Can I extend my visitor visa in New Zealand?

INZ's own wording is blunt: *you cannot extend your visa. You must apply for a new visa before your current visa expires.* What people call a visitor visa extension is a fresh Visitor Visa application made while you are still in New Zealand. INZ says you can apply if you are here on a Visitor Visa now and need more time for a genuine reason.

If INZ approves it, you get a new single-entry Visitor Visa, and your current visa expires when the new one is granted. Single-entry matters: INZ's alert is that if you leave New Zealand on a single-entry visa, it expires.

INZ's fees and decision-times tool, read on 29 October 2026 for an applicant living in New Zealand, gives the same figures as for an applicant overseas:

• Fee: from NZ$441.
• Decision time: 80% of applications completed within 2 weeks.
• Paid by: Visa, Mastercard or UnionPay card, online.

INZ warns that processing is busiest between September and March, so a summer application can take longer. The Visitor Visa page has the rest of what INZ publishes about the visa, and the processing times tool compares visas side by side.

INZ's limit is 9 months in an 18-month period, counted back from your planned departure date. Its example: if the last day you plan to be in New Zealand is 1 December 2024, the 18-month period begins on 1 June 2023. Time you have already spent here counts.

So if you arrived for 6 months, the most a new Visitor Visa could normally add is about 3 more, and less if you were here earlier in the same 18 months. How long INZ actually grants depends on its assessment of your application.

INZ says to apply for another visa at least 1 month before your visa expires. The hard deadline is the expiry date itself: the application has to be made while your current visa is still valid.

If your visa runs out while INZ is still deciding, it will normally issue an Interim Visa so that you stay lawfully. That only happens if INZ has received your application, and accepted it for processing, before the old visa expires. If you leave New Zealand while on an Interim Visa, it ends.

The new application is assessed against the normal Visitor Visa requirements. From INZ's Visitor Visa page:

1. A genuine reason for more time, and that you still intend to leave at the end of the stay. INZ considers what you provide, what it knows about your circumstances, and what you told it before.
2. Money to live on: at least NZ$1,000 a month, or NZ$400 a month if your accommodation is already paid, or an acceptable sponsor who completes a Sponsorship Form for Temporary Entry.
3. A way to leave: a ticket out, or proof you can buy one.
4. Health: a chest X-ray if your total stay will pass 6 months and you are from, or have spent more than 3 months in the last 5 years in, a country without a low incidence of TB. INZ says that for someone already in New Zealand, *this includes any time you have already spent here*.
5. Character: police certificates if you are 17 or older and your total time in New Zealand, on any visa, will reach 24 months or more. See police certificates.

INZ notes that you cannot get a new temporary visa, such as a work, student or visitor visa, if you are in New Zealand on a limited, interim or transit visa. The same "apply for a new visa, not an extension" rule applies to work and student visas too: there is no extension form for any temporary visa.

If you arrived visa-free with an NZeTA, the NZeTA allows stays of 3 months per visit, or 6 months for UK citizens. Staying past that also means applying for a Visitor Visa before your permitted stay ends.

INZ says that once your visa has expired you are in New Zealand unlawfully and must leave immediately. While unlawful you cannot work or study, you lose most publicly funded health care, you risk detention and deportation, and staying 42 days or more can lead to a ban on returning. Family or friends who help you stay may commit an offence under the Immigration Act 2009.

The only route left is a written request under section 61 of the Immigration Act 2009, emailed to INZ. INZ stresses that it has no obligation to consider the request, gives no guarantee of a visa, and can still deport you while it is pending. Whether a special-case request suits your situation is a question for a licensed immigration adviser.