New Zealand citizens travelling on a foreign passport
If you want to travel to New Zealand as a citizen, you must have a New Zealand passport or a foreign passport with an endorsement of your New Zealand citizenship.
To enter New Zealand as a New Zealand citizen, you must have evidence of your citizenship. This evidence is either a New Zealand passport or a New Zealand Citizen Endorsement in your foreign passport.
An endorsement may be a label in your foreign passport, or an electronic record linked to your foreign passport. An endorsement lasts as long as the foreign passport it is endorsed in (or linked to, if electronic only).
Applying for a New Zealand passport
Travelling to New Zealand on a New Zealand passport is the easiest way to travel to New Zealand if you are a New Zealand citizen. Visit the Department of Internal Affairs' Identity and Passports website to learn more about getting a New Zealand passport.
Apply for your passport — Identity and Passports
If you decide to apply for a New Zealand passport - make sure that you allow enough time for your passport application to be processed before you travel.
Applying for a New Zealand Citizen endorsement
If you apply for a New Zealand Citizen endorsement you must provide:
- your foreign passport
- evidence of your New Zealand citizenship (if it is the first time you are applying for an endorsement)
- either an acceptable photo of your head and shoulders or a New Zealand passport (so we can verify your identity)
- the completed New Zealand Citizen Endorsement Application (INZ 1174) and the required fee.
Check our Fees, decision times and where to apply page to find out where to send your application.
Fees, decision times and where to apply
Applying for a second or subsequent endorsement
If you have renewed your foreign passport, or your previous passport has expired, been lost, or stolen, you can apply for a second or subsequent New Zealand Citizen Endorsement.
This process is not a visa transfer. A New Zealand Citizen Endorsement is not a visa or an eVisa.
To apply, you must provide:
- your current foreign passport
- either an acceptable photo of your head and shoulders or a New Zealand passport (so we can verify your identity)
- the completed New Zealand Citizen Endorsement Application (INZ 1174) and the required fee
- a declaration that you have previously had a New Zealand Citizen Endorsement in another foreign passport (you can complete this in Section C of the form)
You do not need to provide evidence of New Zealand citizenship again if you have had a New Zealand Citizen endorsement before.
Check our Fees, decision times and where to apply page to find out where to send your application.
Evidence of New Zealand citizenship
If you are applying for an endorsement for the first time, you will need to prove you are a New Zealand citizen by providing one of the following:
- a New Zealand passport
- a New Zealand birth certificate (if issued on or after 1 January 2006, the birth certificate must show that you have New Zealand citizenship)
- a certificate of New Zealand citizenship issued under the Citizenship Act 1977
- a certificate of confirmation of New Zealand citizenship by descent issued under the Citizenship Act 1977, or
- an evidentiary certificate issued under the Citizenship Act 1977 confirming New Zealand citizenship.
Travelling on multiple passports
You do not have to leave and enter New Zealand on the same passport, or vice versa.
For example if you hold a foreign passport and a New Zealand passport, you can:
- travel to the country you hold a passport for on your foreign passport, and return to New Zealand on your New Zealand passport, or
- travel to New Zealand on your New Zealand passport and depart New Zealand on your foreign passport.
Make sure to also check the policy of the country you are travelling to/from around travelling on multiple passports.