How long is AKL arrivals process?
 

Hi, trying to advise someone on AKL arrivals, but my memory is not great ...

Any advice on how long it takes from stepping off a plane at AKL (international arrival, at noon, in July) to get through passport control, collect checked baggage, and get through biosecurity/customs?

NZ citizen, but no current NZ passport, so travelling on a UK passport. Are there any advantages to having a current NZ passport in hand? I vaguely recall from my last visit that there is a single line for NZ passport and NZ citizen with foreign passport?

Also, for the return, what will be the journey time (traffic) from Auckland Hilton to AKL leaving around 11am on a weekday?

Thanks.

45-60 minutes for arrival processing and aircraft disembarking total and probably the same to get to the airport from the Hilton

Thanks for the quick reply.

Any speedup for having NZ passport in hand, or was my memory right about the lane being shared with NZ citizens with foreign passport anyway?

Is the queueing mostly at passport control, or mostly at biosecurity, or both?

IIRC if you're an NZ citizen you can use the NZ/AUS lane regardless of what passport you're travelling on - they don't really check anyway and quite often the lanes comingle.

I usually take the NZ/AUS 'something to declare' lane because it's usually way shorter than the green lane, and when you say you have some sweets from the US they wave you straight through.

YMMV, of course.

I like the idea of deliberately carrying a chocolate bar as a queue buster :-) [and can always eat it quickly if the queue is short!]

NZ citizen passport, usually carrying commercial packaged sweets, always sent to X-ray - and I am always wondering if its due to my brown skin (and when partner with me he is Filipino)

we were even cautioned when carrying a brand new unused tent, and advised that we should have declared it as and could be fined for not doing so as it's a biosecurity risk - even though the declaration form only refers to used equipment

45-60mins seems safe bet when travelling with luggage

YMMV :-)

If your partner is a Filipino national then he isn't eligible to use Green Lane, so that probably explains x-ray then. As for the other times I have to say it might be bad luck. My experience as a non-white NZer is that more often than not I am sent to Green Lane, but there are still the odd instances where others around me are sent to Green Lane but I am sent to x-ray. Really depends on the risk assessment officer you get I think.

You can use a UK passport in Smartgate (immigration) when entering. The NZ/Au immigration line has gone with Smartgate.
Smartgate at Australia & NZ immigration Click to open the wiki

For customs/bio security everyone is in the same (slowish) line.

I am a NZ citizen travelling on an Au passport. An NZ passport gives no advantage over other eligible e-passports. But most of recent experience has been entering at WLG & CHC.

Yeah I'm a young NZ European male usually travelling carry on only - most experience through AKL.

In CHC in March everyone was in the same lane and it was an 80 minute ordeal to get through Customs/Biosecurity.

AKL customs and biosecurity has three lanes...

• NZ/AU Nothing to Declare (green)
• NZ/AU Goods to Declare (yellow)
• All other passports (red)

I've pretty much always find the yellow lane to be the fastest since they implemented this last year, but as I said before, YMMV.

So on the, or at the same time , as the EK A380 SYD-CHC?
At CHC that's the only time I have seem delays. But not 80 minutes.

Since the question is not about any specific airline, the thread is being moved to the Destination forum for Oceania (Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific).

NewbieRunner, senior moderator

It varies on the time of day but in my experience early morning is fine (got in at 0545 and was outside within 10min of walking off the plane). Late evening/midnight can be atrocious.

Yep, we arrived from MEL just after the 380, I think. Wasn't pleasant.

Strictly speaking:
https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-...y-old-passport

The main disadvantage of traveling on a non-NZ passport without an endorsement is that you would, by default, be processed according to entry requirements of the other country. If there for a brief period, not likely to be significant. But if there for a longer period or to work, might cause additional processing (to be clear, not saying you'd be refused entry, but could materially impact processing time).

As a NZ citizen travelling to NZ on an Au passport for over 20 years never had an issue or been questioned. Have worked In NZ, at times for months, or the other extreme a 36 hr visit.

But an AU in NZ is pretty close to full access. Just have to have no convictions and stay as long as you want.

On a UK passport you can use SmartGate and not interact with a person. If the NZ citizenship has not been endorsed in the UK passport, not sure if NZ will even know that the UK passport holder is also an NZ citizen. If anything the processing delay would occur when departing NZ if one had "overstayed". Customs is not interested in citizenship.

My wife who is not an NZ/AU citizen has been allowed to use the NZ/AU lanes with me. Not sure that being white or not affects anything. I'm not white and when I got a white biosecurity officer they just let me through, whereas the non-white officers have sent me to X-ray, and there didn't appear to be any racial element to who was sent where.

For arrivals, best case is probably 15 minutes. Close gate (say 15), can use smartgate, short customs queue.

More realistically allow 30-45 minutes. Further gate, use smartgate, long customs queues (fairly busy arrival time).

Worst case over an hour. Remote stand, wait for bus to terminal, long customs queues and sent to secondary inspection.

The yellow line is generally not quicker than the green lane in my experience and makes no difference as to whether or not bags get x-rayed.

Agree - adding to that the green/yellow lines pretty much merge at the end an lead to the same counters.

My earlier post referred to eligibility to use Green Lane (as in straight out after risk assessment, not to be confused with the green nothing to declare NZ/AU lane). MPI policy is that only NZ and Australian passport holders are eligible to use Green Lane after screening by a risk assessment officer. Or put another way, a NZ/AU passport holder could at risk assessment be sent to Green Lane, X-Ray, or Secondary Inspection, whereas non-NZ/AU passport holders can only be sent to either X-Ray or Secondary Inspection. If your wife is being allowed to use Green Lane with you then that may be a case of the risk assessment officer not looking closely enough at the arrival card or seeing only "NZL" on your card, because strictly speaking she is not permitted to use Green Lane no matter how little a risk the MPI officer thinks she is.

Funnily enough my experience at risk assessment does match with yours - the non-white risk assessment officers are a little bit more militant about referring to x-ray.

At AKL when you get off your plane you will go through security (just for checked luggage/body scan, it's not the actual security) as you enter the international airside area. Passport control and baggage claim is then right there about a 5 min walk away max. It's a small airport and it's usually very fast.

Arriving off the QR flight at 05:something a few weeks ago, it took me 30-40 minutes to get landside from the aircraft door. That was with collecting bags (few minutes' wait), an EU passport that can't use the egates, nothing that needed biosecurity inspection, and no secondary biosecurity inspection.

(At the biosecurity check it may have helped that I was clearly more clued-up than the fool in front of me who appeared oblivious of the need to declare his fishing gear, I couldn't help being a shining example of competence and regulatory compliance after that :) )

I'm completely unclear on the choice of countries that can use the egates, in particular why only some EU countries can use them. Anyone know why?

Huh? There is no arrival security. The only reason you would go through security upon getting off a plane is if you are in international transit, and once you are through international transit security then there is no way to get back to passport control or bag claim without an escort.