New Zealand Visa Fee Waiver Countries
Eleven countries hold bilateral fee-waiver agreements with New Zealand: Austria, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Turkey and the United States. Where a waiver applies, the citizen pays no application fee and no immigration levy for the specified application types. The International Visitor Levy is never waived, and no eligibility requirement is removed.
Quick Facts
| Countries with an agreement | Eleven — Austria, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Philippines, Turkey, USA |
| What a waiver removes | The application fee and the immigration levy, for specified application types only |
| What a waiver never removes | The IVL (NZ$100 per person), and the fee to transfer or replace a visa label |
| What a waiver never changes | Any eligibility requirement. It removes a charge, not a rule |
| Broadest agreements | Finland and Iceland — any visa, endorsement or variation, onshore and offshore |
| Narrowest agreement | Philippines — offshore visitor and student visas for visits of 59 days or less |
| Applies to | Citizens of those countries |
| Source | Fees Guide INZ 1028, May 2026 edition |
What a fee waiver is
New Zealand has negotiated reciprocal agreements with a small group of countries under which citizens of those countries are not charged for certain visa applications. Where a waiver applies, two of the three charges that normally make up a New Zealand visa price fall away:
- the application fee is not charged
- the immigration levy is not charged
The third charge, the International Visitor Levy, is charged as normal. So is the fee for replacing or transferring a visa label into a new passport, which is expressly outside every agreement.
That produces a slightly odd result worth stating plainly: a United States citizen who needs an offshore Visitor Visa pays NZ$100 rather than NZ$441 — not nothing. The $100 is the IVL. See the full fee split on every New Zealand visa.
A waiver is not an eligibility concession. It removes a charge. Every requirement — health, character, funds, genuine intention, supporting documents — applies exactly as it would to a fee-paying applicant, and an application can be declined on any of them.
The eleven agreements, by scope
Scope varies enormously between countries. Two agreements cover essentially everything; one covers only short visits.
| Country | What the waiver covers |
|---|---|
| Finland | Onshore and offshore: any type of visa, endorsement or variation of travel conditions. Transfers excluded |
| Iceland | Onshore and offshore: any type of visa, endorsement or variation of travel conditions. Transfers excluded |
| Japan | Offshore: any type of visa, endorsement or travel condition, transfers excluded. Onshore and offshore: variation of travel conditions on a resident visa; permanent resident visa; second or subsequent resident visa; endorsement indicating New Zealand citizenship; variation of travel conditions on a temporary visa |
| United States | Offshore: visitor, work and student visas. Onshore: variation of travel conditions on a visitor, work or student visa |
| Mexico | Offshore: visitor, work and student visas |
| Austria | Offshore: residence class visa and visitor visa. Onshore and offshore: variation of travel conditions on a resident visa; permanent resident visa; second or subsequent resident visa; endorsement indicating New Zealand citizenship; variation of travel conditions on a visitor visa |
| Greece | Offshore: visitor visa. Onshore and offshore: the same residence-side list as Austria |
| Israel | Offshore: visitor visa. Onshore and offshore: the same residence-side list as Austria |
| Italy | Offshore: visitor visa. Onshore and offshore: the same residence-side list as Austria |
| Turkey | Offshore: visitor visa. Onshore and offshore: the same residence-side list as Austria |
| Philippines | Offshore: visitor visa and student visa for visits of 59 days or less. Onshore: variation of travel conditions on a visitor or student visa where the visa does not exceed 59 days |
Three groupings fall out of that table.
Finland and Iceland are the outliers. Any type of visa, endorsement or variation of travel conditions, in either direction, is covered. A Finnish citizen applying for skilled residence pays no application fee and no immigration levy — a saving of NZ$6,450 on the Skilled Residence line.
Six countries share a common residence-side template. Austria, Greece, Israel, Italy, Turkey and Japan all have the same block covering variation of travel conditions on a resident visa, the Permanent Resident Visa, a second or subsequent resident visa, and an endorsement indicating New Zealand citizenship. Those are all low-cost applications, between NZ$260 and NZ$320, so the practical value is modest — but they are also applications people make repeatedly over a lifetime in New Zealand.
The Philippines agreement is time-limited by stay length. It covers offshore visitor and student visas only where the visit is 59 days or less. A Filipino citizen applying for a six-month visitor visa is outside the waiver and pays the full fee.
Who this actually helps
Most citizens of these eleven countries will never use the waiver, because most of them do not need a visa in the first place.
Austria, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico and the United States are all on New Zealand's visa-waiver list. Their citizens travel on an NZeTA for stays of up to three months and never lodge a visitor visa application at all. For them, the fee waiver matters only in the minority of cases where a visa is genuinely required — a stay longer than the visa-waiver limit, a work or student visa, or a residence application.
The Philippines and Turkey are different. Neither is a visa-waiver country. Filipino and Turkish citizens must apply for a visa to visit New Zealand, so their agreements bite on real, everyday applications.
That makes the Philippines agreement quietly the most-used of the eleven, despite being the narrowest on paper: a large volume of short family and business visits from the Philippines falls inside the 59-day limit.
What the waiver does not cover
Four exclusions apply, and they catch people out in predictable ways.
The IVL is never waived. The NZ$100 International Visitor Levy is charged per person included in an application and no bilateral agreement touches it. If your nationality also appears on the IVL exemption list you will not pay it — but that is a separate exemption with a separate list, and none of the eleven fee-waiver countries is on it. See the International Visitor Levy explained.
Visa label transfers and replacements are never waived. The fee to move a visa into a new passport — NZ$225 in Band A — is expressly outside every agreement. See transfer your visa to a new passport.
Application types outside the listed scope are not waived. A Greek citizen's waiver covers an offshore visitor visa. It does not cover an offshore work visa. Read the scope column, not the country name.
The NZeTA is not a visa and is not covered. The NZeTA charge of NZ$17 in the mobile app or NZ$23 on the website is a request fee, not a visa application fee, and it is payable by everyone who needs one.
How a waiver is applied
You do not apply for the waiver separately. INZ applies it based on the passport used in the application and the application type. If you are applying online and believe a waiver should apply but the system is charging you, that is a question for INZ before you pay — fees paid in error are refundable, but only where you can show you did not need to pay them. See NZ visa fee refunds explained.
Fee waivers also exist outside the bilateral agreements, on humanitarian grounds. INZ waives fees for refugees, refugee claimants and protected people, and for victims of family violence. Separately, the immigration levy is not charged on a longer list of categories including Samoan citizens applying for a resident visa, Refugee Family Support Category applications, Migrant Exploitation Protection work visas, and the Skilled Migrant Category Job Search visa.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which countries do not pay New Zealand visa fees?
Citizens of eleven countries hold bilateral fee-waiver agreements: Austria, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Turkey and the United States. The waiver covers only the application types named in each agreement, and it never covers the International Visitor Levy.
Do US citizens pay for a New Zealand visa?
Not the application fee or immigration levy, for an offshore visitor, work or student visa, and not for an onshore variation of travel conditions on one of those. The NZ$100 IVL is still payable where it applies. Most US citizens do not need a visa at all for short visits and travel on an NZeTA instead.
Do Japanese citizens pay New Zealand visa fees?
Japan has one of the broadest agreements: any type of visa, endorsement or travel condition applied for from outside New Zealand is covered, with transfers excluded. A set of resident-visa applications is covered onshore as well. The IVL is still charged.
Is the New Zealand visa free for Filipino citizens?
Only for an offshore visitor or student visa where the visit is 59 days or less, and for a matching onshore variation of travel conditions. Longer visits fall outside the agreement and attract the full fee. The IVL is charged in every case where it applies.
Does a fee waiver mean my visa is guaranteed?
No. A waiver removes a charge and changes nothing else. Health, character, funds, genuine intention and every documentary requirement apply in full, and the application can be declined on any of them.
Is the IVL ever waived?
Not by a bilateral fee-waiver agreement, ever. There is a separate IVL exemption list — covering Australian and New Zealand passport holders, a group of Pacific nations, transit passengers at Auckland, resident visa holders, Business Visitor Visa holders and APEC card holders — and it does not overlap with the eleven fee-waiver countries.
Do I have to ask for the fee waiver?
No. INZ applies it from the passport used and the application type. If you are being charged and believe you should not be, raise it with INZ before paying rather than after.
Are there fee waivers on humanitarian grounds?
Yes. INZ waives fees for refugees, refugee claimants and protected people, and for victims of family violence. A longer list of categories is exempt from the immigration levy specifically, including Samoan citizens applying for a resident visa and Migrant Exploitation Protection work visa applicants.
Primary source: Immigration New Zealand, Fees Guide INZ 1028, May 2026 edition, which publishes the bilateral fee-waiver schedule in full. Verified 20 August 2026. Scope wording differs between agreements — read the row for your own country and application type, and confirm on INZ's fee finder before paying.
This page is general information about published fees. It is not immigration advice and does not assess your circumstances.
