A New Zealand Visitor Visa, explained properly
New Zealand is unusually specific. Where most countries say "enough money", New Zealand says NZD 1,000 a month per person. Where most leave the stay vague, it publishes a nine-months-in-eighteen ceiling. That precision makes it one of the easier applications to prepare properly — and one of the easier ones to fail on a detail.
Two recent changes matter: applications became online-only on 1 October 2026, and the levy that comes with the visa is now NZD 100 a head.
What you need
A full Visitor Visa. Pakistan is not on New Zealand's visa waiver list, which runs to 60 countries and territories, so the NZeTA is not an option — that is only for waiver nationals and a few other defined groups.
Since 1 October 2026 the Visitor Visa and Transit Visa must be applied for through Immigration New Zealand online. Paper applications are accepted only where exceptional circumstances apply, and you must contact INZ first. Any guidance telling you to post forms to a visa application centre is now out of date.
You will need a RealMe account, and INZ says the online form "should take less than 15 minutes."
What it costs
| Item | Amount | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Visa application fee | NZD 300 | Band C rate, which covers Pakistan |
| Immigration levy | NZD 41 | Non-refundable |
| Conservation and tourism levy (IVL) | NZD 100 | Per person, paid with the application |
| Total per applicant | NZD 441 | Paid online by Visa, Mastercard or UnionPay |
The IVL is included in the application payment rather than charged separately, and it is per person — a couple pays NZD 200 of IVL, not 100. New Zealand is clear that none of it comes back: "We do not refund application costs if we decline your application", and the levy is non-refundable even on a decline.
For Pakistan, INZ's own system returns no local-currency option and no visa application centre service fee — the charge is in New Zealand dollars, online.
Source and date. Cost breakdown returned by Immigration New Zealand's fees and decision-times tool for a Pakistani citizen applying from Pakistan, read 11 October 2026; current Fees Guide INZ 1028 dated May 2026. These are New Zealand government charges paid to INZ, not to Breeze, and they can change without notice. Our own charge is quoted separately.
Processing: INZ publishes 80% within 2 weeks for Pakistani applicants, with an average wait of about a week nationally. It defines "average wait" as the 50% figure and "most completed within" as the 80% figure, both in working days. No 90th-percentile figure is published, so we will not state one. INZ warns that "processing is busiest between September and March" — which is exactly the Pakistani travel season.
Documents
The published list for an online application:
- A copy of your passport
- One acceptable photo
- Police certificates, if required
- Evidence of a chest x-ray or medical examination, if required
- Proof you have enough money to live on
- Proof of your plans in New Zealand, to show you are a genuine visitor
- Proof you can leave at the end of your stay
- Documents for any partner or dependent children included, and their photos
- A completed Sponsorship Form for Temporary Entry and your sponsor's sharing ID, if you have a sponsor
- Translations of anything not in English
The photo specification for an online application: one photo, portrait orientation, 3:4 aspect ratio, JPG or JPEG, file size between 512 KB and 3.14 MB, taken within the last six months, plain neutral background, face covering 70 to 80 per cent of the image, neutral expression, eyes open, no tilt. Clear untinted prescription glasses are fine. Head coverings worn for religious reasons are permitted, provided the mouth and sides of the face are not covered. Selfies are accepted only for an NZeTA, never for a visa.
One rule worth repeating because it is new and strict: no AI, no filters, no editing. INZ states that photos enhanced or altered using artificial intelligence do not meet the standard and the application "may be delayed or declined." Turn your phone's automatic beautification off.
Translations have their own trap: they must not be prepared by the applicant, by any family member, or by an immigration adviser helping with the application, and each must carry the translator's full name, address, telephone number, qualifications and experience. INZ warns that missing translations can get an application declined outright.
On segmentation: INZ publishes no separate document list for salaried, self-employed, retired or student applicants. It segments by who is funding you, how long you intend to stay, how much time you have spent in New Zealand before, and whether family members are included. It also publishes country-specific checklists for China and India only — there is no Pakistan-specific checklist. A Pakistani employee, business owner, pensioner and student all face the same published list; what differs is the evidence each uses.
The funds rule — a real published figure
NZD 1,000 per person, per month — and the airfare is separate
Immigration New Zealand's wording: "You must have at least NZD $1,000 a month, or NZD $400 a month if you have already paid for your accommodation."
The Visitor Visa Guide makes the per-person part explicit: evidence that you have "NZ$1,000 per month for each person included in your application", or NZD 400 per month each with proof that accommodation is already paid.
So a family of four on a one-month trip needs NZD 4,000, not NZD 1,000. And the money for your ticket is extra: "The money for your ticket must be in addition to what you have to live on."
Evidence must show the account is in the applicant's name, which bank holds it, and which currency it is in. Do not send cash or original documents. If you are pregnant and planning to give birth in New Zealand, a further NZD 9,000 for maternity services is required on top.
If you have a sponsor, you do not have to meet the monthly figure yourself — your sponsor completes the Sponsorship Form for Temporary Entry and undertakes to cover maintenance, accommodation and the cost of your flight out.
Health and chest x-rays
Pakistan is not on New Zealand's list of countries with a low incidence of tuberculosis. But as with Australia, that fact alone does not mean a chest x-ray.
| Intended total stay | What is required |
|---|---|
| Under 6 months | No medical certificate and no chest x-ray |
| 6 to 12 months | Chest X-ray Certificate, less than 3 months old |
| More than 12 months | Chest X-ray Certificate and a General Medical Certificate, both under 3 months old |
INZ's own words: "You are not required to provide a medical certificate or chest X-ray certificate if you will be in New Zealand for less than six months." For a normal holiday, that is the end of it.
Two details that catch people. Time aggregates: if you are already in New Zealand and apply for a further visa, the time already spent counts towards the six months. And the 36-month re-use rule rarely helps a Pakistan-resident applicant — a previous x-ray can be re-used only if, among other things, you have not since spent six consecutive months in a country without a low TB incidence, which someone living in Pakistan generally will have.
Children under 11 and pregnant women are exempt from the x-ray unless a special report is needed. Where an examination is required it must be done by an INZ-approved panel physician — an x-ray from any local clinic is not accepted. We will not name clinics here because INZ's panel list for Pakistan is served through a tool we could not read; use INZ's own panel physician finder, or ask us and we will look it up with you.
Police certificates are required only where your total time in New Zealand will be 24 months or longer, counting previous visits, and you are 17 or over. For a holiday, no police certificate. INZ may still request one at any time. On how long a previously supplied certificate can be re-used, INZ's own two sources give different answers — 24 months on one page and six months in the current guide — so we are not printing either figure.
Stay, entries and onward travel
- Maximum stay: 9 months in any 18-month period.
- Multiple entry is the norm — INZ states that "most applicants for visitor visas will be granted a multiple entry visa." A multiple-entry visa allows up to a total of six months in each 12-month period; a single-entry visa can allow up to nine months in eighteen, but expires the moment you leave the country.
- The 12-month and 18-month windows are counted backwards from your intended departure date, not from the grant date.
- Passport validity: at least three months beyond the date you plan to leave New Zealand.
- You cannot work. Study is allowed up to three months in any 12 months.
- Extending means applying for another Visitor Visa from inside New Zealand — and doing so is itself a reason INZ issues a single-entry visa, so extending can cost you your multiple-entry rights.
Onward travel is a standalone requirement, not just part of the funds test. You must show either your ticket out of New Zealand, or evidence that you have enough money to buy one. Two specifics: the destination must be a country you have the right of entry to — INZ expressly accepts a copy of a current Schengen visa as that evidence — and the ticket money is additional to your living funds.
Travel and medical insurance are recommended, not required. The reason matters though: visitor visa holders are generally not eligible for publicly funded health services in New Zealand, and you or your sponsor pay for any care you need. New Zealand has reciprocal health agreements with Australia and the UK only — nothing with Pakistan.
Transiting Auckland
Pakistan is not on New Zealand's transit visa waiver list either, so a Pakistani passenger changing planes in Auckland needs a Transit Visa — NZD 235, online, with 80% decided within four days.
An overnight layover is not transit
The transit rules are strict: you cannot spend more than 24 hours in transit at Auckland, you cannot leave the transit area for any reason including to collect baggage, there is no accommodation inside it, and the transit area exists only at Auckland — no other New Zealand airport has one.
INZ's own conclusion: "If you need accommodation while you wait for your flight, you must get a Visitor Visa to enter New Zealand." So if your connection means a night in a hotel, you are not transiting — you need the full NZD 441 visitor visa. Check this before you book a cheap long-layover fare.
If you already hold a valid New Zealand visitor visa, you do not need a separate transit visa.
The bona fide test — and why one submission is all you get
New Zealand publishes what it assesses in more detail than most countries, and it is worth reading in its own words. When deciding whether you are a bona fide visitor, INZ considers your family ties in Pakistan and in New Zealand; your personal, financial, employment or other commitments in both; any circumstances suggesting you may not want to return; your history on previous applications including any overstay or breach of conditions; whether you have dependants unlawfully in New Zealand; and your ability to leave or be deported.
Then comes the sentence that should shape how you prepare:
"INZ will consider all of the information you provide in support of your application but is not obliged to ask you for more. So… you should provide any evidence that you think demonstrates that you are a bona fide applicant."
In plain terms: New Zealand can decline on the file as submitted, without ever coming back to you with a question. There is no interview and no request for clarification to rely on.
One more precision point: INZ warns that "if there are any mistakes in your identity details, your application will be delayed. We may also decline your application or refuse you entry." Enter everything exactly as it appears in your passport.
If you are refused
Three things to know before you apply, because they are not symmetrical with other countries:
- The money is gone. Application costs and the IVL are not refunded on a decline.
- Reconsideration is not available to you. It requires that you applied while in New Zealand, are still in New Zealand, and still hold a valid visa. An applicant in Pakistan fails the first condition. INZ's advice to offshore applicants is to submit a new application with updated information.
- There is no appeal against a declined temporary visa. Appeals to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal exist only for residence visas.
On overstaying, one published rule is genuinely useful: a person unlawfully in New Zealand who leaves voluntarily before being served with a deportation order is not subject to any prohibition period. Being deported instead carries a ban of two or five years depending on the circumstances, and permanent exclusion in cases involving false identity or fraud. Staying unlawfully for 42 days or more risks a ban on returning.
Also worth knowing: if your current visa expires while INZ is still deciding a further application made inside New Zealand, you are normally granted an interim visa automatically, with no application and no fee — but if the application is then declined, the interim visa expires 21 days later.
Before you travel, everyone must complete the New Zealand Traveller Declaration.
How we help with a New Zealand trip
What we can and cannot do, stated plainly
New Zealand regulates immigration advice by statute. Under the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007, anyone giving advice on New Zealand immigration matters must be licensed or exempt, and the Act reaches advisers outside New Zealand.
Breeze Travels & Tours is not a licensed New Zealand immigration adviser. What is on this page is general information drawn from Immigration New Zealand's own published material, and what we provide for a New Zealand trip is travel services — flights, itineraries, accommodation and the documents that go with them. For advice on your individual New Zealand visa application, use a licensed immigration adviser or a New Zealand lawyer, or deal with INZ directly.
INZ also says plainly that "you are not required to use an adviser to apply for a visa", and that using one will not get your application prioritised. The adviser register is at iaa.govt.nz.
Within that, the practical help is real: planning an itinerary that fits the nine-months-in-eighteen rule and the funds arithmetic, arranging the onward ticket evidence that INZ accepts, and timing the application away from the September to March congestion. Breeze Travels & Tours has worked from Davis Road, Garhi Shahu, since 2003, and flights are issued by the same desk on our own IATA accreditation — see air ticketing.