Below is a quote from INZ:

“Temporary visa holders whose visas expire before 1 April must apply for new visas. They will be issued interim visas. (Interim visas last 6 months).

If your visa expires between 1 April and 9 July will automatically have their visas extended until the end of September. INZ will email you directly”

Advice from us:

This only applies to migrants who are in NZ already; migrants who went overseas for holidays with their visa expiry dates coming in should apply for visa as normal process offshore or online to ensure they can come in when borders are open.

If you have ongoing work visa process; where you were thinking to submit your application in next month or so for an essential skills visa then you may want to submit that in such a way that employer does not have to do another labour market check or another advertisement. Labour market check is valid for 90 days from date of advert. You can choose to submit your application towards the end of the advertisement expiry if needed to save you more months on a temporary visa, However, if you delay a full 6 months then employer has to go through the process of LMC again where it will be same process of advertising and interviewing people to justify labour market check requirements!

Open work visa holders after study – You will have to be careful as usually to get open work visa you must apply within 3 months after finishing your study so be careful on this!