New Zealand scraps quarantine requirements for vaccinated Kiwis and eases border restrictions

Who is eligible to enter NZ during border restrictions 

• You can enter NZ while the border is restricted if you are: 
• an NZ citizen
• an NZ permanent resident or resident visa holder 
• an Australian citizen or permanent residence visa holder where NZ is your primary place of residence 
• people with border exceptions or a critical purpose reason to travel 
• a partner, dependent child, or parent of a dependent child who either:  holds a visa based on their relationship to an NZ citizen or resident is travelling with a New Zealander or resident, or is ordinarily resident in NZ. 

Step 1 — from 11.59pm on February 27

The border opens to New Zealanders and other eligible travellers coming from Australia to travel here and self-isolate on arrival.

If you arrive on or after 11.59 pm on March 2 you can enter without needing to isolate.

This means you can enter New Zealand if you: 

• are an NZ citizen, resident or otherwise eligible to enter NZ while the border is restricted
•  are fully vaccinated 
• have spent the previous 14 days in Australia or NZ 
• have had the pre-departure tests you need.  

Step 2 — from 11.59 pm on March 2

The border opens to New Zealanders and other eligible travellers coming from anywhere in the world. You do not need to self-isolate when you arrive.

This means you can travel to New Zealand isolation-free if you:

• are eligible to enter the border while it is restricted, including if you have a border exception
• meet health requirements, including being fully vaccinated and getting pre-departure tests.

 From 11.59pm on March 13

You can apply for some working holiday schemes. We are reopening them on a rolling basis and the time for individual schemes will be confirmed.

If you are a skilled worker it may be easier to be granted an ‘other critical worker’ border exception.

 Step 3 — from 11.59pm on April 12

The border reopens to: 

• temporary work and student visa holders currently outside New Zealand as long as they still meet their visa requirements 
• temporary work and student visa holders currently inside New Zealand to leave at any time and return from step 3 (where their visa conditions allow). 

Up to 5000 international students can apply for a border exception to enter New Zealand. We hope most students can travel here in time to start studying in July. We will provide more details about eligibility and how to apply.

Workforce class exceptions and events, and government approved programme lists, will be extended and updated. Applications for border exceptions under these class exceptions will open or be extended.

We will provide more details about the scope of new border exceptions and updates to exceptions and government approved lists.

Step 4 — from July 2022

Our borders will open to:

• Australian citizens, Australian permanent residents and other foreign nationals travelling from Australia
• visitors from visa-waiver countries
• Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) holders
• temporary visitor visa holders who are outside New Zealand, as long as they meet their visa requirements.

If you have a temporary visitor visa and you are currently in New Zealand you can leave any time and return as long as your visa conditions allow you to. This includes if you have a guardian visa.

Step 5 — from October 2022 

The border opens for all other New Zealand visa holders, including visitor and student visas, unless the visa is closed or paused.

Applications for all New Zealand visas will reopen, unless the visa is closed or paused.

Source: Immigration New Zealand