The NZeTA (New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority) is the electronic authorisation New Zealand requires before travel from people who do not need a visa. It is not a visa: it is the permission to board the plane or the ship. The visa is given to you on arrival. The agency itself puts it this way: «When you arrive at the New Zealand border with your NZeTA, we may give you a visitor visa that lets you visit New Zealand». And there is something paid together with it that is NOT the NZeTA: the IVL (International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy), the conservation tourist levy. They are two separate charges, of very different amounts, that appear on the same screen and that many people confuse: the NZeTA costs NZ$ 17 or NZ$ 23 depending on how you request it, and the IVL costs NZ$ 100. It is issued by Immigration New Zealand and requested on the official site nzeta.immigration.govt.nz or in the official NZeTA app. And there is a THIRD procedure, free and separate, that everyone has to complete before arriving: the New Zealand Traveller Declaration (NZTD).
The NZeTA is for those who do NOT need a visa. We read the official list of visa-waiver countries on 23/09/2026 and of our twenty-eight nationalities, ELEVEN are on it: ANDORRA, ARGENTINA, BRAZIL, CHILE, DENMARK, GERMANY, ITALY, MEXICO, SPAIN, UNITED STATES (including US nationals) and URUGUAY. All of them go through the NZeTA. AUSTRALIA is a case apart: «Australian citizens and permanent residents travelling on an Australian passport do not need a visa or an NZeTA to enter New Zealand» — an Australian citizen pays nothing and files nothing; but an Australian PERMANENT RESIDENT travelling on another passport DOES need an NZeTA. The remaining sixteen NEED A VISA, not an NZeTA: BOLIVIA, COLOMBIA, COSTA RICA, CUBA, ECUADOR, EL SALVADOR, GUATEMALA, GUYANA, HONDURAS, NICARAGUA, PANAMA, PARAGUAY, PERU, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, SURINAME and VENEZUELA. If your passport is one of those sixteen, the NZeTA is no use to you: you have to apply for a Visitor Visa before travelling, which is a different procedure, more expensive and longer. Watch the fine print on the list: there are nationalities where the waiver comes with conditions — Greece only for passports issued from 1 January 2006; Portugal only for those with the right to reside permanently in Portugal; Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania citizens only; United Kingdom for citizens and other British passport holders with the right to reside permanently in the UK. The following can also request an NZeTA, even if they are not on the waiver list: passengers arriving by cruise ship or cargo ship, and citizens of China or of a Pacific Islands Forum country travelling from Australia on an eligible Australian visa.