Iceland 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
Iceland and New Zealand are the two obvious geological twins of the developed world — volcanoes, geothermal fields, glaciers, small populations on remote islands — and Icelandic travellers make the comparison constantly. Rotorua, Taupō and the Central Plateau feel familiar to anyone from Reykjavík, and that familiarity is part of the appeal rather than a deterrent.
Getting there is the hard part. Keflavík is a long way from every hub that serves Auckland, and Icelandic itineraries typically involve two connections with total journey times of 30 to 36 hours — among the longest journeys to New Zealand from anywhere in Europe.
Iceland is on New Zealand's visa waiver list, so there is no visitor visa to apply for. Since October 2019 every traveller needs an NZeTA — an online authorisation held against your passport number and checked by the airline before departure.
At a glance
Eligibility
No visa, but an NZeTA is required. Icelandic citizens can enter New Zealand for tourism, visiting family, business meetings, conferences or transit for up to 90 days under the visa waiver.
Iceland has a Working Holiday arrangement with New Zealand for applicants aged 18 to 30, with a small annual quota. It is a separate visa applied for before departure and cannot be arranged from an NZeTA after arrival.
Eligibility follows the passport rather than residence. Residents of Iceland holding Polish, Lithuanian or other EU passports are covered on those documents, since they are also on the waiver list; residents on non-waiver passports need a New Zealand Visitor Visa.
Stay & validity
Icelandic 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.
Given how long the journey is, Icelandic travellers tend to plan longer trips to justify it, and 90 days is the ceiling. Extending requires a Visitor Visa applied for from inside New Zealand before your existing permission expires.
The authorisation is bound to one passport number for two years. Icelandic passports run for ten years for adults and five for children, so families are more likely to encounter a renewal inside the window.
New Zealand requires three months of passport validity beyond your departure. Icelandic routings pass through at least one and often two hubs, several of which apply their own six-month rules, so plan against the strictest requirement on the itinerary.
Pricing
Live fees for Icelandic 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 Iceland
Requirements
Everything Icelandic 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.
Icelandic requests are approved automatically in most cases, often within minutes. Immigration New Zealand advises allowing up to 72 hours, since a proportion are referred for manual assessment, usually over a photograph the automated check cannot read.
Apply at least a week before departure, and ideally two. Icelandic itineraries involve two connections more often than not, so a problem at the Keflavík desk collapses an expensive multi-sector booking with no realistic way to rebuild it at short notice.
Getting there
Iceland has no short route to New Zealand. Keflavík connects to London, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and the US west coast, and from any of those you take a second long-haul leg. Total journey times run to 30 to 36 hours.
Best time to go
New Zealand's summer of December to February is the reverse of the Icelandic winter, and the trade — polar darkness for long southern daylight — is the main reason Icelanders go then. It is peak season in New Zealand with prices to match.
February to April and October to November are the value windows, with settled weather, fewer visitors and lower fares on the connecting legs. Given the cost and length of the journey, the shoulder seasons are worth the flexibility if you have it.
The Icelandic summer of June to August falls in the New Zealand winter. It is a good ski season, and the geothermal areas around Rotorua and Taupō are arguably at their most atmospheric in the cold. New Zealand is 12 to 13 hours ahead of Iceland depending on southern 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 Iceland — we check for every one of them before submitting.
Icelandic surnames are patronymic — Jónsdóttir, Sigurðsson — and are not family names in the usual sense. Enter the name exactly as the machine-readable zone records it rather than restructuring it, because the airline compares your NZeTA against that encoded version.
The machine-readable zone renders þ, ð, æ and accented vowels in plain Roman letters. The NZeTA must match that encoding, not the printed form on the photo page.
Icelandic bookings usually involve two connections and are expensive to rebuild. Being turned away at Keflavík for want of an NZeTA loses the entire itinerary, and there is no way to obtain one at the airport.
Not an immigration issue, but worth knowing. New Zealand's geothermal fields at Rotorua, Waiotapu and Orakei Korako are more acidic and less stable underfoot than most Icelandic equivalents, and marked paths exist for good reason.
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
New Zealand's Nordic mission is in Stockholm and is accredited to Iceland, with an honorary consulate in Reykjavík. Neither is involved in an NZeTA request, which is completed entirely online. They handle work visas, student visas, residence applications and consular assistance for New Zealanders in Iceland.
FAQs
The questions Icelandic passport holders ask most often about travelling to New Zealand.
No visitor visa is required — Iceland is on New Zealand's visa waiver list. You do need an NZeTA, requested online before departure and checked by the airline at Keflavík or wherever you first board. It covers 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.
Exactly as the machine-readable zone at the bottom of your passport photo page records it. Do not restructure a patronymic into a family-name format or drop the accented characters, because the airline system compares your NZeTA against the encoded passport version.
The cost is the government request fee plus 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 Icelandic passport holders including our service fee.
Around 30 to 36 hours in total, with two connections — typically Keflavík to a European or US west coast hub, then a long-haul leg to Auckland. It is one of the longest journeys to New Zealand from anywhere in Europe, which is why most Icelandic travellers plan extended trips.
No. Icelandic citizens aged 18 to 30 can apply for the Working Holiday Scheme, though the annual quota is small. It is a separate visa that must be granted before you travel, and an NZeTA confers no right to work.
Your nationality is already set to Iceland. 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.
