Privacy

This privacy statement applies to the collection, security and use of personal and other information by Immigration New Zealand (INZ).

Privacy statement

This statement covers all information collected or held by INZ from all sources and in all formats.

You can access the personal information we hold about you.

Registered users

When you become a registered user of this website personal information is collected to manage your account and determine how the website is used.

Collecting information for visas or New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority (NZeTA) requests

When you apply for a visa or request an NZeTA, INZ collects the information you provide to determine:

  • your identity
  • your eligibility to apply for and get a visa, including whether you can apply for a visa online
  • whether you are eligible for an NZeTA.

The collection of your information is authorised by the Immigration Act 2009 (the Act) and the Immigration Regulations under the Act.

If you do not supply mandatory information for any visa application or NZeTA request, we may not accept it.

Some information is voluntary and helps with processing your visa or NZeTA request.

If you have agreed to act as a sponsor, or are supporting your partner to apply for a visa, INZ collects your personal information to determine if you meet the criteria to support a visa applicant.

Storing information

INZ has a legal obligation to protect any information we collect from you. INZ's online services meet national and international security standards to safeguard personal information collected.

INZ has obligations to protect your privacy under the Immigration Act 2009 and the Privacy Act 2020.

Immigration Act 2009

Privacy Act 2020

The Privacy Commissioner's website has more information on the privacy laws in New Zealand.

Privacy Commissioner

You can contact the Privacy Commissioner at:

Office of the Privacy Commissioner
PO Box 10094
Wellington 6143

Use of information

INZ will use the information you have provided for the purposes of carrying out its functions under the Immigration Act 2009.

INZ will not disclose your information to any third party in a form that identifies you unless:

  • you have consented to such disclosure
  • such disclosure is required or permitted by the Privacy Act 2020, or otherwise required or permitted by law.

INZ shares information with other government agencies under applicable law.

INZ shares identity information with immigration authorities in Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States as members of the Five Country Conference established to cooperate on immigration matters.

Such information is shared in relation to detecting immigration or identity fraud.

We use biometric information, like photographs, fingerprints and iris scans to verify identity.

Biometric information

INZ uses your information to decide if you can board a flight or join a cruise to New Zealand. Your personal information is not shared with check-in agents.

When you check in, the check-in agent only sees a boarding instruction based on the information you have provided in any application or NZeTA request.

To help manage your travel to New Zealand, your airline or cruise operator can make an online enquiry based on the information from your travel booking (for example, your passport details) to see if you are eligible to travel to New Zealand.

How we collect and use information about people flying in and out of NZ

We use your information to:

  • contact you for research purposes
  • advise you on immigration matters, and
  • help us improve the quality of our customer service, including though staff training.

If you are planning to travel to New Zealand and wish to know how your information will be collected and used by Customs and the other Border Agencies you can find out by going to the New Zealand Traveller Declaration website.

Privacy - New Zealand Traveller Declaration website

Access to your personal information

You have the right to:

  • find out if we hold personal information about you
  • access that information
  • request corrections to that information.

In accordance with the Privacy Act 2020, we can refuse your request if we have a good reason.

Request your information

Complete our online form to ask for the information we hold about you.

Request or change your personal information

Transparency statement

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE) transparency statement describes the kind of information MBIE gathers to ensure it can:

  • protect people, information, and places
  • ensure regulatory compliance, and
  • detect and prevent criminal offending.

MBIE’s transparency statement | Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

Statistical information

You can browse this website without disclosing any personal data. However, we collect statistical information about your visit to help us analyse usage and improve the website. This information includes, but is not limited to:

  • users' IP addresses and location
  • users' search terms
  • pages accessed on the website
  • links clicked on
  • date and time of visits
  • previous visits to the website
  • users' operating systems
  • browsers and devices used when accessing the website.

This information can be seen by by website administrators and other INZ staff.

It is shared with other government agencies.

This information is used for statistical or research purposes and will not be published in a form that could reasonably be expected to identify you.

Google Signals

This site uses Google Signals as a remarketing and data collection tool. Google Signals only collects data from Google users who have personalised advertising enabled (note: personalised advertising is switched on by default for Google accounts). This data may include browsing history, device and demographic information, as well as search and YouTube history. Google Signals data collection persists across devices

If you have enabled personalised advertising in your google account, Google will be able to create models and reports about this website’s use based in part on your data. These models and reports are based on random samples and are anonymised by Google. This means we cannot identify individual Google users or their actions.

Users can disable personalised advertising in their Google account settings or mobile app settings.

Google account settings

Cookies

We have 4 types of cookies on this site.

  • Some cookies remember the information you have entered so we can show content relevant to you based on your site preferences.
  • Some cookies help us collect statistics and other analytical information so we can improve and manage the site.
  • Some cookies track your use of other websites to provide relevant and engaging advertisements — these are called re-marketing tracking cookies.
  • Some cookies make the website function properly for you — for example, they remember your cookie preferences.

None of our cookies collect information that could identify you personally. When you visit our site, you decide which cookies we use, although you cannot opt out of the cookies needed to make the website function properly.

Manage your cookie preferences

Re-marketing tracking cookies

These cookies let third-party vendors show INZ ads on websites across the internet based on someone's past visits to this website. This helps us communicate with people who have shown an interest in living, working, studying or visiting New Zealand.

We share this data with other New Zealand Government agencies, such as Education New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand, so they can serve ads to these people.

NZeTA (New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority) cookies

INZ has engaged MediaCom to provide a targeted digital marketing service through their affiliates GroupM, Xaxis and [m]PLATFORM. You can find their privacy policies on their websites.

GroupM Global privacy notice

Xaxis privacy notice

[m]PLATFORM privacy notice

The information they will collect and use includes:

  • your Internet Protocol (IP) address and data derived from that IP address, such as non-precise geolocation data showing the country, region, city or postal code of your device
  • the type of device, internet browser, browser language and operating system you use
  • the time of day you visited the website.

This information is used for 30 days and stored for 90 days before we dispose of it.

Security

Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) websites have security measures in place to prevent the loss, misuse and alteration of information under our control.

In order to maintain the cyber security of MBIE systems and information, MBIE systems are subject to ongoing monitoring (including activity logging), analysis and auditing.

We use information about your use of our websites and other IT systems to prevent unauthorised access or attacks on these systems or to resolve such events.

We use this information even if you are not involved in such activity. MBIE uses services from one or more 3rd party suppliers to monitor or maintain the cyber security of its systems and information.

These 3rd party suppliers have access to monitoring and logging information as well as information processed on MBIE websites and other IT systems.