Let’s talk proof of onward travel. New Zealand is one of the countries that regularly asks people for their proof of travel when you arrive at immigration.

In this post, I’ll cover the different methods you can use to show proof of onward travel, the one method you should never use, and address faqs. You can use the table of contents below to jump to the relevant section.

Now the question is, do you really need a legitimate onward travel ticket when entering New Zealand.

And the answer is yes, but there are ways around it.

As a frequent overseas traveller myself, I prefer booking one-way tickets. New Zealand along with a few other countries are very diligent in ensuring people have onward flights when you arrive, so I cover the different techniques I’ve used to get around this.

New Zealand’s location makes the pro’s and con’s of the different options interesting.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. HOW TO GET PROOF OF ONWARD TRAVEL
1.1 OnwardTicket.com
1.2 Expedia.com
1.3 Sacrificing a flight
1.4 Winging it
1.5 What’s the best option?
2. FORGING TICKETS
3. FAQ

Before getting started: If you’re planning to stay in New Zealand illegally after arriving, just don’t. Please. NZ is a great country, but you’re not doing anyone any favours.

PROOF OF ONWARD TRAVEL: THE LEGIT OPTIONS

We’ll be talking about the different ways you can book onward travel and the one you shouldn’t ever use. I’ll make sure to address the pro’s and con’s of each one regarding travel and mention my experience for each of them.

1. ONWARDTICKET.COM

There are a few different kinds of services that do the options above/below in a small industry which OnwardTicket.com has called ‘onward ticket service’. While I can’t verify their claim of being “the world’s fastest onward ticket service” I have used them and was happy as with the service.

The service charges USD$12-15 and once you’ve chosen your route of choice, you’ll be sent an email with a ticket within a couple of minutes. I used the service when flying to San Francisco and they asked to see my onward flight ticket. As you see from the screenshot above the ticket in PDF form doesn’t look really official in my opinion. So I wrote the details down on a piece of paper.

The key is they provide a PNR, which stands for Passenger Name Record. This means people can find your itinerary on the computer reservation system (obviously this has restricted access).

They didn’t flinch when I handed them the flight details on the piece of paper, success (I also put the hostel details on the paper too).

The best part about OnwardTicket.com is the reservations are for a minimum of 48 hours, and the tickets are legitimately booked. So if someone does look up the PNR, your details will show that you have a flight. And you don’t need to cancel the flight at all, once you’ve paid the fee ($12-15), you’re done. That’s a small price to pay eh.

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EXPEDIA.COM

This option is totally legitimate, but if you stuff it up, you may well end up losing out in a lot of money.

Among frequent travellers it’s well known that Expedia.com (must be .com) has a generous 24-hour refund policy. MOST OF THE TIME!

So what you do is book a refundable flight, and then make sure to cancel the booking within 24 hours for a full refund.

The key is to make sure the flight you’re booking says Free cancel w/in 24 hrs which you can see below. You’ll also see this on the following page when entering in the next step.

If it does, you can book the flight through Expedia as you normally would, completing payment even. You then catch your flight to New Zealand and upon being granted entry to the country, make sure you cancel the Expedia flight within 24 hours of the initial booking (verify the time you need to cancel the booking immediately after booking. You can see this under My Trips -> Manage Reservation).

You can cancel the booking through the website (under My Trips you select Manage Reservation), but in all likelihood, Expedia will need to have a phone call with you before the follow through on the cancellation. The phone call only takes a couple of minutes, asking straightforward questions, it’s just an extra step.

For the full step by step screenshots, this page breaks down the process well.

Make sure you time this right. If you’re flying from the United Kingdom to New Zealand, you’ll likely be travelling for 24 hours which is cutting it close in terms of making sure you have wifi to cancel the ticket after passing immigration. For this reason I prefer OnwardTicket.com

AN ALTERNATIVE: THE 24 HOUR RULE

This is something that I wasn’t aware of before working on this post. The 24-hour rule effects flights that are either going to and/from the USA. If you book a flight direct with the airline, and the flight is at least seven days away, then you have 24 hours to cancel for a full refund.

I personally haven’t used this, but you can read more here on Scott’s Cheap Flights.

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BOOK AND SACRIFICE A CHEAP FLIGHT

This option is rather common, and if you haven’t heard of the other methods in this post you’ll probably have thought about this plan already. The theory is with many budget airlines around the world today, you can pick up a flight to a country you’re allowed to fly to for less than $100.

So while you have an actual ticket, you have zero intentions on actually catching the flight.

I’ve used this technique once when I was flying to the USA. After the USA I was moving to Canada on a working holiday visa, but I was waiting for my visa to be approved first. But I couldn’t book a flight to Canada just yet, as when you arrive in the USA they require you to have a flight out of North America (which includes Mexico and Canada).

So I found the cheap flight to El Salvador from Florida you can see above and it worked as good as gold.

$72 for peace of mind. It’s more expensive than the other options, but if you end up winging it like in the next option, you’ll end up doing this.

Regarding using this as proof of onward travel from New Zealand it’s not great given the remote location. In all likelihood you won’t be able to book a flight to Australia as most people who need a visa for New Zealand (well, an NZeTA) will need a visa for Australia too.

So that leaves you with the Pacific Islands which you can find reasonably cheap, but I’d stick to the Expedia or OnwardTicket method when heading to New Zealand.

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WING IT (WITH A BACK UP PLAN)

If you handle pressure well, you might decide to see if you can just wing it and hope that the airlines and immigration don’t ask you for your onward flight details.

I’ve done this successfully a couple of times when heading to Indonesia. But I’ve also had to book a flight when at immigration after landing in Medan (Sumatra). That was totally unexpected, but fortunately, the immigration officer took my friend and I to a separate room while we fumbled around booking a flight.

But we broke the number one rule if you are planning on winging it. Have a backup plan before you go to the airport. Look up possible flights for two different scenarios:

1. For the cheapest flight you’re willing to sacrifice that goes to a valid destination (read above/below).
2. For a flight you’ll almost certainly take, but would rather sit on it a little.

We managed to find a flight that was a combination of the two. It was from Medan to Kuala Lumpur which was a flight we’d possibly take in a month or so. But if we didn’t it was still super cheap and wasn’t a big loss monetarily. In the end we did catch the flight.

If you use this method, you’ll also need to make sure you get to the airport early so you’ve got plenty of time to make sure you book the right flight if they request to see it.

Note: Sometimes you can let the airline know you’re leaving the country by land, but this isn’t likely to work in NZ given it’s surrounded by water and not many people depart by boat!

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THE BEST PROOF OF ONWARD TRAVEL WHEN FLYING TO NEW ZEALAND?

It depends, it really does. But in my opinion, the service provided by OnwardTicket.com is the best all-round option for onward travel proof from New Zealand.

That’s because there PNR’s are open for a minimum of 48 hours, which is a lot more flexible for those taking long haul flights to New Zealand. With 24 hours to cancel Expedia.com tickets, a flight delay or you struggle to get an NZ sim card/wifi connection could see you up shit creek in no time.

And while you could wing it, from what I see in Facebook groups, you will be asked to show your flight out of the country at immigration. So yes, you could wing it and sacrifice a flight, but flights out of NZ aren’t the cheapest.

So for $12-15 using OnwardTicket.com definitely provides the least stressful option, in my opinion.

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DON’T USE THIS METHOD

If you’re a photoshop whiz, you have probably thought about modifying an existing booking confirmation you’ve found on the internet, or an old ticket you’ve used previously. Please don’t do this, there’s no other way to describe this other than as fraud.

Why not do a sneaky photoshop job or use a service that offers this online?

I’ve summed up the knowledge below from the NZ Immigration website here.

“Immigration fraud is an offense under the Immigration Act 2009. We have wide-ranging measures to detect and prevent immigration offending.”

There are various methods of immigration fraud, but relating to New Zealand immigration, presenting them a forged document could be considered:

• Using a false or altered document to support a visa application, e.g. passport
• Providing false or misleading information to support a visa application

What happens if you get caught?

If you’re found guilty of immigration, you can be fined up to $100,000 and/or put into jail for up to seven years.

And the immgration officers are smart, as this person found:

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FAQ’S

Who needs to show proof of onward travel New Zealand?

Immigration New Zealand mentions the following on the website (phrases were correct at the time of publishing):

If you have a visa-waiver (NZeTA):

You are unable to provide evidence you have any onward travel or funds required by the conditions of your visa.

If you have a Visa:

If you are applying for a visa prior to your travel and your visa is granted, you may enter New Zealand on a one-way ticket provided that the visa clearly states “Return/onward ticket not required”.

Note, for people on working holiday visas, you’ll usually need proof of a return ticket, or at least the money to buy one (you need at least $4,200 to arrive anyway…that’s enough to buy a ticket home. This screenshot below (source) from here provides the exact wording (you can check the exact terms for your country here).

RELATED POST: THE BEST WAY TO TRANSFER MONEY TO NEW ZEALAND

You can read more about the onward travel requirements from the New Zealand Immigration Operating Manual here.

Why does New Zealand require proof of onward travel?

There’s no official details from Immigration New Zealand about why they require onward travel, but we can make pretty safe assumptions. They want to prevent illegal immigration. In a perfect world, we’d be able to trust everyone to obey the rules and we could fly in on a one way ticket.

Unfortunately, at the time of writing this isn’t even close to happening!

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If you’ve got any questions, or have experiences with these methods while flying to New Zealand, I’d love to hear from you.