The International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy (IVL) Explained
New Zealand charges most visitors a NZ$100 International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy, paid per person at the same time as an NZeTA request or a visa application. It is never refunded, even if the application is declined. Australians, citizens of 16 Pacific nations and several other groups pay nothing. Correct as at August 2026.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail (as at August 2026) |
|---|---|
| Amount | NZ$100 |
| Charged | Per person included in an application, not per application |
| When | At the moment you request an NZeTA or apply for a visa |
| Refundable | Never — not even if the application is refused |
| Who sets it | The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) |
| What it funds | Conservation, tourism infrastructure and tourism initiatives |
| Main exemptions | Australians, 16 Pacific nations, transit passengers, NZ residents, Business Visitor Visa and APEC card holders |
| Covered by a bilateral fee waiver? | No. Fee waiver agreements never cover this levy |
| Last change | Raised to NZ$100 on 1 October 2024. No increase in 2025 or 2026 |
What it is
The International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy is a charge on most people entering New Zealand as visitors. It is not a visa fee and not an immigration levy — it is a third, separate line on the same payment screen, and it goes to a different purpose.
The money funds conservation work, tourism infrastructure and tourism initiatives. Immigration New Zealand collects it; MBIE owns the policy.
The distinction matters in practice because the three charges behave differently. On a standard Visitor Visa, the published "from NZ$441" is really three things:
| Component | Amount | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Application fee | NZ$300 | INZ's charge for assessing the application |
| Immigration levy | NZ$41 | A levy funding the immigration system |
| Conservation and tourism levy | NZ$100 | The visitor levy |
| Total | NZ$441 |
INZ publishes only the combined figure. Showing the split is not pedantry: some travellers are exempt from one component and not another, some components are refundable in narrow circumstances and one never is.
Correcting the figure everyone still publishes
A very large amount of content online — including AI-generated answers and at least one large commercial visa aggregator inspected on 20 August 2026 — still gives the levy as NZ$35.
That figure is dead. The amount rose to NZ$100 on 1 October 2024. The NZ$100 figure is confirmed on INZ's own levy page and in its published fee schedule dated May 2026.
If a page, chatbot or reseller quotes you the old amount, everything else on that page was written before October 2024 as well. Treat the whole source as stale.
Who pays it
The levy attaches to visa and travel-authority products, not to nationalities. As published by INZ, it is generally charged on:
- NZeTA requests by travellers
- Visitor visas, other than partner and dependent-child categories
- Student visas, other than dependent-child categories
- Working Holiday Scheme and Work Exchange visas
- Student and trainee work visas
- Specific Purpose Work Visas
Cruise ship passengers pay it, because they are classified as visitors rather than transit passengers — see cruise and cargo ship passengers.
Who is exempt
The definitive list sits in the Immigration (Visa, Entry Permission, and Related Matters) Regulations 2010. As published by INZ and MBIE, the exempt groups are:
By passport or citizenship
- Australian passport holders and New Zealand passport holders
- Australian permanent residents
- Citizens of 16 Pacific nations: American Samoa, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and the Pitcairn Islands
By visa or status
- New Zealand resident visa holders
- Australian Resident Visa holders
- Business Visitor Visa holders
- APEC Business Travel Card holders
- Transit passengers at Auckland International Airport
- Diplomatic, military, medical and humanitarian visa holders
- Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme workers
- Airline and ship crew
- Most dependants of work and student visa holders
Note what is not on that list. Being from a visa-waiver country does not exempt you — visa-waiver travellers are the largest single group paying it. Being a frequent visitor does not exempt you. Being a child does not exempt you, unless you fall inside one of the dependent-child categories above.
Note also the Cook Islands, Niue and Pitcairn entries. Cook Islands and Niue nationals are New Zealand citizens, so they are outside the visitor system entirely; the Pacific exemption list names them separately, which is consistent rather than contradictory.
One nation that is often assumed to be on the list is not: Timor-Leste participates in New Zealand's Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme but is not on the exempt Pacific list.
How it interacts with each product
| Product | Levy charged? | Typical total |
|---|---|---|
| Traveller NZeTA | Yes | NZ$117 (app) / NZ$123 (website) |
| Transit NZeTA | No | NZ$17 / NZ$23 |
| Visitor Visa | Yes | From NZ$441 |
| Business Visitor Visa | No | From NZ$341 |
| Transit Visa | No | NZ$235 |
| Working Holiday Scheme visa | Yes | From NZ$770 |
| Fee Paying Student Visa | Yes | From NZ$850 |
| Pathway Student Visa | No, in the cheapest case | From NZ$750 |
The Business Visitor Visa line is the one that surprises people. It costs less than a standard Visitor Visa — NZ$341 against NZ$441 — precisely because the levy is not charged on it. The trade-off is that it only covers the narrow set of activities INZ recognises as business visits.
Step 1: Work out whether you are exempt before you pay
The exemption is applied by the system, not claimed by you. If you hold an Australian passport, an Australian Resident Visa, a New Zealand resident visa or an APEC Business Travel Card, or you are a citizen of one of the 16 named Pacific nations, the charge should not appear.
Step 2: Pay it with the request, not separately
There is no separate levy portal, no standalone payment page and no way to pay it on arrival. It is bundled into the total when you request an NZeTA at nzeta.immigration.govt.nz, in the official INZ app, or when you submit an online visa application.
Anyone directing you to pay a "New Zealand tourism levy" through a different site is not INZ — see NZeTA scam sites and resellers.
Step 3: Understand that it is charged per person, every time
Two rules multiply the cost, and both are easy to miss.
Per person, not per application. One family Visitor Visa application carries one NZ$300 fee and one NZ$41 immigration levy — but a NZ$100 conservation levy for each person included. A family of four pays NZ$400 in levy alone.
Per application, not per traveller lifetime. Someone whose NZeTA is refused and who then applies for a Visitor Visa pays it twice. Someone who holds an NZeTA and later applies for a Working Holiday visa pays it again. It is not credited, carried over or offset.
Within the two-year life of a single NZeTA, though, it is charged once — not per entry. Ten trips on one NZeTA means one levy.
What it does not cover
The levy is not a park pass, a bed tax or a departure tax. It buys no entry to anything and confers no rights. It is not the same as the separate charges some New Zealand councils apply to accommodation, and it is not connected to the New Zealand Traveller Declaration, which is free.
Five mistakes that cost real money
Assuming it is included in the advertised NZeTA price. "From NZ$17" is the NZeTA alone. The levy nearly quadruples what a family actually pays.
Assuming one family payment covers everyone. The application fee and the immigration levy are charged once per application. This levy is charged per person included in it.
Assuming a fee-waiver agreement covers it. New Zealand has bilateral fee-waiver arrangements with a number of countries — the United States, Japan, Finland, Iceland, the Philippines and others — that remove the application fee and the immigration levy for certain application types. None of them touches this levy.
Assuming an exemption is claimed rather than applied. INZ's system applies exemptions automatically from the details in the request. If the NZ$100 appears on a screen where you expect an exemption, the answer is to check what was entered, not to pay and seek a refund afterwards — because there is no refund.
Assuming a refusal returns it. It does not, in any circumstance.
Where the money goes
The levy funds conservation work, tourism infrastructure and tourism initiatives. INZ collects it at the point of application; MBIE owns the policy and publishes the allocation detail.
Two points follow that are worth stating because they are often assumed the other way round. The levy is not a departure tax, a bed tax or a park entry fee, and paying it buys admission to nothing. And it is not connected to the accommodation charges some New Zealand councils apply locally, which are separate and set by those councils.
Refunds: the short answer is no
INZ does not refund an application fee or levy once an application has been processed, even where the outcome is a decline. The conservation levy goes further than that: it is never refunded, in any circumstance.
Bilateral fee-waiver agreements — the arrangements under which citizens of countries including the United States, Japan, Finland, Iceland and the Philippines pay no fee or immigration levy on certain application types — explicitly do not cover this levy. A United States citizen applying offshore for a Visitor Visa may pay no application fee and no immigration levy, and still pays the NZ$100.
Narrow refund grounds exist for fees generally: paying when you did not need to, paying the wrong amount, an application that is returned unaccepted, or an application that has not been processed. The visitor levy stands outside all of them.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is the New Zealand International Visitor Levy?
NZ$100 per person, as at August 2026. It has been NZ$100 since 1 October 2024, and there has been no increase in 2025 or 2026.
Is the levy included in the NZeTA price?
No. It is charged on top. An NZeTA is NZ$17 through INZ's official app or NZ$23 through its website; the levy takes the total to NZ$117 or NZ$123 per person. The breakdown is on NZeTA cost: app vs website.
Do Australians pay the New Zealand visitor levy?
No. Australian passport holders, Australian permanent residents and Australian Resident Visa holders are all exempt. Australian citizens on an Australian passport do not need an NZeTA either — see Australians and the NZeTA.
Do I pay it every time I enter New Zealand?
No. It is charged when you request an NZeTA or apply for a visa, not per entry. One NZeTA covers two years of multiple entries for a single levy payment. A new application means a new levy.
Do children pay it?
Each person included in an application is charged separately unless they fall within an exemption. Dependent-child categories on visitor and student visas are among the exempt groups; a child travelling on their own NZeTA is not.
Is the levy refunded if my application is declined?
No. It is never refunded under any circumstance, including refusal, withdrawal or a change of travel plans.
Do transit passengers pay it?
No. Passengers transiting through Auckland International Airport and remaining in the transit area are exempt, and a Transit NZeTA carries no levy at all. The rules are on transiting through New Zealand.
Do cruise passengers pay it?
Yes. Cruise and cargo ship passengers are classified as visitors rather than transit passengers, so the levy applies with their NZeTA.
What does the money actually fund?
Conservation, tourism infrastructure and tourism initiatives. MBIE owns the policy and publishes more detail about how the fund is allocated.
This page explains published charges and exemptions. It is general information, not immigration advice, and it does not assess whether any exemption applies to you. Confirm the amount on INZ's payment screen before you pay.
