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Clearing Customs

Airport Clearance

On arrival in New Zealand everyone goes through Customs, Immigration and Agriculture clearance. Clearance procedures protect New Zealand by restricting what crosses our borders. This includes unwanted goods, pests and diseases. Don’t agree to take another person’s belongings through Airport Clearance, they may have packed illegal goods. You should take only your own belongings through Airport Clearance.

Declarations

Before you arrive in New Zealand, you will receive a New Zealand Passenger Arrival Card. You must tick "Yes" in the Customs section of your arrival card if you are bringing any of the following into New Zealand:
· goods that may be prohibited or restricted, such as weapons, objectionable (indecent) articles, wildlife products, or illicit drugs
· goods in excess of the NZ$700 allowance and the tobacco and alcoholic beverages allowance
· goods for commercial, business, or trade purposes
· goods carried on behalf of another person
· NZ$10,000 or more, or the equivalent in foreign currency.
Please have any purchase receipts available
You don't have to declare your clothing or footwear (unless they have soil or seeds on them), jewellery, or toiletries. These are regarded as personal effects if they are intended solely for your own use.
The term ‘personal effects’ covers new or used articles which travellers may reasonably require for their personal use during a journey, or which returning New Zealand residents have acquired in the course of an overseas trip. Commercial quantities of individual items of apparel (including footwear) are not covered by this allowance.
Failure to declare something is an offence, and could result in you being issued with an instant fine or in prosecution. Ignorance of the law is not a defence, and every person who arrives in New Zealand and has completed the New Zealand Passenger Arrival Card is deemed to have read and understood New Zealand’s border requirements. Translations of the New Zealand Passenger Arrival Card in simplified and traditional Chinese are available on arrival in New Zealand or can be accessed through the Customs website.
If you are carrying prescription medicines or controlled drugs you should:
· have a prescription from your physician advising that the medicine is being used under a doctor’s direction
· carry the drugs in their original containers
· have sufficient quantity not exceeding three months supply for prescription medicines or one month supply for controlled drugs.