If you are refused entry to New Zealand
You need permission to travel to and enter New Zealand. Find out what to do if you have not been allowed to travel here or have been refused entry.
If you have been refused entry to New Zealand and you still want to travel to here, contact the Customer Service Centre for advice.
You may need to apply for a visa before you travel here again.
Why we stop you travelling to or entering New Zealand
Together with your airline or other carrier, we can stop you from travelling to New Zealand if you do not meet our entry requirements — for example, if you cannot provide evidence that you can meet the conditions of your visa. When you arrive we check your identity and other information again before we give you entry permission.
Having a visa does not guarantee that you will be allowed to enter New Zealand.
Your airline or other carrier can be fined if they let you board an aircraft or ship after we have let them know that you cannot travel.
Before you travel to New Zealand
Your identity and travel documents
We can stop you from travelling to New Zealand if:
- we cannot confirm your identity
- the passport or travel document you are travelling on has expired, is damaged or has been reported lost or stolen, or has been invalidated
- you need a visa to travel to or transit through New Zealand and you do not have one
- your eVisa is not in the passport you use to travel to New Zealand, or
- your onward travel arrangements are to a country you do not have the right to enter.
Information you provide to us
We can stop you travelling to New Zealand or entering the country if you:
- provide false or misleading information in your visa application or to an immigration officer
- possess a forged, fraudulent or altered identity document or any other official document.
Meeting the conditions of your visa
We can also refuse to let you travel to or enter New Zealand if you cannot show us evidence to support the conditions of your visa. For example, you cannot show us evidence that you:
- have enough money to live on while you are here
- have made arrangements to leave New Zealand at the end of your stay
- are coming to New Zealand for a lawful and genuine reason.
Genuine intentions to visit, study or work in NZ
If your circumstances have changed and you can no longer meet the conditions of your visa we can also refuse to let you enter New Zealand. For example, if your work visa is based on a job offer that has since been withdrawn you will not be allowed to travel to New Zealand on that visa.
Your character and health
You cannot come to New Zealand if you do not meet our health and character requirements. For example, you can be refused entry if:
- we believe you might be a risk to New Zealand’s security, public order or public interest — for example, you have been associated with a gang or registered sex offenders
- we think you might commit an offence that would result in you going to prison, or
- you have been deported, excluded or removed from another country.
Arriving in New Zealand
You could be refused entry to New Zealand if you:
- refuse to complete a New Zealand traveller declaration
- provide false or misleading information on any part of your New Zealand traveller declaration
- refuse to let an immigration officer take your photo, fingerprints or an iris scan
- possess controlled or prohibited substances, or plan to import them, without proper authority
- do not follow instructions given by us or other border agencies including the New Zealand Customs Service, Biosecurity New Zealand or the New Zealand Police.