Belgium is on New Zealand's visa waiver list, so no visitor visa is required — 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
Belgian travel to New Zealand is modest in absolute numbers but long in duration. Belgian visitors, like their Dutch and German neighbours, favour independent campervan touring and tramping over organised holidays, and multi-week trips covering both islands are the norm rather than the exception.
Brussels has no nonstop service to New Zealand. Every routing runs through a Gulf or Asian hub, with total journey times of around 27 to 30 hours, and Brussels Airport's connections to Dubai, Doha and Amsterdam carry most of the traffic.
Belgium is on New Zealand's visa waiver list, so there is no visitor visa and no appointment at the Embassy in Brussels. Since October 2019 every traveller needs an NZeTA — an online authorisation held against the passport number and checked by the airline before departure.
At a glance
Eligibility
No visa, but an NZeTA is required. Belgian citizens can enter New Zealand for tourism, visiting friends and family, business meetings, conferences or transit for up to 90 days under the visa waiver.
Belgium has a Working Holiday arrangement with New Zealand for applicants aged 18 to 30, granting twelve months with the right to work. It is a separate visa applied for before departure — the NZeTA gives no right to work at all, and cannot be converted after arrival.
Eligibility follows the passport rather than residence. Belgium's large expatriate and EU-institution population means many residents hold non-EU passports; those travellers are assessed on their own nationality, and several common ones require a New Zealand Visitor Visa taking weeks rather than minutes.
Stay & validity
Belgian 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 individual stay rather than an annual total.
For the long campervan trips Belgian travellers typically plan, 90 days is a real ceiling. Extending requires a Visitor Visa applied for from inside New Zealand before your current permission expires, and it is assessed on its merits rather than granted as a formality.
The authorisation is bound to a single passport number for two years. Belgian passports run for seven years for adults and five for minors, so a renewal inside the window is possible, particularly for families. There is no transfer process.
New Zealand requires three months of passport validity beyond your departure. Belgian routings through Dubai, Doha or Singapore may face a six-month requirement in the transit country, and the strictest rule on the itinerary governs.
Pricing
Live fees for Belgian 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 Belgium
Requirements
Everything Belgian 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.
Belgian requests are approved automatically in most cases, often within minutes. Immigration New Zealand advises allowing up to 72 hours, since a small proportion are referred for manual assessment, usually over a photograph the automated system cannot read.
Apply at least a week ahead, and ideally about a month before departure. Requesting it far earlier simply spends part of the two-year validity before the trip has begun, which matters if you expect to return.
Getting there
There is no nonstop service from Belgium to New Zealand. Brussels connects through the Gulf carriers and, for many travellers, through Amsterdam or Paris, with total journey times of around 27 to 30 hours.
Best time to go
New Zealand's summer of December to February is the reverse of the Belgian winter and delivers the best conditions for touring and walking. It is peak season, overlapping the New Zealand school holidays, so campervans and campsites are booked out well ahead.
February to April is the strongest window for a long trip — settled weather, thinner crowds and available campsites after the New Zealand school holidays end. October and November work similarly in spring.
The Belgian summer holidays of July and August fall in the New Zealand winter, which suits skiing at Queenstown and Wanaka but not the campervan tour most Belgian visitors have in mind. New Zealand is 10 to 12 hours ahead of Belgium depending on daylight saving in both countries.
Avoid these
Declines are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on requests from Belgium — we check for every one of them before submitting.
Belgian names carrying De, Van, Vander or Van den are recorded differently across systems. The NZeTA must match the machine-readable zone of the passport exactly, so copy the surname field character for character rather than using the form you write socially.
Belgian campervan itineraries are long by European standards, and a thorough two-island tour plus time with friends can drift past three months. The 90-day cap is hard, and overstaying creates an immigration record that affects future travel.
The Working Holiday Scheme must be granted before you travel. Turning up on an NZeTA and looking for seasonal work in Marlborough or Central Otago is a breach of your entry conditions and is actively checked in those regions.
Brussels has an unusually international resident population. Eligibility follows the passport, so a resident holding a Moroccan, Turkish, Congolese or Indian passport is not covered by Belgium's waiver and needs a Visitor Visa arranged weeks in advance.
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 has no involvement 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 Belgium, and also serves as New Zealand's mission to the European Union.
FAQs
The questions Belgian passport holders ask most often about travelling to New Zealand.
No visitor visa is required — Belgium is on New Zealand's visa waiver list. You do need an NZeTA, requested online before departure and checked by the airline at Brussels. It covers stays of up to 90 days for tourism, family visits, business meetings and transit.
Up to 90 days per visit. The NZeTA lasts two years and allows unlimited entries, but each individual stay is capped at 90 days. Only British citizens receive a longer allowance.
The cost combines the government request fee with the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy, currently NZD 100, both charged together. The pricing panel on this page loads the live all-in figure for Belgian passport holders including our service fee.
Copy the surname field exactly as it appears in the machine-readable zone at the bottom of your passport photo page. Belgian prefixes are handled inconsistently across systems, and the airline compares your NZeTA against the passport, so the passport rendering is the one that counts.
No. Belgian citizens aged 18 to 30 can apply for the Working Holiday Scheme, giving twelve months with the right to work, but it is a separate visa that must be approved before you travel.
Yes, every traveller does, including infants. Each child needs their own valid Belgian passport and their own request. Belgian children's passports run for five years, so check expiry dates before requesting.
Your nationality is already set to Belgium. 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.
