Filipino passport holders can apply for a tourist visa online. The official website is https://www.immigration.govt.nz/
As stated below, if you intend to stay 59 days or less, you do not have to pay the non-refundable NZD 165 visa fee. 

I submitted my online application on May 25, 2016 while I was in Malaysia traveling. Right after I submitted my application online, this is what I got;

Don’t! I suggest that you DO NOT send your passport until you receive an actual email that your application has been approved. 

On May 27th, I received an email from my case officer who is located in Manila, Philippines asking me to upload additional documents (proof of relationship to my sponsor) which I did on the same day. 

On June 2nd, I received another email requesting that I send them my passport. This is when you should actually give them your passport. 

Since I was in Malaysia and unfortunately, there is no Visa Application Center there for New Zealand. I had to submit my passport in VAC Singapore which is closer than my country. I got to submit my passport on June 3rd. I paid SGD 32.00 handling fee in cash and the receipt includes your tracking number. I was told that the process is 7 business days. 

Below is the info for Singapore office which is very near Raffles MRT station.

On June 8th, I received the below email stating that my application has been approved with the following conditions. This time, I’m guaranteed that I will get my passport back with a visa stamp on it. 

By the way, up until this step, all the communications were uploaded to my ONLINE account by my Immigration New Zealand case officer. 

You will get constant email updates from VFS once you give them your passport. On June 10th, my seemed to be long wait is over.

I collected my passport on the same day! Yeepee! 

It took total of 13 business days for my case from the date I submitted my application online until the day I got to collect my passport. 

VFS office in Singapore was very efficient. Although, there were only two windows dedicated for New Zealand, I didn’t have to wait that long and the officers were friendly and showed willingness to assist. Specially my officer, Stellar. 🙂

And I was off to New Zealand 4 days after I got my visa. 😉

Tips:

-When you submit your online application, upload all the documents you think might help to get their approval. 

-When you go to VFS office, you have to go through security first and you will be asked to turn off your phones so I suggest you do that before. 

-When you submit your passport, you will be asked to write your current address, email address and phone number so if you don’t know this by heart, you should write it on the thank you letter before going inside. 

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