Updated 29 September 2019: New Zealand immigration requires that from 1 October 2019, all visitors eligible to enter NZ without a visa obtain a NZeTA (New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority) prior to arrival. It has now been confirmed that this new rule only applies to air passengers, commercial and cruise ship passengers and crew and will not affect small craft and superyacht crew.

Published 5 years ago

Update 29 September 2019:

There have been many mixed messages from NZ Immigration concerning the new NZeTA and if indeed it applies to small craft sailors arriving in NZ.

Gulf Harbour Radio has worked hard to try and obtain an official statement prior to the 1 October deadline from the NZ Authorities, confirming the exact rules. Ian Burt of ITOC, NZ Customs Service, has confirmed the following:

Regarding NZeTA and yacht crew arriving in NZ – if you view the MBIE website and look at NZeTA it states that the eTA is only required by Air passengers, Commercial and Cruiseship passengers and crew. At this stage, there is no requirement for crew arriving on small craft/superyachts to have an eTA.

Ian Burt I SupCO Planning and Marine l ITOC l New Zealand Customs Service

-ends-

Effective 1 October 2019, New Zealand immigration requires that all visitors eligible to enter NZ without a visa obtain a NZeTA (New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority) prior to arrival.

As stated above, this only applies to anyone arriving by air, commercial craft or cruise ship.

It does not apply to anyone who already has a visa.

Find out more about the NZeTA here.

Further Reading:

For full details on arriving by yacht in NZ see Noonsite’s New Zealand Formalities.