If you do overseas volunteer work (or work for a token payment) for an approved charity, you can apply to keep your student loan interest-free for up to 24 months.
Ask for a letter
Ask the charity you’re volunteering for to write a letter to us on their letterhead that includes:
- your name and IRD number
- the length of time you'll spend overseas, and the dates you will be volunteering
- the specific tasks and duties that you’re doing, to show that your volunteer work is to relieve poverty, hunger, sickness, or the impacts of war or a natural disaster, or to improve the economy or raise the educational standards of a country on the OECD list of countries receiving development assistance
- an estimate of what your gross income (if any) will be for the work you'll be doing.
Send it to us
Log in to myIR
You can also post your letter to us at:
Inland Revenue
PO Box 39010
Wellington Mail Centre
Lower Hutt 5045
What happens next
We’ll send you a letter saying if we’ve granted the application, and if so, the period we’ve granted it for.
Last updated:
15 Nov 2022