© 2026 NZeTA - New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority. All Rights Reserved.
República de Costa Rica → Aotearoa New Zealand
From San José to Auckland — Costa Rica is on New Zealand’s visa-waiver list. Apply for the NZeTA online, no embassy or appointment required. Approved within 72 hours, valid 2 years with multiple entries.
The Republic of Costa Rica is a small Central American democracy of approximately 5.2 million people occupying 51,100 km² between Nicaragua to the north and Panama to the south, with the Caribbean Sea to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Despite its modest size — comparable to West Virginia or half of England — Costa Rica contains approximately 6% of the world’s total biodiversity, with around 500,000 species of flora and fauna including 900+ bird species, 220+ reptile species, and nearly 10,000 plant species. More than 25% of Costa Rica’s national territory is protected within national parks, wildlife reserves, and biological corridors, giving it one of the highest proportions of protected land of any country in the world.
Costa Rica made history in 1948 when President José Figueres Ferrer abolished the military following a brief civil war, redirecting defence spending to education and healthcare. Over 75 years later, Costa Rica remains one of fewer than 30 countries with no standing army — and is consistently ranked as one of the happiest, most peaceful, and most environmentally progressive nations on Earth. Costa Rica generates over 99% of its electricity from renewable sources (hydro, geothermal, wind, and solar), has achieved near-universal literacy (98%), and was the first country to constitutionally protect the right to a healthy environment.
“Pura vida” — literally “pure life” — is Costa Rica’s defining national philosophy: a greeting, a farewell, an expression of gratitude, and an attitude toward life that embraces simplicity, natural abundance, and unhurried well-being. New Zealand, 10,000 kilometres across the Pacific, resonates strongly with Costa Rica’s values: both nations are natural environment democracies with strong conservation ethics and progressive social governance. Costa Rican passport holders are on New Zealand’s visa-waiver list and must apply for an NZeTA before travelling to New Zealand.
Four documents are required to complete your NZeTA application from Costa Rica.
Your Costa Rican passport must be biometric (machine-readable with electronic chip) and valid for at least 3 months beyond your planned departure date from New Zealand. The passport number entered during the NZeTA application must exactly match your physical travel document. Apply for NZeTA using the same passport you will present at the airport — if you renew or replace your passport after receiving the NZeTA, you must submit a new application.
A clear digital photograph of your face taken against a plain white or light-coloured background within the past 6 months. The image must show your complete face clearly, with eyes open and looking directly at the camera, no glasses, no hat, and no facial obstructions. The photograph is uploaded during the online application process — no physical print is needed. Photo non-compliance is the most common reason for NZeTA processing delays.
An active email address that you regularly check is required to receive your NZeTA approval notification and reference number. The NZeTA is delivered entirely electronically — there is no physical document, stamp, or label. Your airline confirms the NZeTA at check-in by verifying your passport number against the Immigration New Zealand database. No printed copy is required, but keeping the approval email accessible throughout your travel is recommended.
A credit or debit card is required to pay the NZeTA application service fee and the mandatory New Zealand government International Visitor Levy (IVL) together in a single secure online payment. Major international cards are accepted, including those issued in Costa Rican colón (CRC) and USD. The IVL is a government-mandated charge for all international visitors arriving by air, separate from the NZeTA application service fee.
Four steps to complete your NZeTA application entirely online from San José or anywhere in Costa Rica.
Complete the online form with your full name as printed on your Costa Rican passport, passport number and expiry, date of birth, and travel dates. All information must match your physical passport exactly.
Upload a clear digital face photo on a plain light background. Full face visible, eyes open, no glasses. Photo quality is the most common cause of processing delays for Costa Rican applicants.
Review all entered details and pay the NZeTA service fee together with the mandatory New Zealand IVL in a single secure online payment. Your application is submitted automatically on payment confirmation.
Approval by email within 72 hours. No physical document needed. The NZeTA is electronically linked to your passport. Valid 2 years, multiple entries, each stay up to 90 days. ¡Pura vida!
Activities authorised and not permitted under the NZeTA for Costa Rican passport holders.
There are no direct flights from San José (SJO) to Auckland (AKL). All routes connect through a transit city in the Americas or Pacific.
Panama City’s Tocumen International Airport is the most convenient first connection from San José, with Copa Airlines operating multiple daily flights (~1.5 hrs). From PTY, connect onward to Los Angeles (LAX) then Auckland on Air New Zealand, or via Houston (IAH) to LAX to AKL.
American Airlines and SANSA/Copa operate direct SJO–MIA flights. Miami is the largest gateway for Central American travellers to the US, with excellent onward connections to Los Angeles (LAX) for the transpacific leg to Auckland. Also useful for travellers combining a New Zealand trip with a US stopover.
Los Angeles is the primary transpacific departure point for all routes from Costa Rica to New Zealand. Air New Zealand operates direct LAX–AKL service (~12.5 hrs non-stop). Qantas and United also connect LAX to Auckland. Allow at least 3 hours for connection time at LAX between your arriving and departing flights.
Four pivotal years in Costa Rica’s environmental and peace history, each paralleled by a New Zealand moment.
On 1 December 1948, President José Figueres Ferrer signed the decree abolishing Costa Rica’s military following a 44-day civil war. The defence budget was immediately redirected to education and healthcare — a structural shift that has compounded over 75 years into one of the world’s most educated, healthiest, and most literate populations in Latin America. Costa Rica now devotes more than 8% of GDP to education, maintains near-universal healthcare through the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), and consistently ranks as the happiest country in the Americas. The 1948 decision is considered the foundational act of modern Costa Rica’s national character.
NZ counterpart: 1987 — New Zealand declared itself a nuclear-free zone, banning nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered ships from its waters and ports. The anti-nuclear policy damaged the ANZUS alliance relationship with the United States but became a defining expression of New Zealand’s independent foreign policy identity. As Costa Rica’s 1948 abolition defines its peace character, New Zealand’s 1987 nuclear-free declaration defines its independence and peacekeeping identity.
Costa Rica’s formal national parks system began taking shape in the late 1960s and was consolidated in the 1970s under the leadership of biologist Mario Boza, who established Poás Volcano as Costa Rica’s first national park. By the 1980s and 1990s, Costa Rica had developed the most ambitious conservation programme in the Americas, protecting over 25% of its national territory across 26 national parks, 8 biological reserves, 32 wildlife refuges, and 15 wetland areas. The philosophy of “saving nature through tourism” — using ecotourism revenue to fund conservation — was pioneered in Costa Rica and exported worldwide. Today tourism represents over 8% of GDP, much of it directly tied to access to protected natural areas.
NZ counterpart: New Zealand’s Fiordland National Park (established 1952), Te Wāhipounamu World Heritage Area, and the Department of Conservation (DOC), which manages over 30% of New Zealand’s land as protected conservation estate. Both nations have built significant portions of their national economies and identities around the idea that nature preservation generates more long-term value than exploitation.
In 2007, Costa Rica became the first developing country to formally commit to achieving carbon neutrality — initially targeting 2021, later revised to 2050. This commitment matched what was already becoming infrastructure reality: Costa Rica already generated over 80% of its electricity from renewables at the time of the announcement, and by 2015 had periods of running on 100% renewable electricity for months at a time. The pledge was backed by the systematic expansion of hydroelectric capacity (which supplies approximately 75% of power), geothermal energy from the Arenal and Guanacaste volcanic fields (10%), and growing solar and wind investment. Costa Rica’s renewable electricity achievement is considered one of the most impressive clean energy transitions of any economy in the world, particularly given its tropical geography and development status.
NZ counterpart: New Zealand’s Zero Carbon Act (2019) — committing to net-zero long-lived greenhouse gases by 2050, backed by the Climate Change Commission and binding emissions budgets. New Zealand generates approximately 80% of its electricity from renewables (predominantly hydro and geothermal). Both small Pacific-region nations lead on renewable electricity while continuing to work on agricultural emissions (both economies have substantial livestock sectors as a source of methane).
Costa Rica’s decade of “rewilding” — a deliberate policy of reversing deforestation and expanding wildlife corridors between protected areas — reached a milestone in the early 2020s with the expansion of the Osa Peninsula corridor connecting Corcovado National Park (one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, with 2.5% of total global biodiversity in 0.001% of the world’s land area) to adjacent private conservation land. Forest cover in Costa Rica has grown from a low of approximately 17% in 1983 to over 60% today — an extraordinary reversal achieved through a combination of Payments for Environmental Services (PES) programme begun in 1997 (the world’s first such system), ecotourism revenue, and progressive land-use policy. The jaguar has returned to former ranges. Scarlet macaw populations have stabilised after near-extinction.
NZ counterpart: Predator Free 2050 — New Zealand’s national programme to eradicate introduced mammalian predators (rats, stoats, and possums) from the entire New Zealand landmass by 2050, allowing native bird species (kākā, kīwī, kākāpō) to recover without island sanctuary requirements. Both programmes represent the frontier of conservation ambition: Costa Rica rewilding its forest; New Zealand rewilding its predator-free future.
Pura vida — 100% online from San José or anywhere. Approved within 72 hours. Valid 2 years with multiple entries.
Start NZeTA Application — Costa Rica Passport© 2026 NZeTA - New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority. All Rights Reserved.