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Highlights:
- The New Zealand government has scrapped pandemic traveller declarations for arrivals in the country.
- The new regulation is effective from Thursday (20 October 2022).
- The online form for overseas travellers coming to New Zealand was introduced in March 2022.
A statement from Te Mana Arai o Aotearoa, New Zealand’s Customs Service department, shared today (19 October 2022), stated that from 20 October 2022 onwards, travellers flying to New Zealand would not be required to fill up the New Zealand Traveller Declaration form. As per the government, the form, which was mandatory for all overseas travellers wishing to enter the country, is not needed anymore.
The New Zealand Traveller Declaration form had been introduced in March 2022, and went through several alterations since then.
Key highlights from the announcement made by Te Mana Arai o Aotearoa:
- Travellers flying to New Zealand will not be required to fill up the New Zealand Traveller Declaration to enter the country.
- The new regulation gets effective from 20 October 2022.
- The form was one of the pandemic travel requirements sought by the department from overseas travellers.
- The declaration was used to validate and approve travellers’ Covid-19 test results, along with their immunisation history.
- The New Zealand Traveller Declaration collected a traveller’s information for contact tracing. This information was used by health agencies if a Covid-19 variant of concern was detected.
- Travel agents and airlines used to necessarily ask travellers to complete these declarations.
- After the declaration, travellers would receive a Traveller Pass via email. This pass contained a QR code that was unique for every traveller and valid for the entire journey announced in the declaration form.
- As per the Customs Service department, earlier, while travellers were required to show their Traveller Pass and other entry requirements to a customs officer, now they are expected to self-test for Covid-19 once they are in New Zealand and help keep themselves and others safe from getting infected.
- As per the department’s announcement, travellers who have already applied for a Traveller Pass to travel after 20 October 2022 will not need to show the pass to enter New Zealand and travel there.