INZ says your job is not skilled — ANZSCO, skill levels and the substantial match test

What ANZSCO is — and which version INZ actually uses

ANZSCO is the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations, a joint statistical classification that assigns every occupation a six-digit code and a skill level from 1 (most skilled) to 5, based on the qualification and experience the occupation commensurately requires. The statisticians have already moved on — Stats NZ released its replacement National Occupation List (NOL) in November 2024 and Australia released its own successor — but INZ has not: its instructions still assess against ANZSCO version 1.2 as the general rule, version 1.3 for Skilled Migrant Category applications, and the NOL only for the specific occupations expressly listed in Appendix 20 of the operational manual for AEWV purposes. INZ says it will keep using ANZSCO until a full transition, with no confirmed date.

That version detail is not trivia. The NOL recognises occupations ANZSCO handles badly — it splits chef roles into head chef, sous chef, chef de partie and demi chef at different skill levels, where ANZSCO forced most kitchens into a chef-or-cook binary — and 47 more NOL occupations were recognised for the AEWV in March 2026. If your occupation reads badly in ANZSCO, checking whether an Appendix 20 NOL occupation fits the real duties is now a legitimate first move for AEWV purposes. NOL codes are not yet recognised for residence.

The substantial match test — how INZ decides what your job really is

The machinery is the same at both decision points — WA3.16.1 for the AEWV job check, SR2.1.1 for Skilled Migrant residence. The employment must be substantially consistent with the six-digit occupation description and with the tasks listed at the four-digit unit-group level, excluding tasks not relevant to the occupation — and the tasks relevant to the occupation must comprise most of the role. Your job title is irrelevant if the duties do not match: the test is substance, not label.

Officers may also weigh the scope and scale of the employer's operation — the size of the business, the number of staff and managers, and whether management functions are centralised at a head office. That factor is where franchise and small-format retail managers lose: a store manager whose pricing, purchasing and staffing decisions sit with the franchisor or head office can be found not to be managing in the ANZSCO sense, however demanding the job. Qualifications and experience required for the role, and the pay offered, are part of the same picture.

What skill level changes on the AEWV

Since 10 March 2025 there is no median wage threshold for the AEWV — pay must be at or above the adult minimum wage and not less than the market rate for the occupation. What skill level still controls is almost everything else:

• Advertising and MSD engagement: jobs at ANZSCO (or listed NOL) skill level 1–3 need at least 14 days' advertising before the job check; level 4–5 jobs need 21 days plus engagement with Work and Income. Roles paying at least twice the median wage ($70.00 an hour from 9 March 2026) or on the Green List are exempt from advertising.
• English: applicants for level 4–5 roles must meet an English standard (IELTS 4.0 or equivalent) — and from 1 June 2026 that requirement extends to skill level 3 roles, with a transitional exemption for existing AEWV holders whose visa expires on or before 1 December 2026 applying to use the balance of their stay.
• Maximum stay and stand-down: skill level 1–3 (including listed NOL occupations, Green List roles, and any role paid at least 1.5 times the median — $52.50 an hour) allows up to five years' continuous stay; level 4–5 allows three. At the end of the maximum stay the holder must spend 12 consecutive months outside New Zealand before a fresh AEWV.
• The applicant threshold: since 10 March 2025, two years' relevant experience (evidenced beyond your own CV) or a relevant Level 4+ qualification — waived for Green List roles or pay at twice the median.
• Appendix 7 upgrades: cooks, fitness instructors, scaffolders and slaughterers are treated as skill level 3 despite their ANZSCO level, and several plant-operator roles can be — where the employer sets level-3-equivalent requirements.

Skilled employment for residence — how the SMC really reads a code

The Skilled Migrant Category needs six points from income, qualification or New Zealand registration, topped up by New Zealand skilled work experience — but underneath the points sits the skilled employment requirement, and this is where the code bites. Employment in an ANZSCO skill level 1–3 occupation qualifies at the median wage ($35.00 an hour from 9 March 2026); employment in a level 4–5 occupation, or one not in ANZSCO at all, qualifies only at 1.5 times the median ($52.50). A low-skill code is therefore not a bar to residence — it is a 50% higher wage bar. The job must also be full-time, genuine, permanent or at least a 12-month fixed term, and with an accredited employer.

Officers assessing SMC applications apply the same substantial match test against ANZSCO version 1.3, and may separately assess whether you are suitably qualified for the occupation — holding the qualification the code indicates, or the experience ANZSCO accepts in substitution (five years for a skill level 1 occupation, three for levels 2–3). Changes announced for 24 August 2026 will add a trades and technician pathway, red and amber occupation lists and a wage lock-in rule; if you are reading this after that date, check the current instructions before relying on the settings described here.

The occupations that get fought over

Disputed skill assessments are the single biggest theme in the residence appeals the Immigration and Protection Tribunal publishes — the tribunal's own index records "position not skilled" against nearly 1,500 decisions, with retail managers, store managers, restaurant managers and chefs the most-named occupations. Across 3,767 decided Skilled Migrant appeals in the published record, 48% were allowed — and the full appeal-rate analysis shows how sharply outcomes differ with representation.

The recurring patterns: a franchise or small-store manager whose autonomy sits with head office (the scope-and-scale factor above); a café or restaurant manager in a quick-service format that INZ reads as a lower-skilled retail occupation; and the chef-versus-cook boundary, where seniority and menu responsibility decide which side of the line the role falls — a fight the NOL's chef split now partly defuses for AEWV purposes. In every version the evidence that matters is the same: what you actually do, day to day, documented.

What to do when INZ disagrees with your code

If INZ doubts the match mid-application, it must put the concern to you before deciding on it — a PPI letter, and the response is where the case is won or lost. Answer the actual test: a detailed statement of duties mapped against the unit-group tasks, an organisation chart showing what you control, an employer letter addressing scale and autonomy, rosters or timesheets showing where the hours go, and evidence of the qualifications, experience and pay the role carries. Generic job descriptions restating the ANZSCO text are read as exactly that.

After a decline, the routes split. A declined job check has no appeal — the employer can seek reconsideration within 14 calendar days, decided by a different officer for a fee, with no obligation to consider new information, so a fresh, better-evidenced job check is often the cleaner path. A declined temporary visa likewise has no appeal to the tribunal. A declined Skilled Migrant residence application, by contrast, carries a full appeal to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal within 42 days — on the grounds that the decision was wrong under the instructions or that your circumstances warrant an exception. And where the duties genuinely fit a different code — another ANZSCO occupation, or a listed NOL occupation for AEWV purposes — claiming the right code from the start beats defending the wrong one.