Canada is on New Zealand's visa waiver list, so there is no visitor visa to apply for — but every Canadian needs an NZeTA 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
Canada and New Zealand share a great deal institutionally — the same Head of State until recently, comparable immigration systems, and a Working Holiday agreement that has been sending young Canadians south for decades. Canadian visitors tend to stay longer than Americans and travel more widely across both islands.
Getting there is straightforward from the west coast: Air New Zealand flies Vancouver to Auckland nonstop, which is the single most useful fact for a Canadian planning the trip. From Toronto, Montreal or Calgary the journey involves a connection, usually through Vancouver, San Francisco or Los Angeles.
Canadians are on New Zealand's visa waiver list, so no visitor visa is required. What is required, since October 2019, is the NZeTA — an online travel authorisation held against your passport number and checked by the airline before departure. Canadians will find the concept familiar, since Canada operates its own eTA on much the same model.
At a glance
Eligibility
No visa, but yes to an NZeTA. Canadian citizens can enter New Zealand for tourism, visiting friends and relatives, business meetings, conferences or transit for up to 90 days without a visitor visa. The NZeTA is the pre-clearance step that replaced it for waiver nationalities.
The waiver covers visiting rather than working. Canada has a reciprocal Working Holiday arrangement with New Zealand open to applicants aged 18 to 35 — a wider age band than most countries receive — granting up to 23 months with the right to work. It is a separate visa applied for before travel and cannot be arranged from an NZeTA after arrival.
Eligibility follows the passport. A Canadian permanent resident travelling on an Indian, Chinese, Filipino or Nigerian passport is not covered by the Canadian waiver and needs a New Zealand Visitor Visa. Given how large Canada's PR population is, this is one of the most frequent misunderstandings on Canadian applications — a Canadian PR card carries no weight with Immigration New Zealand.
Stay & validity
Canadian passport holders may stay up to 90 days per visit. The NZeTA is valid for two years from approval and permits unlimited entries within that window, so the 90 days applies to each individual stay rather than to a cumulative annual total.
The two-year validity suits the Canadian travel pattern well, since a fair number of Canadians visit New Zealand more than once — often a first trip in the southern summer and a later one for skiing during the Canadian summer. One NZeTA covers both, provided the passport does not change.
The authorisation is attached to a single passport number. Canadian passports run for five or ten years, and the five-year option in particular makes a renewal inside the NZeTA's two-year life reasonably likely. There is no transfer process, so a renewal means requesting a new NZeTA on the new document.
New Zealand asks for three months of passport validity beyond your departure date from the country. Canadians routing through the United States should also confirm they meet US transit requirements, since a technical stop in Los Angeles or San Francisco means clearing US immigration on the way out and back.
Pricing
Live fees for Canadian 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 Canada
Requirements
Everything Canadian 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.
Canadian requests are usually approved automatically within minutes. Immigration New Zealand advises allowing up to 72 hours because a proportion are referred for manual review, most often over a photograph that fails the automated check or a declared conviction — including a Canadian DUI conviction, which New Zealand assesses on the sentence imposed rather than the offence label.
Apply at least a week before departure. If you are connecting through the United States, allow a little more, since a problem at Vancouver or Toronto check-in also means losing the US leg. Requesting the NZeTA when your flights are confirmed is the simplest approach.
Getting there
Vancouver is Canada's gateway to New Zealand, with Air New Zealand flying nonstop to Auckland. From the rest of the country the journey involves one connection, either domestically through Vancouver or through a US west coast hub, and total journey times from Toronto run to around 20 to 24 hours.
Best time to go
New Zealand's summer — December to February — is the inverse of the Canadian winter, and that is exactly why so many Canadians go then. It is peak season with the best weather, and the New Zealand school holidays make January the busiest and most expensive month across Queenstown and the Bay of Islands.
March to May is the value window, with settled autumn weather, warm sea into March, and Central Otago colour in April. It suits Canadians well because it avoids both the New Zealand peak and the Canadian summer, when domestic airfares out of Vancouver are at their highest.
The Canadian summer, June to September, is the New Zealand ski season. Canadians are among the more likely nationalities to travel specifically for it, and Queenstown, Wanaka and Ruapehu deliver — though the terrain and the vertical are modest by Rocky Mountain standards. Note that Auckland is 19 to 21 hours ahead of Vancouver, so you lose a calendar day on the way out and gain it back on the return.
Avoid these
Declines are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on requests from Canada — we check for every one of them before submitting.
This is the single most frequent error on Canadian requests. Eligibility follows the passport, not the PR card. Someone living in Toronto on an Indian or Filipino passport needs a New Zealand Visitor Visa, which takes weeks rather than minutes, and selecting Canada because that is where you live produces an authorisation that does not match your travel document.
Canadians are conditioned by the US border to treat impaired driving convictions as significant, and rightly so. New Zealand assesses on the sentence imposed rather than the offence category, so many DUIs do not bar entry — but failing to declare one is treated far more seriously than the conviction itself, and can result in the NZeTA being cancelled at the border.
Canada runs its own eTA, so the concept is familiar, but the details differ. The New Zealand version carries a substantial tourism levy charged at the same time, applies to cruise arrivals as well as flights, and is checked before boarding rather than at arrival. It is not simply the same product in reverse.
Canada issues both five and ten year passports, and a five-year document is very likely to be replaced inside an NZeTA's two-year life. The authorisation does not move to the new passport, and the airline scans the new document at check-in, so the mismatch surfaces at the worst possible moment.
The Canada–New Zealand Working Holiday arrangement is generous — up to 23 months for ages 18 to 35 — which makes it attractive and widely discussed. It still has to be granted before you fly. Arriving on an NZeTA and looking for work is a breach of your entry conditions.
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
Neither the High Commission nor the consulates play any part in an NZeTA request, which is completed entirely online with no appointment and no passport submission. They handle work visas, student visas, residence applications and consular services for New Zealanders in Canada. Working Holiday Visa applications are also made online through Immigration New Zealand.
FAQs
The questions Canadian passport holders ask most often about travelling to New Zealand.
No visitor visa is required — Canada is on New Zealand's visa waiver list. You do need an NZeTA, requested online before you fly and checked by the airline at check-in. It covers tourism, family visits, business meetings and transit for stays of up to 90 days.
Up to 90 days per visit. The NZeTA lasts two years and allows unlimited entries in that period, but each individual stay is capped at 90 days. Only British citizens receive a longer allowance. Extending beyond 90 days means applying for a Visitor Visa from inside New Zealand before your permission runs out.
The cost combines the government request fee with the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy, currently NZD 100, both charged at the same time. The pricing panel on this page loads the live all-in figure for Canadian passport holders including our service fee.
Very possibly. New Zealand asks about convictions carrying a sentence of five years or more at any time, and convictions in the last ten years carrying twelve months or more. Most Canadian impaired driving convictions fall below those thresholds, but you must declare it truthfully — an undeclared conviction discovered later is treated far more seriously than the offence itself.
No. Eligibility depends on the passport you travel on. If your passport was issued by a country that is not on New Zealand's visa waiver list, you need a Visitor Visa, which takes considerably longer than an NZeTA and should be applied for well before booking. A Canadian PR card gives you no standing with Immigration New Zealand.
No. The visitor category covers tourism, family visits and business meetings only. Canadians aged 18 to 35 are eligible for a Working Holiday Visa of up to 23 months, but it is a separate application that must be approved before you travel and cannot be converted from an NZeTA.
Yes, every traveller does, including infants on a parent's lap. Each child needs their own valid Canadian passport and their own request. This is a common oversight for families and a frequent cause of problems at Vancouver check-in.
Not for New Zealand, but you will need to meet US requirements for the transit — Canadians generally do not need a US visa or ESTA when travelling on a Canadian passport, but you will clear US immigration. The NZeTA is checked separately by the carrier operating the Auckland sector.
Your nationality is already set to Canada. 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.
