NZeTA Reviews

For anyone reading this review, NZeTA will remove any progress you put into it if it’s closed or put into background mode. I inputted my entire family and it was erased.

Another warning: while this may be the real thing, I really can’t be sure. There are about half a dozen fake websites and apps for this app (some looking more official) and I never got any real official communication from my airline or other official agencies to do it other than a friend mentioning it by chance. Without an email from a .gov or the New Zealand government taking responsibility for cracking down on copy cats how can anyone follow along? They didn’t even take out a google ad. Come on! You instated this to get some extra fees!!! Spend a little to get a little! Help prevent your country’s visitors from being defrauded!!!

As others have mentioned, NZeTA could use improvement. The passport scanner takes the scan automatically and it scanned one of my passport numbers incorrectly - I corrected it but as a result my application has gone to manual processing, and I am still waiting for it to come through 8 days later. Also, as someone else mentioned, the photo is taken automatically and too quickly, before you have a chance to line yourself up and read the directions. It would be great to have an option to manually initiate the scan and photo once you have everything aligned properly. Save yourself the anxiety and apply online instead.

Instructions are poor, but even once I figured everything out it got stuck for literally days on “Please wait while we analyse your request”, and when it finally restarted I completed it several times only to get an error screen when I tried to pay - “We cannot calculate your payment at this time” after telling me the total was NZ $88. After hours of trying and days of frustration I’m doing it on their website - save yourself the time and just cough up the extra three bucks

Overall the UI was ok, though the camera portion was not user friendly (would crash if you tried to flip the camera).

However, what irks me is that I submitted an application with my parent but it looks like the approval is extremely variable. My reference number was actually AFTER my parent’s. I was approved within minutes but my parent’s has taken over 18 hours now — theres no indication of status other than “pending” or what exactly they are even checking for or what potentially went wrong.

I just want you to know the trouble we're having to see if you can advise some help. We are a family of 7 (with 5 small children) from the United States. We've been volunteering at a mission hospital in the highlands of Papua New Guinea for the past 5 weeks with limited email access, electricity etc... We had a planned layover in New Zealand Nov 7-12 on our way home. We booked and paid for an Air B&B in KatiKati, car rental etc...

After leaving the highlands and flying to the Port Moresby airport yesterday, we were unable to check into our flight to Brisbane and Auckland, we found about the new VISA waiver which went into place after we were already doing our mission work, and we were never notified. We had no idea. Unfortunately, we were not allowed on the flight, and we are now stuck with our young family in a very dangerous city.

Because this dilemma was not the airlines fault, we are paying for everything. Because we don't know when the NZ visas will be approved, we don't even have a departure ticket out of Papua New Guinea. I applied for my visa online yesterday and haven’t received approval. I tried NZeTA, but every time I try to take a picture of my 2 year-old, it says “face not visualized.” We just want to get home with or without a layover in New Zealand. Could someone please help?

Thanks,
Derek and Amy Holmes and family (Elijah, Meredith, Cora, Reagan, and Silas)

NZeTA exits and all information is lost every time I attempt to take a picture for an application. I have restarted the application three times with no luck. In the end, I had to revert to the online application instead. If the issue is fixed it’s an easy and user-friendly application.

I spent a good amount of time trying my best to get a shot of my toddler. The process to take a photo has a delay, so your child may look for a moment, then look away, move, and just plain lose patience. If you decide to try again later, you have to start over again. NZeTA doesn’t save any steps you complete. I’m very irritated that at least for small children, they don’t allow for an uploaded photo. At least allow photo uploads if the birthdate of the person puts them under 2 years old.

Both my wife’s application and mine were issued within 20 mins. It has been several hours now and my daughter’s still hasn’t been approved. I’m hoping I don’t have to go through this entire process again and have to pay the fees for my daughter again if they find the photo wasn’t to their standards. The shortcomings of their app should be on them.

NZeTA is very responsive but the UI should include a confirmation before each submit, or at least a final review/check before you submit. It would be easy to choose an incorrect answer and not know it. There is no log of your answers on submit or in the receipt or email confirmation.
My application was approved in 2 minutes while my wife’s took 12 hours. Both applications were made in the same session which led to accusations that I intentionally answered her questions wrong so that I could enjoy NZ solo.

I submitted and was issued 2 applications-worked perfectly. But I needed to go back a second time for two other family members who had been absent and I can’t add them on. Do I have to delete my first two family members’ NZetas in order to apply for my second two family members? Will this wipe out the first two family members records?

Hello this app developers, my family and I are traveling to New Zealand over spring break 2020. We were happy to have found your app to help expedite the visa applications! It worked well, with one exception! I started the process for my wife and I, (kids not home) got the 2 of us all done, thinking I would add the kids later. Well, when I went back in to NZeTA , the add another person link was nowhere to be found!?! I had to have my wife download NZeTA to her device in order to register the kids! What’s up with that?

I tried uploading two people on my iPhone 7 and it crashed three times in a row when I clicked to add the second person. With just my information, it worked fine and I received a decision in minutes. The automatic pictures worked quickly, almost too quickly.

My partner used her iPhone 11 and it crashed while taking her picture. It is currently stalled out in the step before taking her payment.

NZeTA locked up several times on the requested selfie photo. I put it down and returned to it, and everything went through like a breeze. A very quick process. Got our documents in about ten minutes.

I also don’t understand the number of negative reviews. This could not have been much easier....took about three minutes. My only complaint is I could not copy and paste my CC number.

App works without issue. Four easy steps. Completed the application and was approved within 15 minutes.

I had no issues and it was cheaper than the website.

Whole process took 3 minutes until eTA confirmation was received. Scanning worked great and everything about NZeTA was better than the US CBP Mobile Passport app, which is probably the closest analog I can come up with for this type of functionality.

I saw the 2.3 app rating and was super hesitant to download NZeTA. Completely agree with other 5 star reviews, the lower reviews seem to be user error. The only thing we did not test was taking a toddlers photo. We’ve applied for 3 different people so far (myself, my mom and dad). Sharing and saving the the receipt was simple too. Earlier visa or ID I’ve ever applied for!! Thank you for making it so painless to travel to New Zealand!!!

I am a US citizen and the entire process of downloading NZeTA to approval took about 10 minutes. Once I downloaded NZeTA , I took a picture of my passport (NZeTA prompts you to do so). Though it took a few tries to find the right lighting for my camera to capture my passport info; once it processed my passport picture, I took my photo and my ETA was approved in about one minute! It was a good thing it was approved so quickly considering I had a flight to catch!

I was skeptical because of the previous reviews. But, then I had a few questions regarding the process that I could not get answered in a timely manner (i.e. I’m from the U.S. and when it prompts you to enter place of birth, on my passport there is only the state written not the city, but the form states to add a city if not written... but later says that the this app should match the passport exactly). Anyways, I went back to NZeTA to see if it was any clearer. Ended up scanning it and getting through the process in less than 60 seconds. I’m thinking previous reviews were probably user error.

From downloading NZeTA to getting the emails that the NZeTAs for two family members have been issued took less than two minutes! Our only complaint is that the pictures are taken so quickly we had no time to prepare our “best sides.” LOL.

I have the latest version of NZeTA, but cant get ant detail on my info or add my family.

If i delete & re-download it, will I have to pay again to get my & my family’s info onto it?

It got stuck in the spinning spiral of death on my phone, but worked fine on my ipad. The shape of their window for taking pics of your passport is confusing. Since it’s rectangular, it appears that it would need both the signature page and the photo page, and you would think your passport should fill the window. The photo does not need to fill the space on the screen. NZeTA appears to mostly need the numbers at the bottom of the passport photo page. Using ipad, I was easily able to add a family member. NZeTA on my phone is still spinning away 40 minutes later, and it won’t allow me to delete it.

Was super easy to use and cheaper than the website. Did multiple travelers at once

Loaded the app on to my phone several times. Its never worked. Always the same message of Sorry an error has occurred. Tried the website. Can't take a suitable photo apparently. Really frustrating experience. Awful system.

this app is garbage... i eventually gave up and went through the nz.gov web siteto get my eTA....it has been like this for months with no explanation or attempts to fix it

Applied from the US. The app would not work - kept getting error message over several days. Finally read some comments here and used a VPN for New Zealand, and it worked. Warning - the auto photo is challenging. Finally got mine to work - then had trouble with my husband who wears glasses and has deep set eyes. Kept saying get rid of shadows. Finally got a photo with no glasses and a weird "wide-eyed" expression which looks nothing like him.

I see 71 reports of the app not working "An error has occurred. Please try again later", but I do not see an answer or a work around. What do these people and myself do???

Your NZETA app is a failure. Why promote it's use when it doesn't work? Why doesn't someone fix it?

Hi, everything went well, I saw my demand and my wife's demand, and both were issued. But, when I open the app now, I only see a landscape and the message in the bottom of the app : Delete NZeTA data . Did the app stopped working suddenly, what is going on ??? Thx for any feedback