Why Your New Zealand Visitor Visa Could Be Denied This Christmas

Have you booked your summer holiday yet? If you haven’t, and you’re thinking about New Zealand, you better get moving – because according to the latest immigration news, Immigration New Zealand is gearing up for a flood of visitor visa applications, and you do not want to be left stranded at the gate.

With over 260,000 visitor visas expected this summer, and the typical processing time already sitting at three weeks, things could get even slower as Christmas and New Year approaches. They’re telling travellers to get their applications in early – and I mean early. October 15 is the deadline for those planning to spend Christmas in New Zealand, and if you’re coming for the New Year or the Lunar New Year, you’ve got until November 15.

The good news is, if you’re coming from a visa waiver country, you can bypass the queue with a New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority (NZeTA). But, if you're from places like China, India, or the Philippines, where a lot of the applications are expected from, you're in for a wait unless you’re quick.

What’s interesting is that Immigration NZ is practically begging people to submit their applications correctly. If your documents are incomplete, you’ll be waiting longer, or worse, your application could be declined. And yet, it happens all the time.

So, the message here is simple: get organised, get your papers in order, and get on with it. This isn’t something you can leave until the last minute, because come December, you could be stuck at home while your mates are off enjoying a Kiwi summer.

New Zealand’s rolling out the welcome mat – just don’t trip over it by being late to the party.