© 2026 NZeTA - New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority. All Rights Reserved.
State of Israel · מדינת ישראל → Aotearoa New Zealand
Israel is on New Zealand's visa-waiver list. An approved NZeTA replaces the tourist visa entirely — no embassy, no appointment. Apply online, approved within 72 hours, valid 2 years with multiple entries.
Israel is one of the Middle East's most remarkable nations — a modern state founded in 1948, built upon a site of continuous human civilisation spanning more than 3,000 years, on a strip of land approximately 470 km long and 135 km wide between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. Its population of approximately 9.5 million speaks Hebrew as its primary official language — the only ancient language ever to be fully revived as a living national tongue. English is widely spoken across Israel's business, academic, and technology sectors.
Ben Gurion International Airport (TLV), located 15 km south of Tel Aviv and 50 km from Jerusalem, is Israel's main international hub. While there are no direct flights from Israel to New Zealand, TLV is well connected to Singapore, Dubai, Bangkok, and Hong Kong — all of which offer onward service to Auckland. Total journey time ranges from approximately 22 to 26 hours depending on the route and connection.
New Zealand is approximately 15,000 km from Israel — one of the longer air distances available from the Middle East, but Israel's central position between Europe, Asia, and the Pacific means that a broad range of hub options and competitive fares are available year-round.
All four items must be ready before opening the NZeTA application form. All details must match your Israeli passport exactly.
Your Israeli passport must be biometric and valid for at least 3 months beyond your planned departure from New Zealand. The NZeTA is electronically linked to your specific passport number — renewing your passport before travel requires a new NZeTA application. Note: the Israeli biometric national identity card (Teudat Zehut) is not accepted as a travel document for New Zealand entry — a passport is mandatory.
A passport-style photograph taken within the last 6 months. Plain light background, no sunglasses, no headwear except for religious reasons, full face clearly visible and centred. The photo is uploaded directly into the online form — no printed photograph is required at any stage of the NZeTA process.
Your NZeTA approval is sent by email. Keep this address accessible at check-in at Ben Gurion Airport (TLV) and on arrival in New Zealand. The NZeTA is verified electronically at the border — no printed document is issued or required from the traveller at any point.
A credit or debit card to pay the NZeTA processing fee and the mandatory New Zealand government International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy (IVL) in a single secure online transaction. Non-refundable. Your bank will convert ILS (₪) to NZD at the prevailing exchange rate at the time of payment.
No embassy. No appointment. Apply from Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, or anywhere at our NZeTA application page. Apply at least 3 days before your TLV departure.
Enter your full legal name, date of birth, Israeli passport number, and expiry date — exactly as printed. A single error in the passport number delays processing. If your name is romanised differently in different documents, use the spelling shown in the passport you will travel on.
Upload your digital face photograph and truthfully answer all health and character declaration questions. Required by New Zealand immigration law — inaccurate answers may result in rejection and can affect future entry. The declarations typically take 3–5 minutes to complete.
The NZeTA service fee and the New Zealand government IVL levy are collected together in one secure online card transaction. Non-refundable. Instant payment confirmation is sent and your application enters processing immediately — no further action required.
Approved within 72 hours. Electronically linked to your Israeli passport — no printing required. Check-in staff at TLV and New Zealand border officers at AKL verify it automatically when you present your passport on departure and arrival.
The NZeTA is for short-term visits only. See the tourist visa, business visa, and transit visa pages for activities that require a separate visa category.
There are currently no direct (non-stop) flights from Israel to New Zealand. Israeli citizens depart from Ben Gurion International Airport (TLV) and connect through regional hubs in Asia and the Middle East. Journey times range from approximately 22 to 26 hours depending on the route and connection time. Four primary hub options are available.
Singapore Changi Airport (SIN) is consistently rated the world's best airport and offers a comfortable connection experience. Singapore Airlines' direct SIN–AKL service is one of the most reliable trans-Pacific routes available for Israeli travellers, with Changi's Terminal 2 and 3 offering excellent transit facilities for longer layovers.
Emirates operates a long-haul DXB–AKL service with the Boeing 777 or A380. The short TLV–DXB leg means a faster connection time, though the DXB–AKL leg is one of the world's longest single flights. Dubai International Airport (DXB) is one of the world's busiest hubs with extensive transit facilities across its three terminals.
El Al operates direct TLV–BKK service, making this a convenient one-airline routing for Israeli travellers who prefer El Al's service standards. Bangkok Suvarnabhumi (BKK) is a well-equipped transit hub with extensive duty-free and dining options. Thai Airways connects BKK to Auckland with a reasonable connection time.
Cathay Pacific operates TLV–HKG service, connecting to its direct HKG–AKL route. Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) is consistently rated among the world's best for transit experience. This routing also allows a convenient stopover in Hong Kong if combining multiple destinations in East Asia.
Israel uses the Israeli New Shekel (ILS / ₪). New Zealand uses NZD. Contactless card payment is universal across New Zealand. An open-jaw itinerary — flying into Auckland (AKL) and departing from Christchurch (CHC) — allows full coverage of both islands without backtracking and costs similarly to a return ticket from the same city.
On the surface, Israel and New Zealand appear to have little in common — one is a Mediterranean nation at the centre of the world's oldest recorded civilisation, the other is a remote Pacific island country settled within the last thousand years. But the connections run deeper than geography suggests.
Modern Hebrew (Ivrit) is the only ancient language ever to be successfully revived as a fully functional national tongue. By the late 19th century, Hebrew had not been spoken natively for over 1,700 years — it existed only in religious texts and scholarly writing. Through a deliberate national effort beginning in the 1880s — led principally by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda — Hebrew was reconstructed, expanded with thousands of new words, and adopted as the everyday spoken language of a new state by 1948. Today, approximately 9 million people speak Hebrew as their primary language. The revival is considered one of the most remarkable linguistic achievements in history.
Te Reo Māori, New Zealand's indigenous Polynesian language, faced near-extinction in the 20th century following decades of suppression in schools and public life. A deliberate revitalisation movement beginning in the 1970s — including the establishment of Kōhanga Reo (language nests) for early childhood immersion — has partially reversed this decline. Te Reo Māori is now an official language of New Zealand, taught in schools nationwide, used in government and broadcasting, and spoken by approximately 185,000 people as a conversational language. Israeli linguists and language planners have been cited as references in the Māori revitalisation movement — the Hebrew revival provides the world's clearest model for how a language can be brought back from the edge of disappearance.
Israel — the Negev and Ramon Crater: The Negev Desert covers over 60% of Israel's land area. Its centrepiece is Makhtesh Ramon — the world's largest erosion crater, 40 km long and 500 m deep — containing ancient geological layers and a landscape that has been compared to a Martian surface. Night-sky tourism in the Negev is internationally recognised, with some of the clearest viewing conditions in the northern hemisphere.
New Zealand — Central Otago: New Zealand's driest region — Central Otago — shares an unexpectedly similar character with the Negev: an arid, high-altitude basin landscape of tawny rock, silver tussock, and extraordinary geological formations. The Maniototo plain and the Otago goldfields landscape have drawn comparisons to the ancient Negev in their quality of light and space. Central Otago is also New Zealand's premier Pinot Noir region.
Israel — 3,000 Years of Continuous History: Israel contains some of the world's most significant archaeological sites — Jerusalem's Old City (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), the Dead Sea Scrolls, Masada, Caesarea, and Acre. The Dead Sea itself — at 430 m below sea level, the lowest point on earth's surface — has been described in texts for over 2,000 years. Israeli travellers live within reach of recorded history that predates most of the world's nations by millennia.
New Zealand — 80 Million Years of Geological Time: New Zealand separated from the Gondwana supercontinent approximately 80 million years ago and evolved in isolation — producing a unique biosphere of birds, plants, and insects found nowhere else. Māori settlement began approximately 700 years ago. New Zealand's "ancient" history is geological rather than human — its mountains, fiords, and forests represent a timescale that dwarfs recorded human civilisation entirely.
Israel — the Startup Nation: Israel has the highest density of technology startups per capita in the world — a fact documented in the 2009 book "Start-Up Nation." Tel Aviv's tech ecosystem has produced globally significant companies in cybersecurity, agriculture technology, medical devices, and artificial intelligence. Israel spends approximately 5% of GDP on research and development — among the highest proportions of any country on earth.
New Zealand — AgriTech, BioTech, and Clean Innovation: New Zealand punches above its weight in agricultural technology, biotechnology, geothermal energy, and environmental innovation. Its small population drives a culture of necessity-based problem-solving: when you cannot import solutions at scale, you build them. New Zealand companies export intellectual property and technology across the world in sectors from dairy processing to earthquake engineering — a culture that Israeli tech entrepreneurs find immediately recognisable.
100% online from Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, or anywhere in Israel. Approved within 72 hours. Valid 2 years with multiple entries to New Zealand.
Start NZeTA Application — Israeli Passport© 2026 NZeTA - New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority. All Rights Reserved.