New Zealand visa guideThe New Zealand Business Visitor Visa is for short commercial trips from India: meetings, exploring business opportunities and negotiating contracts. Immigration New Zealand allows a stay of up to 3 months in any 1 year, lists the fee from NZD 341, and decides 80% of applications within 1 week.
It is a visitor visa, so the line that matters is business versus work. Training, performing, installing equipment or taking part in events need a work visa such as the Specific Purpose Work Visa. Since 1 October 2026 the application is online only, with a letter from your employer or the New Zealand company confirming the business reasons.
Do Indians need a visa for a business trip to New Zealand, and which one?
Yes. Indian passport holders cannot use the NZeTA, so a business trip needs the Business Visitor Visa from Immigration New Zealand (INZ). It is a separate visitor category, cheaper and quicker than the general Visitor Visa, and it allows a stay of up to 3 months in any 1 year. Study of up to 3 months is also allowed, and you can include your partner and dependent children in the application.
New Zealand draws a sharp line between business and work, and the whole application turns on which side of it your trip sits.
Meetings with a New Zealand company or client
- Needs a work visa instead
- Working for, or being paid by, a New Zealand business
Exploring business opportunities
- Needs a work visa instead
- Training, whether giving it or receiving it on the job
Negotiating contracts
- Needs a work visa instead
- Performing
Study of up to 3 months
- Needs a work visa instead
- Participating in events
INZ points travellers whose reason is not on the business list to the Specific Purpose Work Visa, which covers purposes such as installing or servicing specialised machinery from overseas. If your employer's letter says "train the client's team" or "support the installation", you have described work, not a business visit.
New Zealand business visitor visa: key facts
- VisaNZeTA not available to Indians
- Business Visitor Visa
- Stay
- Up to 3 months in 1 year
- Cost
- From NZD 341
- Processing
- 80% within 1 week
- How you apply
- Online only, from 1 October 2026
- FundsNZD 400 a month if accommodation is prepaid
- NZD 1,000 a month, or employer support
Immigration New Zealand, checked 14 Oct 2026
Where do applicants from Punjab apply?
Online, through INZ's enhanced Immigration Online. From 1 October 2026, INZ no longer accepts paper forms for the Business Visitor Visa, so a Mohali software firm and a Ludhiana exporter both file from their own desks. The decision is INZ's; there is no consular jurisdiction to work out.
VFS Global, INZ's partner in India, matters only if INZ asks you to hand in your passport for authentication, and the application PDF tells you if that applies. The VFS centres open for New Zealand in mid-October 2026 are Chandigarh, New Delhi and Mumbai, Monday to Friday. Visa queries go to INZ, not to the New Zealand High Commission, which does not handle visa enquiries. See our New Zealand appointment availability page for VFS dates.
Sending a team to a conference? If your group involves 30 or more international visitors, INZ recommends that the event organiser lets it know in advance, so it can help attendees apply for the right visa.
Which documents depend on your situation?
One document is required of every business visitor: a letter from your employer or from the New Zealand company you are dealing with, confirming your employment and the business reasons for your visit. The rest of the file depends on who you are and who pays.
Employee sent by an Indian company
- What to add
- The employer's letter, plus a letter confirming the employer's financial support if it is paying
Owner of an Indian firm
- What to add
- Company registration or partnership deed, GST registration, recent ITRs and business bank statements
Meeting a New Zealand buyer or supplier
- What to add
- An invitation from the New Zealand company with its address, contact person, the meetings and who covers hotel and travel
Exploring an investment or market
- What to add
- A short plan of who you will meet and why, with any correspondence already exchanged
Hosted by a New Zealand sponsor
- What to add
- The Sponsorship Form for Temporary Entry (INZ 1025) and the sponsor's sharing ID
Bringing your partner or children
- What to add
- Marriage and birth certificates and identity documents; children must be 19 or younger
Every application also needs a copy of your passport, valid for at least 3 months after you plan to leave New Zealand, one acceptable photo, English translations of anything not in English, and proof you can leave at the end.
Money. If you pay your own way, INZ asks for NZD 1,000 for each month of the stay, or NZD 400 a month if the accommodation is already paid for, plus the fare home or the money for it. If your employer or a government is supporting you, a letter confirming that financial support takes the place of personal funds.
How much is the New Zealand business visa fee for Indians?
INZ lists the Business Visitor Visa from NZD 341, paid online when you submit, and it is not refunded if the visa is declined. For comparison, INZ lists the general Visitor Visa from NZD 441. A VFS charge applies only if INZ asks you to hand in your passport, and any chest X-ray, medical or police certificate is paid to the provider. Our filing fee is shown at the top of this page.
How long does it take, and when should you apply?
INZ's published standard is 80% of Business Visitor Visa applications decided within 1 week, much faster than the 2 weeks quoted for ordinary visitors. The slow cases are usually the ones where INZ has to ask for something: a health certificate, a police certificate or a clearer letter.
- Apply once the meetings are fixed. The invitation and employer letter should both exist before you submit.
- Mind the season. INZ says visitor processing is busiest between September and March, so leave more margin for a trip in those months.
- Book refundable fares until the visa is granted.
Why do New Zealand business visas get refused for Indian applicants?
The criteria are those of any visitor plus the business test: good health and character, a genuine reason for coming, enough money or support, plans to leave, and a purpose that is genuinely business rather than work.
The trip is really work
Training staff, installing equipment, performing or taking part in an event are outside the business list, and at a conference INZ treats any activity for gain or reward that is not an exception as work. Describe meetings, exploration and negotiations only.
Visits that add up past 3 months
The cap is 3 months in 1 year, not 3 months per visit. Engineers or managers who return to the same New Zealand client several times a year run into it without noticing. Count every day before you apply.
Letters that tell different stories
The employer letter and the New Zealand invitation should give the same dates, the same purpose, the same contact and the same answer to who pays. Two letters that disagree by a week invite a question you may never get to answer.
Funds that fit neither test
Either show NZD 1,000 a month (NZD 400 with prepaid accommodation) in your own account, or a clear letter of employer or government support. A modest personal balance with no support letter fails both.
Identity details that do not match
INZ warns that wrong identity details delay an application and can lead to a decline or refusal of entry. Enter your name, date of birth and passport number exactly as printed.
What the invitation and employer letters should say
The invitation should come from your New Zealand host (the company you are meeting, the event organiser or the trade body) on its letterhead, signed by a named person with a designation and a direct contact, not a general inbox. Assume it can be checked, and tell your host what you have filed. It should give:
- your full name, passport number and position in the Indian company
- how the two organisations are connected: existing supplier, customer, or the enquiry that started it
- exact dates, with an outline of the meetings or the event programme
- who pays for flights, accommodation and daily costs
- a clear line that you will not be employed or paid by them in New Zealand
If your employer is sending you, its letter should state your post and length of service, that your leave is approved, the trip dates and why you specifically are going, that your salary continues and your post is held for your return, and who pays. It should be signed by a named person with a designation, office landline and company email. If it describes you delivering work to a New Zealand client or servicing their equipment, it describes employment, not a business visit.
If Immigration New Zealand raises a concern
INZ may send a potentially prejudicial information (PPI) letter before deciding, setting out its concern and giving a date to respond. It is not a refusal, but do not count on getting one: file a complete application the first time. If one arrives, answer the exact point with the document that settles it, inside the window the letter gives.
Declare every previous refusal, from any country. A declared refusal with a short, factual explanation is a normal file; an undeclared one that surfaces later turns a travel-history question into a character question.
Tips for a stronger file
- Write the business purpose in one line. "Negotiating a supply contract with a Christchurch dairy-equipment firm over four days of meetings" beats a paragraph of generalities.
- State who pays, twice. In the employer letter and in the invitation, in the same words.
- Prepaid hotel helps. A paid booking moves you to the NZD 400 a month rate and explains a modest personal balance.
- Count the year. Keep a table of earlier New Zealand trips if you visit often, so the 3-month cap is visibly respected.
- Keep remote work in proportion. Answering emails for your Indian employer is fine; working on a New Zealand project is not.
- Translate company papers. Any Hindi or Punjabi document needs an English translation by a translator who meets INZ's requirements.
Can you install machinery or train staff on a business visitor visa?
No. INZ lists training, performing and taking part in events as reasons that need a work visa, not a business visitor visa. The usual route is the Specific Purpose Work Visa, whose accepted purposes include installers or servicers of specialised machinery or equipment from overseas, and a separate category for business people. It costs from NZD 1,455 and INZ's standard is 80% decided within 3 weeks, so plan for it well ahead of an installation date.
What about conferences and remote work?
Attending a conference to listen and network is fine on a visitor visa. INZ's rule is that any activity for gain or reward at a conference that is not an exception counts as work; the exceptions include remote work for an overseas business and official business for a government. So a paid speaking slot needs more than a visitor visa.
Remote work for your Indian employer during the trip is allowed on visitor visas, as long as you are not working for a New Zealand business. For a family holiday after the meetings, your spouse and children can be included in your application or apply for the New Zealand visitor visa; the New Zealand country page lists every route.
Official sources
- Business Visitor Visa, Immigration New Zealand
- Visitor Visa, Immigration New Zealand
- Specific Purpose Work Visa, Immigration New Zealand
- Changes to use of paper applications for some visitor and transit visas, Immigration New Zealand
- VFS Global New Zealand India: visa application centres
- VFS Global New Zealand India: passport handling for online applications
