Practising Licence for overseas trained applicants
You can only apply for a Practising Licence once you have completed your registration requirements from your assessment outcome letter while holding a Limited Certificate.
Please refer to your assessment outcome letter to make sure you have completed your registration requirements before you apply for a Practicing Licence. All electrical workers must hold a Practising Licence to carry out prescribed electrical work.
You must have completed a Competence programme course within the last 2 years to be able to apply for a Practicing Licence.
You can check your competence status by logging into your EW Portal and selecting “Manage my competence portal”.
If you need to complete a course you can find a Board approved Training Provider here:
Apply for a Practising Licence
If you have not previously paid for a Practising Licence you can do so by completing the following:
Login to your EW Portal and select "Apply for a Practising Licence”.
Upload the required documents in your application;
- Certified colour copy of your Proof of Identity – Passport Personal Identity page (if not already on file) Approved certifiers:
Oaths and Declarations Act 1957(external link) — Legislation website - A photo that meets the criteria for your ID card (if not already on file):
- a face, head and shoulders shot, looking directly at the camera and less than 6 months old;
- plain, light coloured background;
- sunglasses, glasses with tinted lenses OR headwear that obscures your face are not permitted;
- 3:4 – width to height ratio, in full colour;
- between 50KB and 5MB in size (or printed image for paper applications) and
- Saved in .jpg or .jpeg format.
- Check that your photo meets the requirements here:
Online photo checker(external link) – New Zealand passports
- Payment details (credit/debit card).
- Send your supporting documents by email to applications@ewrb.govt.nz;
Your references must:
- Detail the prescribed electrical work experience that you have completed
Prescribed electrical work(external link) – New Zealand Legislation; - Include the start and end dates of employment for each company;
- Contain sufficient experience in the area you seek registration;
- Be on company letterhead;
- Be signed and dated by your Board approved supervisor on your file and
- Contain email contact details for your supervisor.
- *Certified colour copies of your New Zealand Qualification Certificate (if applicable).
*Certified: Certification of your copied documents must be done by either a Justice of the Peace, a Public Notary, a Solicitor or NZ Court Registrar.
Or you can apply using the Practising Licence paper application form and send your application and supporting documents listed above by post.
How much it costs to apply
The Practising Licence application fee is $250 (including GST)
You can pay for your application by credit card or debit card.
How long does it take?
Once we have received your application and it is deemed complete:
Information on Certified Documents
When will my Licence Card arrive?
Once your application has been completed, you will be advised by email. If a card is being issued this will take up to 15 working days to arrive depending on your location.
If it has not arrived within 20 working days then contact us.
If you have not received your licence card you must contact us within 3 months of receiving the approval email. If you contact us outside of this time frame and have not received your card, you will need to apply and pay for a replacement card.