New Zealand to Allow Filipinos to Work and Stay for Holiday and Leisure Through a Working Holiday Scheme (WHS) Visa

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) reported on Monday that starting February 5, 2014 New Zealand will allow Filipinos to apply for a Working Holiday Scheme (WHS) Visa to be a ble to work and stay for holiday and leisure.

The arrangement on the special visa was signed on October 23, 2013 between Philippine DFA Secretary Albert Del Rosario and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully and witnessed by President Benigno S. Aquino III and Prime Minister John Key in Wellington.

Under the Working Holiday Scheme, eligible Filipinos and New Zealanders between 18 and 30 can apply to go to New Zealand and the Philippines for up to 12 months. To be eligible, Working Holiday Scheme applicants must:

• have a passport from the Republic of the Philippines that is valid for at least three months after your planned departure from New Zealand
• be at least 18 and not more than 30 years old
• not bring children with you
• hold a return ticket, or sufficient funds to purchase such a ticket*
• have a minimum of NZ$4,200 (154,664 Php) available funds to meet your living costs while you are here
• meet our health and character requirements
• hold medical and comprehensive hospitalisation insurance for the length of your stay
• have a tertiary qualification granted in respect of a minimum of three years’ full-time university study
• have a level of proficiency in English that is assessed as at least functional (see below)
• be coming to New Zealand to holiday, with work or study being secondary intentions for your visit, and
• not have been approved a visa under a working holiday scheme before.

For the requirements and relevant details of the WHS arrangement, interested applicants from the Philippines, you may contact the Embassy of New Zealand in Makati (http://www.nzembassy.com/philippines) while those from New Zealand can get in touch with the Embassy of the Philippines in Wellington (http://www.philembassy.org.nz/).