South Korea 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
South Korea is one of New Zealand's most established Asian markets, with a travel pattern shaped by two things in particular: a large working holiday cohort, and a substantial short-term study and language market. Korean visitors are among the most likely of any nationality to be in New Zealand for education rather than pure tourism.
Seoul Incheon connects to Auckland nonstop, seasonally on some rotations, and year-round via Australian and Southeast Asian hubs. The time difference is only three to four hours, which makes it one of the least demanding long-haul trips available from Korea.
Korean citizens are on New Zealand's visa waiver list, so there is no visitor visa to apply for. What is required, since October 2019, is the NZeTA — an online travel authorisation held against your passport number and checked by the airline at Incheon before you board.
At a glance
Eligibility
No visa, but yes to an NZeTA. South Korean passport holders can enter New Zealand for tourism, visiting family, business meetings, conferences or transit for up to 90 days under the waiver. The NZeTA is the pre-screening step that replaced the visitor visa in 2019.
Study is where Korean travellers most often run into the limits. A course of three months or less can be undertaken on a visitor entry, which covers most short language programmes. Anything longer — a semester, a full-year English course, a university programme — requires a student visa applied for before travel, and it cannot be arranged from an NZeTA after arrival.
Korea also has a Working Holiday agreement with New Zealand for applicants aged 18 to 30, which is heavily subscribed and capped by annual quota. It is a separate visa with its own application window and requirements. Eligibility for all of this follows your passport rather than your residence — foreign nationals living in Korea apply on their own nationality.
Stay & validity
South Korean passport holders may stay up to 90 days per visit. The NZeTA is valid for two years from approval and permits unlimited entries, so the 90-day cap applies to each individual stay rather than to an annual total.
For short language courses the 90-day limit is the operative constraint, and it is a hard one. A twelve-week programme fits comfortably; a sixteen-week programme does not, and needs a student visa arranged before departure. Institutions in Auckland and Christchurch are used to this distinction, but the responsibility for holding the right visa sits with the traveller.
The authorisation is bound to one passport number for two years. Korean passports are issued for five or ten years, and a five-year document renewed mid-validity voids the NZeTA with no transfer available. Given how many Korean travellers return to New Zealand within a two-year window, this catches people out on the second trip rather than the first.
New Zealand requires three months of passport validity beyond your departure from the country. Korean itineraries frequently route through Sydney, Singapore or Hong Kong, several of which apply stricter rules of their own, so plan against the strictest requirement on the whole journey.
Pricing
Live fees for South Korean 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 South Korea
Requirements
Everything South Korean 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.
Most Korean requests are approved automatically, often within minutes. Immigration New Zealand advises allowing up to 72 hours, since a proportion are referred to an officer, most commonly because the photograph fails the automated check.
Request it at least a week before departure. For students and school group programmes, do it considerably earlier — the paperwork on those trips is often coordinated by an agency, and a single traveller without an NZeTA is refused boarding at Incheon while the rest of the group departs. Verify each person's approval individually rather than relying on a group confirmation.
Getting there
Seoul Incheon connects to Auckland nonstop on Air New Zealand and Korean Air, with the service seasonal on some rotations. When the nonstop is not operating, the standard alternatives run through Sydney, Brisbane, Singapore or Hong Kong, adding a few hours to a journey that is already comparatively gentle by long-haul standards.
Best time to go
New Zealand's seasons run opposite to Korea's, so the New Zealand summer of December to February falls in the Korean winter. That window is peak season in New Zealand, with the best weather and the highest prices, and it overlaps with the Korean winter school holidays — which is why so much Korean family travel and short-course study is concentrated there.
The Korean summer holiday period of late July and August is the New Zealand winter, and it is the reason Korean ski travel to Queenstown and Wanaka has grown steadily. The country is quiet and fares are lower, but daylight is short and South Island touring is more limited than the guidebooks suggest.
March to May and September to November are the value windows, with settled weather and far fewer visitors. Chuseok in September or October falls neatly into the New Zealand spring, which makes it a good short-holiday option. New Zealand is three hours ahead of Korea in the southern winter and four in the southern summer, so jet lag is minimal either way.
Avoid these
Declines are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on requests from South Korea — we check for every one of them before submitting.
This is the most common Korean-specific error. A language course of up to three months is fine on an NZeTA, but a longer programme requires a student visa arranged before departure. Enrolling in a sixteen-week course and planning to sort the visa on arrival is not possible, and can result in being refused entry at Auckland.
Study tours and group programmes are a large share of Korean travel to New Zealand, and the authorisation is frequently assumed to be part of the package. Each traveller needs their own NZeTA against their own passport number. Confirm individually rather than trusting a group booking reference.
Korean names can be romanised several ways — Lee, Yi and Rhee; Park and Bak; Kim and Gim. The NZeTA must match the machine-readable zone of the passport exactly, not the spelling used on a business card or an email address, because that is what airline systems compare against.
The Korea–New Zealand Working Holiday Scheme is capped and heavily subscribed, with application windows that fill quickly. It is a separate visa granted before travel. Arriving on an NZeTA intending to work is a breach of your entry conditions and can result in removal and a re-entry ban.
Korea issues both five and ten year passports, and Korean travellers commonly return to New Zealand within the NZeTA's two-year life. A renewal in between voids the authorisation, which is only discovered when the airline scans the new passport at Incheon.
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 Korea. If your course of study runs beyond three months, the student visa application is also made online through Immigration New Zealand rather than at the Embassy counter.
FAQs
The questions South Korean passport holders ask most often about travelling to New Zealand.
No visitor visa is required — South Korea is on New Zealand's visa waiver list. You do need an NZeTA, requested online before departure and checked by the airline at Incheon. It covers tourism, family visits, business meetings and transit for stays of up to 90 days.
Up to 90 days per visit. The NZeTA is valid for two years and allows unlimited entries in that time, but each individual stay is limited to 90 days. Only British citizens receive a longer allowance.
Only for courses of three months or less, which covers most short language programmes. Anything longer — a semester, a full-year English course or a university programme — requires a student visa applied for before you travel. This is the most common reason Korean travellers run into difficulty at the border.
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 South Korean passport holders including our service fee.
Use exactly the spelling printed in the machine-readable zone at the bottom of your passport photo page. Korean romanisation varies widely — Lee, Yi and Rhee can all represent the same surname — and the airline compares your NZeTA against the passport, so any variation causes a problem at check-in.
Yes, Air New Zealand and Korean Air both fly Incheon to Auckland nonstop, taking around twelve hours, though the service is seasonal on some rotations. Year-round alternatives connect through Sydney, Brisbane, Singapore or Hong Kong. The NZeTA requirement is the same on every routing.
No. Korea's Working Holiday Scheme with New Zealand is open to applicants aged 18 to 30, but it is a separate visa with an annual quota and its own application window, and it must be granted before you travel. An NZeTA confers no right to work.
Yes. Every traveller needs their own NZeTA linked to their own passport number, including minors. Group bookings do not create group authorisations, and the traveller who was missed is only identified at the Incheon check-in desk.
Your nationality is already set to South Korea. 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.
