The NZ government has made the following announcements:
- Fully vaccinated Kiwis and other eligible travellers can travel to NZ from Australia without staying in MIQ from 11.59pm Sunday, 16 January 2022
- Fully vaccinated Kiwis and other eligible travellers can travel to NZ from all other countries from 11.59pm Sunday, 13 February 2022
- All fully vaccinated individuals will be able to travel to NZ from 30 April 2022 onwards, with the re-opening staggered over time
- The Very High-Risk classification for Indonesia, Fiji, India, Pakistan and Brazil is to be removed in early December and travellers from these countries will be able to enter New Zealand on the same basis as travellers from most other countries
- Papua New Guinea will continue to be classified as Very High-Risk. Only New Zealand Citizens and dependants can travel directly to New Zealand
The government have provided details in relation to a staggered opening of New Zealand's border, this is as follows:
- Step 1 – opening to fully vaccinated New Zealand citizens, residence-class visa holders and other travellers eligible under our current settings from Australia from 11.59 pm on 16 January 2022 (provided they have been in Australia or New Zealand for the past 14 days)
- Step 2 – opening to fully vaccinated New Zealand citizens, residence-class visa holders and other travellers eligible under our current border settings, from all but Very High-Risk countries, from 11.59pm Sunday 13 February
- Step 3 – opening to fully vaccinated foreign nationals (possibly staggered by visa category), from 30 April onwards
Our thoughts
It is positive that the government have provided an initial plan for the reopening of New Zealand's border. Immigration New Zealand and the New Zealand government have not yet confirmed the finer details around eligible travellers so it will be interesting to see if exception requests will need to be submitted.
Our advice
We recommend contacting us if you or your staff wish to travel to New Zealand in 2022. The information set out above is current as of 24 November 2021.
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