Immigration Procedure on back to back.

[ericosmith]

I'm hoping I'm in the right place to ask this question.  We're booked on the Celebrity Solstice back to back with Auckland/Sydney/Auckland.  Flying into Auckland I know about the Neta,  After New Zealand the ship tenders in Eden, Australia before docking in Sydney the following day and then departing on the second cruise.  After the Australian leg the ship tenders in 

Bay of Islands, New Zealand before ending the cruise in Auckland.  I'm assuming I also need and eta for Australia but where do I get checked?  Also, what about entry back into New Zealand.  

 

Hope this makes sense.  Thanks

[Aus Traveller]

Your NZ eTA, allows for multiple entries over (I think) a 2-year period. So that's OK. For Australia, you will need an ETA, but this is very easy and inexpensive to get on line. It is possible that Australian Customs/Immigration officers will board the ship in NZ and check all the passengers during the sea days after leaving NZ. This is a quick and painless process.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Australian border security is no longer coming onboard ships to do the immigration processing. It is now done at the first Australian port of call unfortunately.

 

It's a shame but it makes sense. With so many ships trundling to and fro across the ditch they would need too many staff members to cover all the ships, especially as each ship would mean those staff members are only on that one job for 3-4 days, instead of a few hours for land-based screening.

Edited October 16, 2019 by OzKiwiJJ

[discoseabear]

Immigration agents were on board the Ruby Princess on route to Australia yesterday to process the passengers and entire ship’s company had their passports scanned by the agents.

Edited October 21, 2019 by discoseabear

[MicCanberra]

Hope it went smoothly for all.

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 hours ago, discoseabear said:

Immigration agents were on board the Ruby Princess on route to Australia yesterday to process the passengers and entire ship’s company had their passports scanned by the agents.

What was the first Australian port of call for Ruby? 

[discoseabear]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

What was the first Australian port of call for Ruby? 

 

The first Australian port of call will be Sydney tomorrow.

The immigration processing has already been done onboard.

Edited October 22, 2019 by discoseabear

[MicCanberra]

Seems there are differing procedures for different ships/cruises.

[OzKiwiJJ]

54 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

Seems there are differing procedures for different ships/cruises.

Yes. The last two cruises we've done had onshore processing:

At Hobart which was the first Australian port of call on a Celebrity NZ cruise.

At Sydney which was the first Australian port of call after NZ on the Princess Hawaii/Tahiti cruise. This was so a disembarkatio port.

 

We had a special lunch on the Celebrity cruise and had the Staff Captain at our table. He stated that Australian Border Control was no longer doing the onboard processing but, goven the Ruby Princess example, that's not 100% accurate.

 

Maybe it depends on whether the Border Control staff have been good so they get a free mini-cruise for a few hours work. 🤣

[MicCanberra]

I know at least two that have recently retired, it may well be a manpower thing as well. If there are some that are available, they go if not processed on shore.

[roothy123]

Just curious if anyone knows what kind of immigration check will happen when my ship comes to New Zealand.  We cruise to Australia first, and then New Zealand.  Our first port is Dunedin, if you don't count Milford Sound.  Can anybody guess whether there will be a face to face immigration check for us, or if it will be done by looking at the passenger manifest or passports, or what?  Thank you. 

[Aus Traveller]

8 minutes ago, roothy123 said:

Just curious if anyone knows what kind of immigration check will happen when my ship comes to New Zealand.  We cruise to Australia first, and then New Zealand.  Our first port is Dunedin, if you don't count Milford Sound.  Can anybody guess whether there will be a face to face immigration check for us, or if it will be done by looking at the passenger manifest or passports, or what?  Thank you. 

If your cruise returns to Australia, there will be no immigration checks in NZ. The authorities will check the passenger manifest, however, with the new eVisas, they may check your details against their system to see if you have the eVisa. I mention that a couple of NZ'ers have mentioned that the system isn't operating fully yet.

 

If your cruise ends in NZ, then the immigration department will do a face to face. With several ports in NZ where passengers will be ashore during the day, this may be after you disembark from the ship.

[vozzie]

On the Ovation last week, Australian Border Force got on in NZ and did the Immigration checks as we crossed the Tasman.

Out of interest, NZ Authorities never dd a face-to-face for our arrival in Wellington....must be all done with manifests.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Interesting! That's two ships so far that have had onboard processing and two (that I know of) that haven't. Maybe they're doing the onboard processing on the bigger ships (3000+pax?) to avoid delays at the port stops, but smaller ships they can handle onshore which, presumably, means less staff commitments.