What is the New Zealand Traveller Declaration (NZTD), and how and when do you fill it out?

NZTD vs NZeTA: two different things

Most of the confusion around "New Zealand travel declaration" comes from mixing these two up. Many visitors need both, and they are done at different times.

• The NZeTA decides whether you can travel to New Zealand at all. Visa-waiver nationals such as Americans, Canadians, Britons and most Europeans need one approved before boarding. It costs NZ$17 in the app or NZ$23 on the website, plus the NZ$100 tourism levy, and lasts 2 years. Our NZeTA and IVL guide walks through applying.

• The NZTD tells the border what you are bringing and where you have been on this particular trip. It is free, it is required for every arrival, and you can only submit it in the 24 hours before you set off.

If you are not from a visa-waiver country you need a visitor visa instead of an NZeTA, but you still complete the NZTD. Our New Zealand visa guide explains which group you are in.

Is the NZTD mandatory?

Yes. The official site says everyone travelling into New Zealand must complete a declaration, including New Zealand passport holders, and that visa and NZeTA holders must complete one as well. A separate declaration is needed for each traveller, babies and children included, and a caregiver can complete it for the children they are travelling with.

The only common exception is a passenger transiting through Auckland Airport who stays in the transit area for 24 hours or less and does not enter New Zealand. Stay longer than 24 hours, or pass through immigration, and you need a declaration (and may need an NZeTA or transit visa for the transit itself).

When to submit it: the 24-hour window

The earliest you can submit is 24 hours before your trip to New Zealand starts. The latest is when you reach passport control in New Zealand, and you can edit and resubmit right up to that point.

• Connecting flights with no stopover: the 24 hours count from the departure of your first flight, as long as you and your bags stay airside at the connection. Flying London to Auckland via Singapore without leaving the airport, you can submit 24 hours before leaving London.

• With a stopover: if you leave the connecting airport with your bags, the window opens 24 hours before your flight from the stopover city to New Zealand.

• Cruise passengers: submit no earlier than 24 hours before the ship leaves its last foreign port, and by the time it berths at its first New Zealand port.

• Flight changed? Update the declaration, especially if you now land on a different day.

You can start filling it in before the window opens and save it; you will be emailed a reference number to come back to it. The simplest plan is to finish it at the departure airport or the night before you fly.

How to fill out the NZTD, step by step

Have these ready: your passport, your flight details to New Zealand, a contact address in New Zealand (your first hotel is fine), your travel history for the last 30 days, your NZeTA or visa if you need one, and an honest list of what is in your bags.

• 1. Go to travellerdeclaration.govt.nz or download the official NZTD app. The questions can be shown in several languages, but answers must be in English.

• 2. Enter passport and trip details. The app can copy shared travel details into a second declaration for someone on the same flight, so families don't retype everything.

• 3. Answer the immigration, customs and biosecurity questions (listed below).

• 4. Submit. You get an email telling you what to expect at the border based on your answers. You don't upload documents or print anything: the declaration is linked to your passport and read at the eGate (ePassport holders aged 10 and over from eligible countries) or by a border officer.

• 5. Changed your mind about an item? Edit and resubmit before passport control. After that, tell a border officer. Declarations started in the app can be edited in the app or online; ones started on the website can only be edited on the website.

What the declaration asks you to declare

The questions are the same ones on Customs' sample paper form. Biosecurity is where visitors get caught out. You answer yes if you are bringing:

• Any food, whether cooked, uncooked, fresh, preserved, packaged or dried. That includes plane snacks and sweets.

• Animal products: meat, dairy, fish, honey, bee products, eggs, feathers, shells, wool, skins, bones or insects.

• Plant products: fruit, flowers, seeds, bulbs, wood, bark, leaves, nuts, vegetables, fungi, cane, bamboo or straw, including religious offerings or medicines.

• Other risk items: animal medicines, soil or water, and equipment or clothing used with animals, plants or water (gardening, fishing, diving and water sports).

• Used outdoor gear: any footwear, tents, camping, hunting, hiking, golf or sports equipment that has been used outdoors.

It also asks whether, in the last 30 days, you have visited wilderness areas, had contact with animals (other than pet cats and dogs) or been on a farm.

Declaring is not the same as being refused. Officers inspect, clean or treat many items and hand them back; some foods are simply taken. Clean the soil off hiking boots and tents before you pack them and the inspection is usually quick. MPI's Can I Bring It? search on mpi.govt.nz checks specific foods.

The customs questions cover:

• Medicine over 3 months' supply, or medicine not prescribed to you.

• Restricted or prohibited goods: weapons, objectionable material, endangered species products, illegal drugs.

• Alcohol over 3 bottles of spirits (up to 1.125 litres each) and 4.5 litres of wine or beer, and tobacco over 50 cigarettes or 50 grams. These concessions apply from age 17.

• Goods bought overseas or duty-free worth more than NZ$700 in total, including gifts.

• Goods for business, or carried for someone else.

• Cash of NZ$10,000 or more (or the foreign equivalent), which also needs a separate Border Cash Report.

Fines for not declaring

If biosecurity officers find an undeclared risk item, the standard penalty is an instant NZ$400 infringement fine, and MPI says forgetting, being tired or not knowing the rules does not get you out of it. The fine does not create a criminal conviction. Deliberately smuggling a prohibited item is treated far more seriously: MPI lists fines of up to NZ$100,000, up to 5 years in prison, or deportation.

New Zealand airports have amnesty bins in the arrivals hall before the inspection point. If you realise you still have an apple or a sandwich from the plane, drop it in a bin or declare it. When in doubt, tick yes: declaring something that turns out to be fine costs you a few minutes, not NZ$400.

Cost, scam sites and the paper form

The NZTD is free on the official website and in the official app. Search results and app stores carry look-alike services that charge to "process" your arrival declaration; they add nothing. The only official addresses are travellerdeclaration.govt.nz and app.travellerdeclaration.govt.nz, and the app listed there. Someone you trust can fill it in for you if you are not comfortable online.

A paper declaration form is still available on arrival for anyone who can't complete the digital one. You don't need it if you have submitted online, and the PDF sample on the Customs site cannot be printed and handed in. On a long flight the digital version is simpler: done before you board, through the eGate, and straight on to the biosecurity check.

Once you land, our things to know before visiting New Zealand covers driving, weather and money, and how much a New Zealand trip costs sets the budget. See our New Zealand guide for the South Island route we took.

Frequently asked questions