© 2026 NZeTA - New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority. All Rights Reserved.
Your NZeTA is valid for two years and lets you travel to New Zealand as often as you like in that window. But how long you may stay on each visit is a separate limit set at the border — under three months for most nationalities. Confusing the two is the mistake that turns a valid authority into an overstay. This page explains both clocks, when they start, and what breaks them.
Apply for Your NZeTAThe two-year period runs from the date your NZeTA is approved — not from the date you book, the date you fly, or the date you first arrive in New Zealand. That has one practical consequence worth understanding before you apply.
| You Apply | NZeTA Expires | What That Means |
|---|---|---|
| Two weeks before your trip in June | June, two years later | Nearly the full two years remain for future trips. |
| Twelve months before your trip in June | June of the following year | Only one year of the authority is left once you arrive. |
Applying far in advance does not extend anything — it just burns validity you could have used later. Most applications are approved within 72 hours, so applying a few weeks before departure gives you a safety margin without wasting the authority. Do not leave it to the day of travel.
The authority itself has only two durations. Everything else on this page is about how long you may stay, which is a different rule.
| Who You Are | NZeTA Valid For | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Travellers | 2 years | Covers tourism, permitted business activity, visiting family and short-term study, with multiple entries. | |
| Crew members | 5 years | Applies to aircraft and marine crew requesting a crew NZeTA — not to cruise passengers, who are travellers. | |
| Cruise passengers | 2 years | Cruise passengers hold a standard traveller NZeTA regardless of nationality. See our cruise guide. | |
| Transit passengers | 2 years | A transit NZeTA covers passing through Auckland, not a stay. See our transit guide. |
This is the limit people actually breach. It has nothing to do with when your NZeTA expires.
| Traveller | Maximum Stay per Visit | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Most visa waiver nationalities | Less than 3 months | Often described as 90 days. Covers tourism, visiting family and friends, permitted business activity and short-term study. |
| UK passport holders | Up to 6 months | The United Kingdom is the one visa waiver country with a longer standard stay. |
| Any traveller, cumulative | 6 months in any 12 months | Counted backwards from the date you intend to leave. This caps repeat visits even when each individual stay is short. |
Two separate three-month visits inside the same year use your full annual allowance. A third trip in that twelve-month window can be refused at the border even though your NZeTA is valid and each stay was individually within the limit. If your travel pattern looks like this, apply for a visitor visa before you leave home instead of relying on the waiver. Immigration New Zealand is explicit that if you want to stay longer than the waiver allows, you may not be allowed to enter on a visa waiver even with an approved NZeTA.
An NZeTA is permission to travel to New Zealand. Permission to enter is granted by an immigration officer when you arrive, and that decision is separate. Officers may ask to see evidence that you are a genuine visitor:
The NZeTA also does not permit paid employment, long-term study, medical treatment or residence. Those need the appropriate visa, applied for before you travel.
Two years is the maximum, not a promise. These are the things that cut it short.
Your NZeTA is tied to a passport number. Renew the passport and the link no longer matches the document you are travelling on. Submit a change request to update the passport number at least 10 days before you travel — the NZeTA itself keeps its original expiry date. See our passport requirements guide.
Naturalising in another country and travelling on that new passport is a change of nationality and issuing state. That cannot be amended on an existing authority — you need a completely new NZeTA, with the fees and levy paid again.
A passport that expires inside your NZeTA's two years effectively ends its usefulness on that date. Remember the separate rule that your passport must be valid for 3 months beyond the day you leave New Zealand — so the practical deadline arrives earlier than the printed expiry.
Your declaration answers formed part of the assessment. If something material changes — a criminal conviction, a deportation from another country — the answers you gave no longer hold, and you need a new NZeTA request rather than a quiet amendment.
An NZeTA cannot be extended or renewed. There is no grace period and no reduced repeat fee — when the two years are up, you simply request a new one and receive a fresh two-year authority.
Staying beyond your permitted time makes you unlawfully in New Zealand. The consequences follow you well beyond this trip:
If illness, a cancelled flight or a family emergency means you cannot leave in time, contact Immigration New Zealand before your permitted stay ends. A request made in advance is treated very differently from one made after the fact. Our support team can point you in the right direction, though only Immigration New Zealand can vary your stay.
© 2026 NZeTA - New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority. All Rights Reserved.