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Check a job offer letter from Tanzania: seven things to read before you resign

Tips · 2026-11-02 · 10 min read

Before you hand in your notice in Dar es Salaam, Arusha or Mwanza, read the offer letter as if you were the person who has to live with it. A genuine offer from Australia or New Zealand names the employer, the role, the hours, the pay and the start date, and it never asks you to pay for the job. A job offer is also not a visa: the visa decision is made by the immigration department, not by the employer.

This guide gives you seven checks to run on the letter and the contract, a short order of steps, and the red flags that should make you pause. It is general information, not advice on your own case.

Why the offer letter matters before the visa

For a sponsored job, the offer is the first document the immigration department will care about. In Australia, the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) lets an employer sponsor a suitably skilled worker for a position they cannot fill locally. In New Zealand, the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) is for people with a job offer from an accredited employer. If the letter does not match the visa rules, the plan can fall apart after you have already left your current job.

Our guides to the Skills in Demand (482) visa and working in New Zealand on an AEWV explain each visa in full.

Seven checks to run on the letter

Employer and role: do they match the visa?

Start with the name. Search for the business, then compare the letter, the contract and any emails. If the sender writes from a free email address while claiming to be a large company, stop and ask for a call on a number you have found yourself.

For New Zealand, use Immigration New Zealand's accredited employer list. You can search by the 13-digit New Zealand Business Number or by company or trading name, and the list is updated daily. Some accredited employers choose not to appear in the search results, so if you cannot find the name, ask the employer directly instead of assuming the worst or the best.

For Australia, ask which occupation the employer will nominate you for and whether the stream is Core Skills, Specialist Skills or Labour Agreement. In the Core Skills stream the worker must be nominated for an occupation on the Core Skills Occupation List and paid the Annual Market Salary Rate for that occupation, and no less than the Core Skills Income Threshold. If your letter says "general worker" but your skills are those of an electrician, the mismatch is worth raising before you sign.

The role also decides what you can do later. A 482 holder may work only in the nominated occupation and only for the nominating business, apart from some cases involving an associated entity.

Hours, pay and conditions

In New Zealand an AEWV job offer must be for at least 30 hours of work a week, from an accredited employer with an approved job check for the job, and paid at least the market rate for the job. The Immigration New Zealand AEWV page sets out these rules and the evidence required.

In Australia, the National Minimum Wage is $26.44 an hour or $1004.90 a week from 1 July 2026, based on a week of 38 ordinary hours. Most employees are paid under the award for their industry, and award rates may be higher than the minimum. The Fair Work Commission increased modern award rates by 4.75 per cent from 1 July 2026. In New Zealand the adult minimum wage is $23.95 an hour before tax from 1 April 2026. Your offer should not sit at or below these figures unless you have a clear explanation.

Then read the conditions that are easy to skip:

• Leave. In Australia full-time and part-time employees get 4 weeks of paid annual leave a year, and paid sick and carer's leave is 10 days a year for full-time employees. New Zealand employees become entitled to at least 4 weeks of paid annual holidays after 12 months of continuous employment, and eligible employees get 10 days of paid sick leave each year.
• Pay slips. In Australia a pay slip must be given within 1 working day of pay day.
• Rights. Visa holders and migrant workers in Australia have the same workplace rights as other employees, and everyone in New Zealand, including migrants, has the same minimum employment rights.

Trial shifts, deductions and bonds

A paid job should not begin with unpaid work. In Australia an unpaid work trial may be unlawful if it lasts longer than needed to demonstrate the skills for the job (from an hour to one shift, depending on the work), goes beyond a skills demonstration, or is not directly supervised. Fair Work explains this on its unpaid trials page. A letter that asks you to work a week for free before you "qualify" is a warning sign.

For New Zealand sponsored work, an AEWV employment agreement cannot include unlawful deductions, a trial period or unacceptable bonding clauses. Ask for any clause on training costs or repayment to be explained in writing.

Who pays for sponsorship

This is the check that protects your money. The Australian sponsoring employer must pay all costs of becoming a sponsor and nominating an applicant, and cannot transfer these costs to the visa holder or their family. Employers must also not pass the Skilling Australians Fund levy on to the visa applicant. The department's cost of sponsoring page lists them.

It is illegal for a person to pay an employer to sponsor them for a visa, including through salary deductions, and doing so can lead to visa refusal or cancellation, fines or imprisonment. New Zealand is just as firm: New Zealand employers cannot charge you fees for a job or make you pay any of their recruitment costs, including indirectly through a third party, and INZ will decline an AEWV application if the applicant or their agent offered or promised money to the employer in exchange for a job offer.

So a letter that says "pay a deposit to secure the position" is not a favour. It can cost you the visa. Our explanation of what the employer and the worker each do for a 482 visa shows which tasks are the employer's.

Order of steps before you resign

1. Save the offer letter, the contract and every email in one folder, and keep copies off your phone.
2. Confirm the employer: check the accredited list for New Zealand, or ask for the sponsor and nomination details for Australia.
3. Compare the role, hours and pay with the table above and note every mismatch.
4. Ask in writing who pays each cost, and keep the reply.
5. Prepare your documents while you wait, including a clear English CV. A tool such as Build AI CV can help you tidy the wording, but the facts must match your certificates and past work.
6. Wait for the visa decision before you resign, sell property or book flights. A 482 holder who is outside Australia when the visa is granted must begin work within 90 days of entering the country, so the start date can be arranged around the visa rather than before it.

If you want to see what roles exist while you prepare, browse the current jobs, such as a fitter, turner and welder role in Christchurch or a carpenter role in Cairns, and read each ad the way you read an offer. The wider visa guides collect the main routes in one place.

Common mistakes

• Resigning on the strength of an email. An offer is not a visa, and a temporary New Zealand visa does not mean residence will follow.
• Paying a "processing" or "recruitment" fee. Scamwatch lists being asked to pay a recruitment fee or for training materials before starting as a warning sign of job scams, alongside unexpected contact on WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram and a quick hiring process with no interview.
• Sending your passport scan to anyone who asks. Scamwatch advises never sending your passport or identity documents to an employer or recruitment firm unless you are certain they are genuine.
• Accepting a role description that differs from your skills, then discovering the sponsored occupation is not the work you expected.
• Trusting a visa document you have not checked. A visa grant that cannot be found in VEVO is probably fake, and a New Zealand visa can be checked with INZ's Visa Verification service.

Our five-point honesty check before you lodge is a useful companion once the offer is sorted.

Frequently asked questions

Can I resign as soon as I receive an offer letter?

It is safer to wait for the visa decision. An offer shows that an employer wants to hire you, but only the immigration department can grant a visa, and an employer cannot cancel or grant one for you.

Can the employer ask me to pay for the sponsorship?

No. In Australia the sponsoring employer must pay the costs of becoming a sponsor and nominating you, and paying an employer for sponsorship is illegal. In New Zealand employers cannot charge you fees for a job or pass on recruitment costs.

What if the pay in the letter is lower than I expected?

Ask the employer to explain the rate in writing. For the Skills in Demand visa Core Skills stream, the worker must be paid the Annual Market Salary Rate for the occupation, and for an AEWV the job must pay at least the market rate, so a low figure is worth questioning.

Is an unpaid trial shift normal?

Only a short trial that demonstrates the skills may be lawful in Australia, and it must be directly supervised. A trial that runs longer than needed, or that goes beyond a skills demonstration, may be unlawful. An AEWV agreement cannot include a trial period.

Who can I call if I am worried about my rights after I arrive?

For workplace help in another language in Australia, call the Translating and Interpreting Service on 131 450 and ask them to call the Fair Work Ombudsman on 13 13 94. Visa holders have the same workplace protections as other employees.

Key takeaways

• Read the employer, role, hours, pay, start date, deductions and payments before you resign.
• Match the offer to the visa rules, not only to what the email promises.
• Nobody should charge you to sponsor you or to give you a job.
• Check New Zealand employers on the accredited list and ask about any that are not shown.
• Wait for the visa decision, and keep every document and message in one place.

#job offer letter #employment contract #aewv #skills in demand visa #job offer scams #tanzania