New Zealand passport holders have needed a UK ETA since January 2025. Two years of validity, multiple entries, up to six months per visit — and you can still use the ePassport gates on arrival.
6 months
Maximum stay per visit
2 years
ETA validity
Multiple
Entries permitted
3 working days
Typical decision time
100% online
No embassy visit
Overview
New Zealanders go to Britain in numbers that would be remarkable for a country three times the size. The historical connection is close — Commonwealth realm, shared head of state until recently, a shared legal and parliamentary tradition — and a very large proportion of New Zealanders have a British-born parent or grandparent. The trip is long and expensive, so it is rarely brief: Kiwis come for weeks, often build a European tour around the London leg, and frequently have family at one end of it.
Since January 2025 that journey has required an Electronic Travel Authorisation. New Zealand remains firmly a non-visa country and nothing about what New Zealanders may do in Britain has changed — the ETA is a digital pre-travel permission applied for online and attached to the passport number. New Zealanders will find the concept immediately familiar, since New Zealand has run its own NZeTA since 2019.
One piece of good news for the arrival: New Zealand passport holders are in the ePassport gate cohort at the UK border, alongside Australia, Canada, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and the United States. So while the ETA is a new step before travel, you still walk through the automated gates rather than queueing for an officer at Heathrow.
At a glance
Eligibility
You do not need a visa, but you do need an ETA. New Zealand is a non-visa national country for UK purposes, so New Zealand citizens travel to Britain as visitors for tourism, family visits, business, conferences or short courses without any consular application. The ETA precedes that permission and does not reduce it — the six months New Zealanders have always been allowed is unchanged.
Every traveller needs their own, at any age. Children and infants need an ETA linked to their own passport and cannot be added to a parent's application. On a route this long and this expensive, a child without an authorisation is a very costly oversight.
The exemptions matter a great deal here. New Zealanders holding a UK visa, indefinite leave to remain or a Certificate of Entitlement to the right of abode do not need an ETA. More importantly, an enormous number of New Zealanders are entitled to a British or Irish passport through a parent or grandparent, and many already hold one they have not used in years. Travel on that and you need nothing at all — check the drawer before you pay for anything.
New Zealand permanent residents are not covered by the New Zealand arrangement. Someone living in Auckland on an Indian, Chinese, Filipino or South African passport follows the rules for that nationality, which for several means a Standard Visitor visa applied for weeks in advance. Mixed-status families should check each traveller separately rather than assuming the household moves as one.
Stay & validity
An approved ETA is valid for two years from the date it is granted, or until your New Zealand passport expires, whichever comes first. Within that window there is no limit on entries, and each visit can last up to six months. For a country as far from Britain as New Zealand, two years of multiple-entry validity is genuinely useful — it covers a trip now and the return visit for a wedding eighteen months later without a second application.
The passport-expiry rule is the trap. Your ETA dies with the passport it is attached to. New Zealand passports run for ten years for adults and five for children, and a traveller inside the final year of theirs will get correspondingly little use from a two-year authorisation. Renewal does not carry it across — no transfer, no refund. Check the expiry page before applying, particularly for children's passports which turn over quickly.
Britain does not impose the six-months-validity rule common elsewhere; your passport needs to cover the period you are in the UK and no more. This matters for New Zealanders because the London leg is so often part of a longer trip. The Schengen area wants three months of validity beyond your departure from it, and Kiwis heading on to Europe are governed by that stricter test rather than the British one.
Six months per visit is the ceiling for a single entry, not a yearly ration. Border Force examines the pattern across entries, and long stays that add up to most of the year raise the question of whether you are living in Britain rather than visiting it. New Zealanders with British family, or those doing a working-holiday-shaped trip without the visa to match, are the two groups this most often affects.
Pricing
Live fees for New Zealand passport holders, shown all-in — the Home Office charge and our service fee together, with nothing added later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as New Zealand
Requirements
Everything New Zealand passport holders need before starting an application. 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 digital photograph — full face visible against a plain background, taken within the last six months, with no headwear other than for religious or medical 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 Home Office ETA fee and our service fee together
Your travel and accommodation details — Border Force can ask about the purpose of your visit and where you are staying
Simple process
Four steps, entirely online, with our team checking every field before anything reaches the Home Office.
Enter your passport details exactly as printed, answer the suitability questions and upload your photograph. Most applicants finish in under ten minutes.
Our team checks your photo, passport number, name spelling and declarations against Home Office requirements before anything is submitted.
Your application goes to UK Visas and Immigration with the government fee paid, and we track its status until a decision is issued.
There is no sticker, label or document to print. The authorisation is held digitally against your passport number, and we explain exactly what to show at check-in.
Applications from New Zealand are decided automatically in the great majority of cases, and most applicants receive approval within minutes. The Home Office asks travellers to allow up to three working days, and a small proportion are referred for manual review, usually where a photograph fails the automated check.
Apply at least a week ahead, and preferably when you book. The buffer is not about processing speed; it is so that a mistyped passport number or a rejected photograph can be corrected without paying for a second application. On a route where the fare is four figures and the alternative flight may be the next day, that margin is worth having.
The time difference makes the case stronger for New Zealanders than for almost anyone else. Auckland is eleven to thirteen hours ahead of London depending on the season, and the long-haul departures leave in the evening. If a problem emerges at check-in in Auckland, it is the middle of the previous night in Britain. Nothing gets resolved in that window, which is why last-minute applications are a genuinely bad idea from New Zealand.
On arrival
An approved ETA gets you on the plane. This is what happens once you land — and your nationality is one of those that can use the automated gates.
Your nationality is eligible to use the automated gates at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Edinburgh and most other UK ports, alongside British and Irish citizens. The gate reads your biometric passport chip and checks your ETA against it electronically.
Children aged 10 or 11 can use the gates when accompanied by an adult using them at the same time. Younger children must be seen at a staffed desk, so families with under-tens should join the officer queue together.
The gates do not stamp passports. Your arrival is recorded digitally, and your six-month permission runs from that date. Keep your boarding pass and booking confirmations if you need to evidence your arrival date later.
The gates refer a proportion of passengers to Border Force at random or where the chip does not read cleanly. This is routine, is not a sign of a problem with your ETA, and usually adds only a few minutes.
Getting there
There is no nonstop route between New Zealand and Britain, and every journey runs through a hub. The Middle Eastern carriers dominate — Emirates via Dubai and Qatar Airways via Doha both offer one-stop options from Auckland — while Singapore Airlines via Changi and the Australian connections remain popular alternatives.
Best time to go
The seasons are inverted, and New Zealanders have an unusual freedom to exploit that. The British summer — June to August — coincides with the New Zealand winter, which is exactly why it is the traditional window: escape a Wellington July and land in long English evenings. It is also the most expensive time to fly the route and the busiest time to be in London, so the classic choice is not the smart one.
May and September are the better bets and are worth building a trip around. Both give reliable daylight and decent weather in Britain, both sit outside the peak fare bands on the Gulf and Singapore routes, and September in particular avoids the August crush at every attraction from the Tower to Edinburgh Castle. For New Zealanders willing to travel in the shoulder, the saving on a twenty-four-hour journey is substantial.
The New Zealand summer holidays in December and January present the real dilemma. It is the natural time to take four weeks off, and it is the most expensive period of the year to fly out of New Zealand, landing you in the shortest, darkest British days. If the trip is about family and Christmas that is fine and the weather is beside the point. If it is about seeing the country, the September shoulder gives far more for less money.
One practical note. New Zealand and the UK move their clocks in opposite directions, so the difference between Auckland and London swings between eleven and thirteen hours across the year — check it against your connection rather than assuming. And if you are routing through Dubai, Doha or Singapore, build in a longer connection than the minimum in the northern winter, when European weather disruption pushes delays back down the network.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from New Zealand — we check for every one of them before submitting.
An enormous number of New Zealanders are entitled to a British or Irish passport through a parent or grandparent, and many already hold one they have not used in years. If you do, travel on it and you need no ETA at all. Even an expired one is evidence of a status worth confirming before you pay.
New Zealanders know travel authorisations well, having required the NZeTA of visitors since 2019. The British version differs in the detail that matters most: it is tied to the passport and expires with it, and it allows six months per visit rather than the shorter permissions many such schemes grant. Familiarity leads some to be casual about the timing, which is where the trouble starts.
The UK's Youth Mobility Scheme is open to New Zealanders aged 18 to 35 and grants the right to work in Britain for up to three years. It is a separate visa with its own application and cost. An ETA confers no right to work whatsoever, and arriving as a visitor intending to find a job is grounds for refusal at the border.
The ETA is bound to a passport number for up to two years, and New Zealand passports come up for renewal on ten-year adult and five-year child cycles. A renewal inside that window voids the authorisation with no transfer and no refund. Children's passports are the usual casualty because they turn over faster than parents expect.
Emirates, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand are all liable for carrying passengers without a valid ETA and none will board you on a promise. With Britain asleep when New Zealand's long-haul flights depart, a problem discovered at check-in cannot be escalated to anyone who can fix it.
Britain only asks that your passport covers your stay. The Schengen countries want three months beyond departure. New Zealanders almost always pair London with Europe, and the trip is governed by the stricter requirement — a passport that is fine for the UK leg can end the European one before it starts.
Passport number mistyped
By far the most common problem. The authorisation attaches to the number you enter, so a single wrong character produces an ETA that does not exist as far as the airline's check is concerned.
An undeclared conviction or refusal
The Home Office asks about criminal convictions and previous immigration refusals or removals. History found later is treated far more seriously than the original matter would have been if declared.
A photograph that fails the check
Shadows across the face, glasses, a patterned background or a cropped chin all cause the automated check to reject an image, which turns a routine approval into a manual review.
Conditions
These conditions are set by the UK Home Office and do not vary by nationality. The passport-linking rule in particular catches out a great many otherwise well-planned trips.
Your authorisation is held digitally against the passport number you enter. There is nothing placed in your passport and nothing to print for the border. If you renew or replace that passport, the ETA does not transfer — you must apply for a new one on the new document.
Every person travelling needs their own ETA, including babies and children. A child cannot be added to a parent's application, and each traveller needs their own valid passport to apply against.
An approved ETA lasts two years from the date it is granted, or until the expiry date of the passport it is linked to, whichever comes first. This is the single most misunderstood rule in the scheme — a passport with eight months left produces an ETA with eight months left.
Within its validity you can travel to the UK as many times as you like. Each individual visit can be up to six months. There is no formal annual cap, but repeated long stays that add up to the majority of the year will attract questions at the border.
One ETA covers England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and it is also accepted for travel to Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. You do not need a separate authorisation for the Crown Dependencies.
An ETA lets you board your flight, train or ship. The decision to admit you is made by Border Force on arrival, who can ask about your funds, your accommodation, your onward plans and the purpose of your visit.
Consular services
As a fellow Commonwealth realm, New Zealand hosts a British High Commission in Wellington rather than an embassy, supported by a consulate-general in Auckland. Neither plays any part in issuing an ETA — the application is completed online and decided digitally, with no interview, no appointment and no passport submission. These offices handle consular assistance, visa routes where an ETA is not appropriate, and support for applicants whose circumstances require a human decision.
FAQs
The questions New Zealand passport holders ask most often about travelling to the United Kingdom.
No. New Zealand citizens do not need a visa for tourism, business visits, short study or transit in the United Kingdom. Since January 2025 they do need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), a digital permission linked to the passport rather than a visa. It is applied for online in about ten minutes and usually approved the same day.
No. If you travel on a British or Irish passport you need no ETA at all, and this applies to a great many New Zealanders with a British or Irish parent or grandparent. Use whichever passport gives you the simpler route. Even an expired British passport is evidence of a status worth confirming before you pay.
Yes. New Zealand is one of the seven non-European nationalities eligible for the automated ePassport gates, alongside Australia, Canada, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and the United States. Provided your passport is biometric and you are aged 10 or over, the arrival experience is unchanged — but you still need the ETA to board the flight.
No. The ETA is a visitor permission only and confers no right to work. New Zealanders aged 18 to 35 can apply for the Youth Mobility Scheme visa, which grants the right to live and work in the UK for up to three years — a separate application with its own requirements and fee. Arriving as a visitor intending to find work is grounds for refusal at the border.
Up to six months per visit. The ETA lasts two years, or until your New Zealand passport expires if that is sooner, and allows unlimited trips in that period. Six months is a per-visit maximum rather than an annual allowance — repeatedly using most of it will prompt Border Force to ask whether you are living in Britain.
At least a week, and ideally when you book the flights. Most applications are approved within minutes, but the buffer matters more from New Zealand than almost anywhere — the UK is asleep when long-haul flights depart Auckland, so a problem found at check-in cannot be escalated before the aircraft leaves.
Only if they hold New Zealand citizenship. Eligibility follows the passport you travel on, not where you live. A permanent resident travelling on an Indian, Chinese, Filipino or South African passport must follow the rules for that nationality, which in several cases means a Standard Visitor visa applied for weeks in advance.
Yes. Every traveller needs an ETA regardless of age, including newborns, and each is linked to that person's own passport. Children cannot be added to a parent's application. New Zealand children's passports run for five years rather than ten, so check the expiry date carefully — the ETA ends when the passport does.
No. The ETA is tied to the specific passport number you applied with and becomes invalid when that passport is replaced. There is no transfer and no refund. If your passport is nearing expiry, renew it first and then apply for the ETA against the new number.
Yes. A single ETA covers the entire United Kingdom and is also accepted for Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. There are no internal immigration checks between the four nations, so a trip combining London and Edinburgh needs only one authorisation.
Your nationality is already set to New Zealand. Complete the form in under ten minutes, and our team will check every detail before it reaches the Home Office.
Other nationalities
Requirements, routes and border formalities differ by passport. Here are the guides for other eligible nationalities.
