The terribly designed NZ Traveler Declaration

Brook Sabin writes at Stuff:

“Please allow 40 minutes to complete this form.” I’m sitting in Australia trying to get permission to enter my own country through a process that feels like ‘formageddon’.

Before boarding a flight to Aotearoa, you must have a New Zealand Traveller Pass – which is obtained through a multi-step Covid form known as the New Zealand Traveller Declaration.

I wish it only took 40 minutes. Over two trips I spent maybe four hours trying to get it to work.

On the first trip back from Sydney I started the process and entered in my detail and then the flight. But then the website wouldn’t let me scroll down to continue. So I hit the exit button. It had e-mailed me an ID number and password so I could continue later. So I logged back in to resume. But after I logged in it then said I needed to enter a PIN to confirm, which it had e-mailed to me. So I wanted for the PIN. Around 20 minutes later it turned up. I went to use it and it told me that the PIN had expired.

I tried three more times but every time the PIN took 15 to 20 minutes to arrive and it had expired. I finally gave up on my first attempt. I thought maybe my e-mail provider was slow, so I started a whole new declaration. Got to the same stage and could not scroll down and exited and tried to resume. Used a different e-mail address but same issues took 15 – 20 minutes to e-mail a PIN that was good for only 5 to 10 minutes.

I ended up trying four different applications with four different e-mail addresses on three different providers. All the same. It was not a delay on my end. The Government had designed a system which took longer to send you a PIN that it would be valid for.

Finally I managed to complete my 5th application in one go on a friend’s Macbook. Total time 2 – 3 hours.

Then a few days later off to Rarotonga for a family holiday. Didn’t have the screen and PIN problem this time, but a whole new set. You have to enter in your return flight and the system didn’t recognise the flight number. We tried entering in details manually and that was rejected also. We tried two different computers and same problem.

So we couldn’t complete the declaration before we left NZ, and then tried again once we were overseas. This time it worked, but now we had the issue that we had to do four seperate declarations and go through the same process for both adults and both kids. Why did they not allow you to do one joint application where you can enter the flight details and then attach passenger details and vaccination certificates.

So second trip took around three hours to do.

And it isn’t even that the declaration adds value as Brook points out:

However, you no longer require a pre-departure test to enter New Zealand. And Kiwis can enter their own country without needing a vaccination pass. So, requiring New Zealanders to fill out this form is bureaucratic nonsense.

Yep. They should scrap it for non-citizens.

After making a couple of trips to Australia, everyone I spoke to seemed annoyed by the process. Even the check-in agent said, “I’m surprised they make you do this to get into your own country.”

I spent almost four hours filling in an online form to allow me to return to New Zealand. Ironically there was no form at all for me to fill in (apart from customs declaration once landed) to go to Australia as a visitor.