I’ve been going through the New Zealand Skilled Migrant Category process myself. It’s… a lot. And somewhere between digging through INZ PDFs and explaining the same 6-point system to friends for the fifth time, I realized something: the information exists, but it’s trapped.
Google “new zealand immigration points calculator” and what do you get? Ads. Brokerage sites. Blog posts written by people who’ve clearly never filled out an EOI. Every page wants your email before giving you anything useful. The actual tools that are free are usually built by governments, which means they work on desktop in 2015 and break on your phone.
So I started building something I’d actually want to use. Three things, really.
A Points Calculator That Actually Helps
The SMC 6-point system looks simple on paper — qualification, income, or registration, pick your highest. But then you realize there are NZ experience bonuses, thresholds that shift every year, and an offer from an accredited employer that doesn’t even give you points but is still mandatory.
I wanted a calculator where you punch in your details and it tells you not just “you have 5 points” but “you need one more point — here are three ways to get it, and here’s our guide on each.”
A Green List Checker That Actually Searches
INZ publishes the green list as a PDF. A PDF! In 2026!
I scraped it into JSON and wired up fuzzy search so you can type “software engineer” or “civil” or even just “2613” and get what you need. The whole dataset is under 50KB, so it loads instantly even on a 3G connection in Manila or Mumbai.
A Score Converter Because I Got Tired of Opening Three Tabs
PTE, IELTS, TOEFL — everyone takes a different test, and INZ accepts all of them. But the score mappings aren’t one-to-one. I locked myself in a room with the official tables and built a three-way converter. Input your PTE score, get IELTS and TOEFL equivalents, plus a yes/no on whether you clear the SMC English threshold. That’s it. No newsletter signup.
The Tech Stack Is Deliberately Boring
Astro 4, Tailwind, static HTML. No database, no login wall, no server bill. I want this thing to load fast on a phone with spotty signal, rank well on Google, and not break when I’m not looking at it. Cloudflare Pages handles the hosting for free.
The whole site is bilingual (English + Chinese) because the people who need this most aren’t always native English speakers, and machine-translated immigration advice is… let’s say risky.
What I’m Not Building (Yet)
No user accounts, no comments, no “certified employer list” that needs weekly scraping. That can wait. I’m also not pretending to be an immigration adviser — there’s a disclaimer on every page, and the /about page tells the honest truth: I’m just someone going through the same process who got annoyed at the existing websites.
Monetization is there, but it’s not the point. AdSense slots are reserved but empty until the site has real traffic. Affiliate links for PTE prep and money transfer services are configured but clearly labeled. The priority is: tools first, trust second, revenue third.
Where We Are Now
The data layer is done — all the SMC rules, green list occupations, and English score mappings are in JSON files with source URLs and last-verified dates. Nothing is made up. If INZ changes a threshold, I change a JSON file and redeploy.
Next up: wiring the React islands into Astro, making sure the mobile layout doesn’t suck, and then writing the actual content. Twenty guides across two languages. No pressure.
If you’re reading this and you’re also navigating the NZ immigration maze — good luck. I hope this site saves you a few hours of frustration.
Check it out at nz-pathway.com — it’s live (or will be very soon).