One way flight to Auckland booked - no onward flight - have Australia working holiday visa...

[gregp85]

Hi all,

 

My flight to Auckland leaves London tomorrow morning (!) - I have a UK passport. I've been terribly busy and disorganised so this paragraph from the immigration.co.nz website has just recently come to my attention:

 

 

Visitors entering NZ without a visa (Visa Waiver countries only), must have valid onward travel arrangements (ie. return ticket or official confirmation that a ticket is booked and paid for) when entering New Zealand.

 

Naturally, this has got alarm bells ringing! I'm spending Christmas with my girlfriend and her family before moving to Melbourne in January, however we'd held fire on booking flights whilst she's still working her notice. I then read this paragraph on the same page...

 

Citizens and permanent residents of NZ or Australia may enter on a one way ticket, providing they are travelling on a valid NZ or Australian passport, or they have a valid NZ or Australian Returning Residents visa (or Australian visa entitlement verification online print out (VEVO)) in their foreign passport.

 

 

The ambiguity of this sentence / my ignorance of Visas has confused me. Would the email printout of my 12 month working holiday visa in Australia act as sufficient evidence of onward travel in this case?

 

Or, would I be better off simply booking a flight to Melbourne for January?

 

Any (swift!) help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Greg

[Rossmoyne]

NZ are notoriously strict at Immigration so I would suggest you book an onward flight before leaving UK. I have heard of others being refused entry in similar situations. As you are entering NZ as a tourist, you would need a tourist visa and an onward flight, I would have thought.

[Isabelt28]

Hi, you absolutely do need am onward flight. We are living in Melbourne on temporary 457 visas, (UK passort holders) and we've been over to NZ for holidays twice. Both times we have been asked for evidence of a return flight to Oz before they will even allow us to board the plane to NZ

[Guest Dave53]

Clearly you do not meet the travel document criteria for entering NZ .. I would be booking an onward flight from NZ to Australia today ..I doubt very much you will be permitted to enter NZ on your current tickets ..

 

Dave C

[Quinkla]

I entered New Zealand two weeks ago and was asked to show a printout of my onward travel itinerary. I said that it was all electronic and said that I just hand over my Virgin Australia card at the check-in desk and was told that was a big problem and they would require proof of onward travel before letting me in. It was only when they saw my Australian PR visa that they relented because, as an Australian PR, I am allowed unrestricted stays in NZ. I am in no doubt that were it not for my Australian visa, I would have been taken to an office to log into the Virgin Australia website to prove my onward travel.

 

NZ will stamp non Australian PRs with a "Visitor Visa" in their passport at the border for free. There is no need to arrange visas in advance if you are coming just for a short stay.

[Rupert]

Yep me too. We arrived in NZ as Australian permanent residents, so really shouldn't have needed an onward ticket. But they could not find my OH in the system and so insisted on seeing his onward travel plans. I have no doubt at all that entry would have bee refused had we not produced these plans. (Well I was ok as they could see me in system, bu my OH was considered a tourist and so had to prove tickets).

 

Good news is this is very easily fixable.

 

:biggrin:

[nikki244]

British passport holders don't need a tourist visa, but automatically get given 6 months as a tourist when entering NZ (you can check the NZ immigration website). However, if you don't have the right to stay and work then you will need an onward flight booked.