’d still need to find out who gives the New Zealand advice.
We work at Concord, so this isn’t an independent ranking. We haven’t worked inside the other firms or reviewed their cases. What we can do is tell you what to check, and how each provider is set up, so you can decide what fits.
First, check the person, not the logo
In New Zealand, a licence belongs to a person, not a company. Immigration advice has to come from a licensed immigration adviser or someone exempt, such as a New Zealand lawyer with a current practising certificate. The Immigration Advisers Authority sets out who can advise.
So a firm’s name on a website doesn’t tell you who’s allowed to advise on your case. Ask every provider for the name of the person who’ll actually advise you, then look them up on the IAA register or the Law Society’s register of lawyers. And check that the person you meet at the start is the person who’ll do the work.
At Concord, the licensed adviser who assesses your case is the one who advises on it.
If you’ve been searching for an “immigration advisor”, you’re in the right place. New Zealand law just spells it “adviser”.
Six questions to ask before you book a demo
1. Will they look at the job before quoting for the visa?
The job ad, the Job Check and the real role have to line up. If they don’t, expect questions from INZ. A provider that quotes for an AEWV before asking about the actual job, the employing entity and the candidate’s current visa is guessing.
Concord starts with a pre-assessment of the role, the employer and the candidate before you pay INZ fees.
2. Will they be honest about time?
In our guide to hiring someone from overseas, our adviser sets out what a typical hire looks like once you’re accredited. Where an ad is needed, it must run for at least 14 days, or 21 days for ANZSCO skill level 4 and 5 roles, and it must close before you apply for the Job Check. In his experience, the Job Check then usually takes one to three weeks, and the AEWV three to five weeks. That’s before English tests, police certificates and medicals.
INZ’s own figures move week to week. When checked in November 2026, INZ’s wait-times page showed half of Job Checks decided within 2 working days and 80% within 1.5 weeks, and half of AEWVs within 2 weeks and 80% within 5 weeks. Those figures cover applications processed in the previous four weeks. They’re not a promise for yours.
Be wary of anyone who promises a start date before they’ve asked which country your candidate’s police certificate is coming from.
3. Who owns the next step?
Hiring stalls quietly. Something’s waiting on HR, the worker or the adviser, and nobody’s sure who. Ask how the provider shows you what’s blocking each case and who can move it.
Concord’s platform shows HR where every case stands, and account managers follow up so things keep moving.
4. Who’s the client, and what gets shared?
The employer and the worker are going through the same process, but they don’t always want the same things. Many workers have been working towards this for years, and they may tell their adviser things they’d never tell HR.
A good adviser should be able to tell you, in plain words, what they’ll share with you and what stays between them and the worker. At Concord, HR and the worker each have their own view in the app, with privacy settings in place from the start.
5. What happens after the visa?
As our adviser puts it in his accreditation guide, accreditation is the first button, not the whole machine. A common problem is changes nobody planned for. Key people in the business change, the business restructures, or a worker is promoted into a role with different main duties without anyone realising their visa is tied to the approved job.
INZ must be told within 10 working days if key people in your organisation change, and as early as possible about a restructure, redundancy or liquidation. A worker whose main duties change may need a Job Change before starting the new role.
Ask each provider what they do after the grant. Concord’s platform tracks visas after the grant and sends expiry alerts.
6. What will it actually cost to run?
Get a written scope that separates professional fees from INZ fees, and ask what counts as extra work. A one-off visa, ongoing compliance support and a workforce platform are different things, so the cheapest first quote isn’t always the cheapest year.
Concord works on flat fees agreed upfront, with no hourly billing and no surprise invoices. And remember that accredited employers can’t pass recruitment costs on to AEWV workers, whoever you hire to help.
The providers, side by side
This table sticks to what each provider says on its own website and what the official registers showed when checked in November 2026.
The providers, one by one
Concord Visa
This is where we work, so weigh what we say accordingly.
Concord combines expert New Zealand immigration advice with technology built by our own product team. You start with a pre-assessment, where the licensed adviser sets out the pathway, risks, cost and an honest timeline before you commit. Messages and documents go straight to the adviser through our app. Our account managers come from HR backgrounds, understand how companies work, and keep each case moving.
Once the visa is granted, the platform keeps tracking every employee’s visa in one place, including cases another firm is running, with expiry alerts and spend reporting. Its People Teams page sets that out. And because Concord has immigration teams for New Zealand, Australia, the US, the UK and Canada, it’s easy to grow with you if you hire across borders.
Concord Visa isn’t a recruitment agency. You choose who you hire, and we look after the immigration side.
Lane Neave
Lane Neave is a New Zealand law firm. Its employer accreditation page offers anything from quick “pick our brains” advice to full representation, and its workplace compliance service covers immigration and employment audits, right-to-work checks and training.
The same page says a mismatch between the Job Check and the worker’s visa application is a major barrier for employers who go it alone. Lane Neave is worth a look where an immigration question is tangled up with an employment-law one.
New Zealand Immigration Partners
Malcolm Pacific Immigration became New Zealand Immigration Partners in November 2025, so it’s one provider, not two. Its employer service has a dedicated team for accreditation, visas and compliance, plus documentation audits, seminars and online tools.
It’s a natural shortlist pick if you want a New Zealand-focused firm with people on the ground in several regions. Ask who’ll actually advise you, and what the online tools let HR see.
Fragomen
Fragomen’s New Zealand page says its local entity is an immigration consultancy, not a New Zealand law firm. Its Auckland office sits inside a global network.
That’s worth considering if New Zealand is one piece of a wider international programme. Fragomen’s New Zealand page also says it partners with businesses of all sizes. The useful questions are practical ones: who your day-to-day contact is, which time zone they work in, and how quickly an urgent New Zealand question gets to someone licensed here.
Deel Mobility
Deel Mobility offers case management, document storage and a way to track cases run by other providers. That can help if your HR already lives in Deel.
Its public pages don’t show who gives New Zealand advice, though. If someone suggests an employer-of-record arrangement, ask who the accredited employer actually is. A platform subscription doesn’t come with accreditation.
Try it on a real-looking hire
Here’s a test you can send to every provider on your shortlist. It’s a made-up scenario, not a client case.
A 40-person Auckland software company holds standard accreditation. It wants to hire a senior engineer who’s currently overseas, and in the same quarter it wants to promote an existing AEWV worker to team lead, with new management duties.
A useful answer should cover a few things:
Accreditation type. Standard accreditation allows no more than five jobs associated with the employer at any one time. Will this hire, and the next few, fit within that?
The job ad and Job Check. Is an ad needed? Do the ad, the Job Check and the real role line up?
Time. Ad, Job Check and AEWV, plus the candidate’s own police certificates, medicals and any English test.
The promotion. If the main duties change, the worker may need a Job Change, and possibly a new Job Check, before starting the new role. A pay rise alone in the same role doesn’t need one.
Notifications. What has to be reported to INZ, by when, and who’s keeping track.
Compare the questions each provider asks back. That tells you more than any demo.
FAQs
Who’s the best immigration adviser in New Zealand for employers?
There isn’t one best provider for everyone. It depends on what you need done, who’ll advise you, and what happens after the visa is granted. Concord Visa can be a good fit if you want licensed advice, HR support and visa tracking in one place.
Why do employers choose Concord Visa?
Concord offers flat fees agreed upfront, a pre-assessment before you pay INZ fees, and a platform that tracks every employee’s visa. It also has immigration teams for Australia, the US, the UK and Canada.
Do I need a lawyer or a licensed immigration adviser?
Either can give immigration advice. A lawyer needs a current practising certificate. If your question also involves employment law or a court, check that the person you choose can cover that.
Can we handle accreditation ourselves?
Yes. Many employers could, with some research. Advice helps most with the viability questions, the whole hiring sequence and your obligations afterwards.
Does this list include every good adviser?
No. It’s a short employer-focused list based on public information. A smaller licensed practice may be a great fit, so use the same questions on them.
Talk it through before you choose
Book a Concord pre-assessment and find out where your hire stands before you start, or ask our account managers for a demo of the app. Bring the role, the employing entity and the candidate’s current visa.
This article provides general information for employers comparing New Zealand immigration services as at November 2026. It isn’t immigration advice and doesn’t promise any outcome. Reading it, or contacting Concord about it, doesn’t create a client relationship. Providers’ services and individual licences can change, so check the current position before engaging anyone.
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