NZeTA is an acronym that stands for “New Zealand electronic Travel Authority”. It is an electronic travel authorisation (visa waiver) that allows for travel to New Zealand without a physical visa. The NZeTA is cheaper, faster and easier to apply for than a physical visa stamped into the passport by the embassy. The NZeTA is electronically linked to your passport.

An NZeTA can be applied for by travellers of certain nationalities, including the United Kingdom and Ireland. The use of the NZeTA is subject to a number of requirements. You may only use the NZeTA for tourist travel, to visit family or friends, for a transfer in New Zealand, for amateur sporting events, for business travel or for short study trips. You may not be employed by any organisation in New Zealand, including for volunteer work. Travel for medical purposes is also not permitted.

You always need a visa or NZeTA if you travel to New Zealand by plane or cruise ship. The only exception is for travellers with a New Zealand or Australian passport. You also need a visa or NZeTA for a transfer in New Zealand. The NZeTA is the easiest and cheapest way to meet the visa requirement, if you meet the requirements.

An NZeTA is suitable for travellers from the United Kingdom, all EU countries (including Ireland) and Switzerland, among others. The NZeTA visa can be applied for completely online. After your application has been approved, you will receive your travel authorisation by email. Once you have received the NZeTA, you can immediately leave for a holiday, a business trip or a short study tour to New Zealand. An NZeTA is valid for a period of two years, and within these two years, you may travel to New Zealand as often as you like. However, each stay may not not exceed 3 months. If you hold a British passport, you may stay in New Zealand for up to 6 months per trip.
Submit a New Zealand visa application now

Instead of an NZeTA, you can also apply for another type of visa for New Zealand. This is only recommended if you want to travel to New Zealand for a reason other than a holiday, business or study trip. It is more complicated and more expensive to apply for another type of visa for New Zealand. If you want to join an organisation in New Zealand, you are not eligible for an NZeTA and will need to apply for another type of visa through New Zealand Immigration.

An NZeTA or ‘transit visaʼ is also always required for a transfer in New Zealand. This applies even if you do not leave the plane or airport in New Zealand. In the NZeTA application form you select a travel destination. One of the options is ‘transferʼ. Choose this option only if you meet the following requirements:

• You transfer at Auckland International Airport
• You will stay in the ‘transit areaʼ at the airport or on your plane throughout your transfer
• Your baggage will be automatically checked in by your airline on your onward flight
• You will not spend more than 24 hours at the airport in New Zealand

Do you not meet all the requirements listed, for example because you need to check in your luggage again? Then choose the ‘tourismʼ option under ‘purpose of travelʼ.
Open NZeTA application form

An NZeTA has a validity period of two years from the moment your application is approved by the New Zealand authorities. Within these two years, you may travel to New Zealand as often as you wish. However, each consecutive stay may not exceed 3 or 6 months and each stay has to take place entirely within the validity period of the visa. Do you hold a UK passport? If so, you may stay in New Zealand for a maximum of 6 consecutive months. Do you hold an Irish passport or a passport of another country? In that case, you may stay in New Zealand for no more than 3 consecutive months. Regardless of your nationality and passport, you are not allowed to use the NZeTA to spend more than 6 months in New Zealand within any 12-month period.

The validity of an NZeTA is linked to the validity of your passport. Your passport must be valid for at least 3 months after your planned departure from New Zealand. Is this not the case? Then your NZeTA is no longer valid. If your passport expires less than 3 months after your scheduled departure, you must first apply for a new passport. Once you receive your new passport, you will also need to apply for a new NZeTA to travel to New Zealand.

You can apply for an NZeTA if you have the passport of a country that participates in the New Zealand Visa Waiver Programme. All countries in the EU are members of this programme, as are the United Kingdom and Switzerland. Travellers from these countries can therefore apply for an NZeTA without any problems. Do you have another nationality? On this website, you can check whether you are eligible for an NZeTA.

Additionally, you must already have a return or transit ticket upon arrival and be able to prove that you have sufficient financial means for your trip to New Zealand. You cannot apply for an NZeTA if you have been convicted of a crime that resulted in a prison sentence, or if you are suspected of a crime that may result in a prison sentence. You must also be in good health to travel on an NZeTA. This means that you may not have any serious communicable diseases, and you are unlikely to be a major burden on New Zealandʼs health service.

You may travel to New Zealand with an NZeTA for a holiday, to visit family or friends, for a business trip, for amateur sport or for a short study tour. If the New Zealand government suspects that you are seeking employment (paid or unpaid) with an organisation in New Zealand, your application for an NZeTA will be rejected. You can find more information on the page on requirements for travelling with an NZeTA.

If you have a criminal record or a traffic fine, you can in most cases travel to New Zealand with an NZeTA.
Start your NZeTA visa application here
Have you been convicted of a violent or drug-related offence, an immigration-related offence, dangerous or drink-driving, or a sexual offence? Or are you suspected of an offence that could lead to imprisonment or have you ever been given a prison sentence? In all these cases, you cannot apply for NZeTA.

No, you cannot apply for a New Zealand visa on arrival. When you check in for your flight or cruise, they will already check whether you have a valid visa for your trip. So apply for your NZeTA before departure.
Apply for your NZeTA here

No, the NZeTA visa can be applied for completely online. Use the online application form for this. You can find an explanation on this page.
Open the application form and submit an NZeTA application now

The coronavirus measures have been changed a lot over time. That is why it is highly recommended to check the page with recent measures against Covid-19 in New Zealand, well before departure, and right before departure.
Read all about the current coronavirus rules in New Zealand

You can easily apply for your NZeTA visa online by filling in the digital application form. Go through the form from top to bottom and fill in all the details carefully. Make sure you have your passport ready. You have the option to add several travellers to your application. When doing so, also have the passports of your fellow travellers ready.
Open the NZeTA application form

Once you have completed the application form, you must pay the costs for the NZeTA. This can be done safely via Visa, MasterCard, American Express or PayPal. After the fee has been paid, you will need to upload a photograph of each traveller. When this is completed, we will check your application and if everything is in order, we will send it to the immigration service. You will receive confirmation of this by email.

If all details are in order, you will receive the NZeTA within an average of 5 days after we receive your application. If you submit an urgent application, there is a 90% chance you will receive your NZeTA within 24 hours on average. You will receive a text message and email once your NZeTA has been approved. From that moment on, the visa is electronically linked to your passport, and you can check in and travel to New Zealand.

The NZeTA is usually approved within 5 days. If you submit an urgent application, there is a 90% chance the NZeTA will be approved electronically within 24 hours on average. Please note: These average approval times only start when the application form, the payment and your photograph have been received in good order and this has been confirmed by e-mail.

These approval times are averages and not guarantees. This is because it is impossible to know exactly how long it will take until an application is approved. The visa specialists at e-Visa.co.uk and the New Zealand immigration officials carry out manual checks, so the waiting times may vary. Approval times cannot be guaranteed, even for urgent applications. In rare cases, the immigration service may even carry out a random extended check, which may take several days. This obviously delays the approval of the NZeTA visa.

e-Visa.co.uk has no influence on the inspection of visas by the immigration service of New Zealand. Therefore, e-Visa.co.uk can only influence the speed with which visas are approved to a limited extent. This also applies to urgent applications. To be sure that the visa will be approved on time, it is recommended to submit the application several weeks before departure. You can apply for your NZeTA visa as early as you like. An NZeTA is valid for 2 years, so it is possible to apply for the visa when you want to travel to New Zealand in a yearʼs time, for example.

Urgent applications are processed faster by e-Visa.co.uk than ‘normalʼ applications. Urgent visa applications are always processed by e-Visa.co.uk within 24 hours and often even within an hour, even outside office hours. For this, you pay a surcharge of £17.50. The visa specialist will check the data in your application form and the documents provided (photograph). In case the specialist suspects that the data or documents have not been supplied correctly, these will be corrected, or you will be contacted. This initial check will ensure that your application is processed quickly by the New Zealand immigration service. Immigration will check your details again and decide if you are a potential risk to New Zealandʼs security. If they decide to approve your application, you will receive an email and text message with information on how to download the NZeTA. Print out the NZeTA visa and take it with you on your trip.

Did you apply for a visa for several people at the same time? These are always processed individually, per person. It often happens that individual applications within a group application are approved at different times. There can sometimes be several days between the examination of the first and last application within a group application. A possible reason for this is that one of the applications is being subjected to a random extended inspection. If one of the applications within a group application takes more time than the other, this does not mean that the visa application has a greater chance of being rejected.

No, you do not need to have booked any flight tickets or overnight stays to apply for a NZeTA visa. You are asked to make an estimation of your expected arrival date in the application form. This may differ from your actual arrival date, as long as your entire stay in New Zealand falls within the validity period of your visa. You can therefore apply for an NZeTA without knowing when you will be travelling to New Zealand.
You can start your NZeTA application here

If you change your travel plans at a later date, you do not need to amend your application. Your NZeTA will remain valid until it expires at the end of 2 years. However, you must have a ticket for your transit or return flight by the time you arrive in New Zealand. It is also important that your passport is valid for at least 3 months after your scheduled departure date from New Zealand. If you apply for a new passport, the validity of your NZeTA will also expire. You must therefore also apply for a new NZeTA when you apply for a new passport.

Each traveller must have his or her own passport. This also applies to children. The passport must be valid until at least 3 months after the planned departure from New Zealand. Is this not the case? Then you must apply for a new passport before submitting your application. Did you apply for a NZeTA with a passport that does not meet the requirements? Then you need to apply for a new NZeTA as well as a new passport.

Before applying for an NZeTA, check carefully whether the passports of you and your fellow travellers are still valid long enough. Is this not the case? Then apply for a new passport before you apply for an NZeTA.

Regular passports and emergency passports are accepted. Do you only possess a driving licence, identity card or residence permit? Then you cannot apply for a New Zealand visa through this website. In this case, you should first apply for a regular passport or contact the New Zealand embassy.

The application form asks for each travellerʼs passport details. Without the passport details, you cannot complete the form, so make sure you have the passports of each traveller ready. Next, you will be asked to make the payment. This can be done via Visa, MasterCard, American Express or PayPal. Please have all the requirements for your chosen payment method ready.

Finally, you will need a digital photograph of each traveller to complete the application. This can be an official passport photo or a selfie, as long as it meets certain requirements. You can easily upload the photograph after completing your payment. Donʼt have a photograph at hand? You may also provide it at a later time. Please note that your application can only be processed after you have provided the required photographs in good order.

The NZeTA visa for New Zealand costs £99.95 per person. This price includes the consular fee for the examination of your application by the immigration service in New Zealand, the service fee charged by e-Visa.co.uk for the processing and error checking of your application, VAT and the fee for the mandatory New Zealand tourist tax, the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy (IVL) of 100 NZD. An urgent application is subject to a surcharge of £17.50 per person. You pay the same price per person for individual applications and for group applications.

There is also the option to voluntarily offset the CO2 emissions of your trip and/or register your trip with the embassy. These options are not compulsory, and the costs depend on your nationality and the country from which you travel. The costs for these options are indicated in the application form. Further information about your contribution to the compensation of CO2 emissions via e-Visa.co.uk can be found in this article.

You can pay for the cost of your NZeTA safely and easily with Visa, MasterCard, American Express or PayPal. After you have completed the payment, you can immediately download a receipt. Once the application has been processed, you will be able to download the full invoice.

Sometimes, it can be hard to tell whether the passport number contains the number 0 or the letter O. A British passport number always consists of nine digits, so it can never be the letter O. For other nationalities, the passport number is not case-sensitive, so it does not matter whether you fill in lower-case or upper-case letters.

Are you applying for an NZeTA via e-Visa.co.uk? Then it is always checked whether you have swapped the letter O and the number 0. If this error is found, it will always be corrected for you immediately. This way you can still travel without problems.

Did you submit an NZeTA application via another website? Then in most cases this error will not be corrected and your NZeTA may be invalid. It is not possible to change a passport number; you will have to apply for a completely new NZeTA.

You will receive a text message and an e-mail once your application has been approved. The email contains a link to your personal status page. On this page, you can check the status of your application and download and print the PDF version of your NZeTA visa. This PDF is your officially granted visa and contains all the necessary information for the New Zealand immigration service.

It is important that you double-check that your details are correct in the document. In particular, check that all names and passport details of all travellers are correct, because if there are any mistakes, the NZeTA is invalid. If other details are incorrect, in most cases this is less of a problem.

It is advisable to print out the visa, even though it is not compulsory. If you carry a printed version of your NZeTA with you, you can be assisted more quickly upon arrival in New Zealand if you are selected for a random check.

You will receive an e-mail after you have paid for the visa and after your photograph has been approved. The emails contain a link to your personal status page, where you can check the status of your application at any time.

Has your NZeTA not been granted within the expected time frame? The status page will indicate when it is wise to contact us. The approval times indicated on this website are average approval times. There is no guarantee that your visa will actually be granted within that time frame. It may happen, for example, that the immigration service carries out a random check which delays the application process. So if your application is being processed longer than average, this does not mean that your application has a higher chance of being rejected.

Did you submit a group application? The individual applications within a group application will be assessed individually by the immigration service. As a result, some individuals within a group application may receive their visa earlier or later than the rest.

Did you not receive an email? Always check the folder with unwanted messages in your e-mail programme. This is usually called the spam box or junk folder. Can you not find an e-mail with the subject ‘NZeTA application New Zealand receivedʼ? Then you can check the status of your application on this page.

In most cases, there is no need to pass on any changes, and you can travel to New Zealand without worry. Your NZeTA only becomes invalid if the details in the passport you are travelling with do not match the passport details filled in in the visa application form. In this case, you must pass on any corrections to the immigration department or e-Visa.co.uk, or submit an entirely new NZeTA application.

Do you have an accent or punctuation mark in your name? For example, an ü, ä, ö, ç, é, è, ê, ñ of ß? Then your name will be corrected automatically and displayed differently than you are used to. Special characters in the name, such as umlauts, are not accepted by the immigration service’s system. Therefore, the name is converted as it appears in the machine-readable part of the passport. These are the two lines containing many “<<<” characters, at the very bottom of the plastic or laminated page in your passport. The top of these two lines contains your name (right after the country code). Is your name spelled here as it is on your NZeTA? Then everything is in order, and you can travel to New Zealand without any problems.

Is the spelling error not because of an accent or punctuation mark? Then you probably entered your name incorrectly in the application form yourself. In this case, your NZeTA is invalid. Is the name of another person on your NZeTA or is your name incomplete? This may be due to the automatic completion function of your browser. It is your responsibility to check on the verification page, just before you pay, that all details are listed correctly.

Has your NZeTA application been approved, but are you still unable to check in with the airline? This is probably due to the fact that your passport details were not filled in correctly when you checked in or when you applied for your NZeTA.

Your passport details are: your date of birth, place of birth, sex, the date of issue and expiry, your full name and passport number.

Are your passport details listed correctly on your NZeTA? Then you must contact your airline company. It is likely that there is an error in the passport details linked to your flight ticket. The airline company can fix this, allowing you to still check in.

Are your passport details not listed correctly on your NZeTA? In this case, you must pass on any corrections to the immigration department or e-Visa.co.uk, or submit a new NZeTA application.

Are your passport details listed correctly on your NZeTA and have they been correctly communicated to the airline? You are probably not able to check in because a fellow travellerʼs passport details are causing problems. If you try to check in at the same time, your fellow travellerʼs incorrect passport details may prevent you from checking in as well.

In most cases, NZeTA applications are approved within an average of 5 days. It is extremely rare for an NZeTA application to be rejected, and it is difficult to find out the reason for a rejection, as the New Zealand immigration service never indicates why an application was rejected. Possible reasons for a rejection are:

• You made a mistake in the application form
• You provided incorrect information in the application form
• You are already in New Zealand (illegally)
• You have at some point been imprisoned for a period of at least 5 years
• You have been given a custodial sentence of at least 12 months in the last 10 years
• You are (also) a New Zealand national
• You have at some point been deported from a country
• You are suspected of being a member of a terrorist group
• You are part of a racist group or have made racist statements in public
• Immigration authorities suspect that you are about to commit an offence in New Zealand, are a threat to public order or are a potential risk to the security of the country
• Immigration authorities suspect that you have a reason for travelling to New Zealand other than what is stated in your application form
• You are in a poor state of health

What you can do if your application has been rejected
Check whether you have correctly filled in all the details in the application form. Did you find an error, for example, in the passport data? Then you can reapply for an NZeTA with the correct data. Did you not find any mistakes? In this case, there is little point in submitting a new application, as it will probably be rejected again.

Has your NZeTA application been rejected, but do you still want to travel to New Zealand?
You always have the option of applying for a visitor visa for New Zealand, even if your NZeTA application has been rejected. It takes longer and costs more to apply for a visitor visa. You can contact the New Zealand immigration service for this.

In the extremely rare case that your NZeTA application is rejected, you will receive a full refund of the purchase cost of the visa. This does not apply to travellers whose NZeTA applications have already been rejected before. e-Visa.co.uk cannot be held responsible for any damage resulting from a rejected NZeTA application or an NZeTA that not granted in time. You can read more about this in the General Terms and Conditions.

No, an NZeTA cannot be extended. If your NZeTA is not valid long enough for your planned trip and stay in New Zealand, apply for a new visa prior to your trip. Your NZeTA must be valid throughout your stay in New Zealand. Do you have a UK passport and do you want to stay in New Zealand for more than 6 consecutive months? Then you must use a different visa type. If you hold an Irish passport or the passport of another country, you may stay in New Zealand for no longer than 3 consecutive months.
Apply for a new NZeTA here

The application can be cancelled until it has been processed by New Zealand Immigration. Once you have completed the payment and provided the necessary documents, your application will usually be handed over to the immigration service shortly after. Once the immigration service has received your application, it is not possible to cancel it.

Most clients want to receive their visa as quickly as possible, so there is no cooling-off period or withdrawal period. This is also stated in the general terms and conditions which you agreed to by checking the box when completing your application.

Children also need a valid passport and NZeTA visa to travel to New Zealand. All information on this page applies to travellers of all ages.

Is a child travelling without one or more parents/guardians?
To prevent child abduction, a child must always have the permission of both parents/guardians to travel. In the event that one or more of the parents do not travel with the child, a written authorisation must be carried throughout the journey. This must be signed by both parents/legal guardians. It is also advisable to bring copies of the ID cards or passports of all the persons in authority. More information can be found on childlawadvice.org.uk.

No. There is also a check at the airport in New Zealand. The New Zealand immigration service checks again after your arrival whether you fulfil all the requirements for travelling to New Zealand, even if you have a valid NZeTA or other type of visa. It is also possible that you will be subjected to a random check after arrival. In this case, an immigration officer will ask you some questions regarding your trip to New Zealand. If you fulfil all the requirements for travelling to New Zealand and you can convince the immigration service that all the information provided is correct, you will be allowed to enter the country.

You are advised to check with your doctor which vaccinations are recommended for travel to New Zealand. The information on this website is not provided by a doctor.

If you want to take medicines to New Zealand, you must declare them and carry a prescription from your doctor with you. You can read what else you need to consider when travelling with medicines on the website of the NHS.

A great deal of personal data is processed on this website. It concerns very sensitive and special personal data, such as passport numbers, citizen service numbers and passport photographs. You expect that these data are handled with care.

e-Visa.co.uk guarantees that your data is protected in accordance with the applicable privacy regulations (GDPR). For this purpose, both technical and organisational precautions have been taken. Your data will only be processed via secure connections and stored in encrypted form. Your data will also be deleted immediately if it is no longer needed. e-Visa.co.uk designed and tested its privacy policy together with Taylor Wessing, an internationally renowned law firm.

Your personal data will only be processed for the execution of your order for an application service. Your data will not be sold or used for other commercial purposes. Nevertheless, the processing of personal data always involves risks, even if all precautions are followed. In order to obtain a travel authorisation, your personal data must sometimes be shared with various government agencies. They assess whether you potentially pose a security risk and whether your application will be approved. e-Visa.co.uk cannot influence these government agencies and what they do with your personal data. You can read more about this in our privacy policy.