Austria is on New Zealand's visa waiver list, so no visitor visa is needed — but an NZeTA must be approved before boarding. It is requested online, valid two years, with stays of up to 90 days.
90 days
Maximum stay per visit
2 years
NZeTA validity
Multiple
Entries permitted
Under 72 hrs
Typical decision time
100% online
No embassy visit
Overview
Austrian travel to New Zealand is dominated by the mountains. Austrian visitors arrive with alpine experience that most tourists lack, and they head disproportionately for the Southern Alps — Aoraki, the Routeburn, Mount Aspiring and the climbing around Wanaka — often on trips of a month or more.
Vienna has no nonstop service to New Zealand. Routings run through Dubai, Doha, Singapore or a European hub, with total journey times of around 27 to 30 hours from Vienna and slightly more from Salzburg, Innsbruck or Graz.
Austria is on New Zealand's visa waiver list, so there is no visitor visa and no appointment at the Embassy in Vienna. Since October 2019 every traveller needs an NZeTA — an online travel authorisation held against your passport number and checked by the airline before departure.
At a glance
Eligibility
No visa, but an NZeTA is required. Austrian citizens can enter New Zealand for tourism, visiting family, business meetings, conferences or transit for up to 90 days under the visa waiver.
Austria has a Working Holiday arrangement with New Zealand for applicants aged 18 to 30, granting twelve months with the right to work, subject to an annual quota. It is a separate visa applied for before travel and cannot be arranged from an NZeTA after arrival.
Eligibility follows the passport, not residence. Residents of Austria travelling on Turkish, Serbian, Bosnian or Russian passports are not covered by the Austrian waiver and need a New Zealand Visitor Visa, which takes considerably longer to obtain.
Stay & validity
Austrian passport holders may stay up to 90 days per visit. The NZeTA lasts two years from approval and permits unlimited entries, so the cap applies to each stay rather than to an annual total.
For a climbing or trekking season in the Southern Alps, 90 days is usually sufficient but not generous. Extensions require a Visitor Visa applied for from within New Zealand before your permission expires and are assessed on their merits.
The authorisation is bound to one passport number for two years. Austrian passports run for ten years for adults and shorter periods for children, so families are more likely than solo travellers to encounter a renewal inside the window.
New Zealand requires three months of passport validity beyond your departure from the country. Austrian routings through the Gulf or Asia may face stricter rules in the transit country, and the strictest requirement on the itinerary governs.
Pricing
Live fees for Austrian passport holders, shown all-in — the government charge, the tourism levy where it applies, and our service fee, with nothing added later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Austria
Requirements
Everything Austrian passport holders need before starting a request. The first five items apply to every applicant; the rest are specific to your nationality.
Passport bio-data page — a clear colour scan or photo showing your photograph, full name, date of birth, passport number and expiry date
Recent passport-style photograph — full face visible against a plain light background, taken within the last six months, no headwear other than for religious reasons
A valid email address, which is where the approval is sent and which you should keep accessible while travelling
A credit or debit card to pay the NZeTA request fee and the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy together
Your onward or return ticket details — border officers can ask to see evidence that you intend to leave
Simple process
Four steps, entirely online, with our team checking every field before anything reaches Immigration New Zealand.
Enter your passport details exactly as printed, answer the health and character questions, and upload your photo. Most people finish in under ten minutes.
Our team checks your photo dimensions, passport number, name spelling and declarations before anything is submitted to Immigration New Zealand.
Your request goes to Immigration New Zealand together with the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy, and we track it until a decision is issued.
There is no sticker or label — the authorisation is held electronically against your passport number. We explain exactly what to show at check-in.
Austrian requests are approved automatically in most cases, often within minutes. Immigration New Zealand advises allowing up to 72 hours, since a proportion are referred to an officer, usually over a photograph the automated check cannot read.
Apply at least a week before departure, and ideally around a month out. Austrian journeys always involve a connection, so a problem discovered at Vienna check-in cannot be resolved before the first leg leaves.
Getting there
There is no nonstop service between Austria and New Zealand. Vienna connects through Dubai, Doha and Singapore, with Frankfurt and Munich providing additional options for travellers from western Austria.
Best time to go
New Zealand's summer of December to February is the alpine season in the Southern Alps — the window for the Great Walks, the high routes and the classic climbing objectives. It is peak tourist season too, so huts and Queenstown accommodation book out months ahead.
For alpinists specifically, the New Zealand climbing season runs roughly November to February, which is the reverse of the Austrian one. That inversion is exactly why so many Austrian climbers travel south — it makes year-round mountaineering possible.
The Austrian summer of July and August is the New Zealand winter, which means ski touring rather than climbing. Conditions can be excellent, but avalanche forecasting and hut services differ from what Austrian mountaineers are used to at home. New Zealand is 10 to 12 hours ahead of Austria depending on daylight saving.
Avoid these
Declines are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on requests from Austria — we check for every one of them before submitting.
The NZeTA must match the machine-readable zone, which renders ö as OE, ü as UE and ä as AE. Entering Müller rather than MUELLER creates a mismatch the airline system flags at check-in.
Not a visa issue, but the most consequential Austrian error. The Southern Alps have far more volatile weather than the Eastern Alps, fewer staffed huts and no comparable rescue density. Border officers do not check this, but it affects whether the trip works.
The Working Holiday Scheme is quota-limited and must be granted before you travel. Working on a visitor entry, including seasonal work in Central Otago, is a breach that can result in removal and a re-entry ban.
An NZeTA sits against one passport number for two years and does not survive a renewal. Austrian travellers who return within that window are the ones most likely to be caught by it.
Passport number mistyped
By far the most common problem. The authorisation is attached to the number you enter, so a single wrong character produces an NZeTA that does not exist as far as the airline is concerned.
An undeclared conviction
Immigration New Zealand asks about convictions, deportations and previous refusals. Undisclosed history found later is treated far more seriously than the original offence.
A photograph that fails the check
Shadows across the face, glasses, a busy background or a cropped chin all cause the automated check to reject an image, which turns an instant approval into a manual review.
Conditions
These conditions are set by Immigration New Zealand and do not vary by nationality. Two of them — the passport-linking rule and the cruise rule — catch out a lot of otherwise well-planned trips.
Your authorisation is held electronically against the passport number you entered. There is no label in your passport and nothing to print for immigration. If you renew or replace that passport, the NZeTA does not transfer — you must request a new one.
Every person travelling needs their own NZeTA, including newborns and children. A child cannot be added to a parent's request, and each one needs their own valid passport.
An approved NZeTA lasts two years from the date it is issued and can be used for any number of trips in that period, provided your passport remains valid. It cannot be extended — when it expires you simply request a new one.
The International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy funds conservation and tourism infrastructure and is charged alongside the NZeTA request. It currently stands at NZD 100 and is payable once per NZeTA, not once per trip.
An NZeTA lets you board. The decision to admit you is made by a border officer at Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch or Queenstown, who can ask about your funds, your accommodation and your intended departure.
Since October 2019 every cruise passenger arriving in New Zealand by sea needs an NZeTA or a visa, regardless of nationality — including passengers whose nationality would otherwise be exempt.
Consular services
The Embassy plays no part in an NZeTA request, which is completed online with no appointment and no passport submission. It handles work visas, student visas, residence applications and consular services for New Zealanders in Austria. Working Holiday Visa applications are also made online through Immigration New Zealand.
FAQs
The questions Austrian passport holders ask most often about travelling to New Zealand.
No visitor visa is required — Austria is on New Zealand's visa waiver list. You do need an NZeTA, requested online before departure and checked by the airline at Vienna. It covers stays of up to 90 days for tourism, family visits, business meetings and transit.
Up to 90 days per visit. The NZeTA is valid for two years with unlimited entries, but each individual stay is capped at 90 days. Only British citizens receive a longer allowance.
Use the version in the machine-readable zone at the bottom of your passport photo page, which renders ö as OE, ü as UE, ä as AE and ß as SS. That is what airline systems compare your NZeTA against.
The total is the government request fee plus the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy, currently NZD 100, charged together. The pricing panel on this page loads the live all-in figure for Austrian passport holders including our service fee.
Roughly November to February, the southern summer — the exact inverse of the Austrian season, which is why so many Austrian climbers travel south. A 90-day visitor stay comfortably covers a full season, but it cannot be extended from an NZeTA without applying for a Visitor Visa from inside the country.
No. Austrian citizens aged 18 to 30 can apply for the Working Holiday Scheme, but it is quota-limited, separate from the NZeTA, and must be granted before you travel.
Your nationality is already set to Austria. Complete the form in under ten minutes, and our team will check every detail before it reaches Immigration New Zealand.
Other nationalities
Stay limits, entry conditions and levy rules differ by passport. Here are the guides for other nationalities.
