About
Built by someone going through it
I am a programmer preparing to emigrate to New Zealand, and I started NZ Pathway because I needed it myself. I am going through New Zealand's 6-point Skilled Migrant Category process — the same points calculations, the same wage-threshold checks, the same refreshing of INZ pages at midnight that brought you here.
When I started, the information I needed was scattered across INZ's operational manual, PDF concordance tables, forum threads quoting rules abolished two years ago, and migration-agent blogs that answer every question with "book a consultation". The rules themselves are public — they are just hard to use. What I wanted was one free site that brings together everything about the immigration process, so I would not have to piece together answers across a dozen websites. I hope this site saves you the hours of research I spent on my own journey.
What this site is
NZ Pathway is a decision companion for the whole New Zealand immigration journey — from calculating your points to settling in after you land. It now brings together 65 guides and 8 free tools that organise those public rules: an SMC points calculator, a Green List checker covering all 201 occupations, a pathway finder, pay, tax and cost-of-living calculators, an English score converter, and guides that explain the system the way I wish someone had explained it to me. A policy tracker and email subscription keep watch on INZ changes between your visits. Every figure shows the date it was last verified against an official source, which is always linked.
Who writes this
NZ Pathway is written and maintained by Lei Wang, a programmer and independent developer based in China who is preparing a 6-point Skilled Migrant Category application. He is not a licensed immigration adviser, not an agent, and takes no commission for recommendations. More on the author page, and how figures are checked in the editorial policy.
What this site is not
It is not immigration advice, and I am not a licensed immigration adviser. Nothing here can account for your individual circumstances — for that, you need a Licensed Immigration Adviser. What I can do is make the public rules legible, so that whatever you decide next, you decide it with real numbers.
How it stays free
The site is free and funded by advertising. If a clearly-marked affiliate link is ever added where a product is genuinely useful, any commission will be labelled. The calculators will never require a sign-up, and your inputs never leave your browser.
I update the site promptly when policies change, but I still strongly recommend that after reading anything here, you verify it once more on the official source — in case something has moved. If you spot something outdated — and with immigration policy, something always is — please tell me. Corrections make the site better for the next person standing where you are now.