New Zealand passport
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The front cover of a contemporary New Zealand biometric passport (with chip
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| Date first issued |
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| Issued by |
 New Zealand
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| Type of document | Passport |
| Purpose | Identification |
| Eligibility requirements | New Zealand citizens |
| Expiration | 10 years after acquisition |
| Cost |
Adult (16+) (new)
Adult (16+) (renewal)
Child (under 16)
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New Zealand passports (in Māori: Uruwhenua Aotearoa) are issued to New Zealand citizens for the purpose of international travel by the Department of Internal Affairs. New Zealand has a passport possession rate of around 75% of the population and there are around 1.5 million New Zealand biometric passports in circulation. It is ranked as one of the most powerful passports in the world.
New Zealand participates in the Five Nations Passport Group, an international forum for cooperation between the passport issuing authorities in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States to "share best practices and discuss innovations related to the development of passport policies, products and practices".
Few countries required passports before the First World War, and they were not then usually required for overseas travel. By 1900 there were occasional requests for New Zealand passports, which were personally signed by the Governor. In 1905 MP George Fowlds decided to return to Scotland for his father’s 100th birthday. He decided he needed a passport when his ship was about to leave; an inconvenience both for the department and the Governor who had to sign it. A single passport covered a man and his wife and children, but did not include a photo or any personal details like age, height or eye colour.
In the First World War the British Government required passports in 1915, and New Zealand followed from November 1915, with an increased workload for the department and for police. 1,108 passports had been issued in 1909, but 6,000 were issued in the nine months from 15 November 1915 to 21 August 1916. The number was kept high by civilian travel after the war, over 4,300 in 1921, and the number hovered at that level until the Depression. The number then fell from 4,722 in 1930 to 2,455 for the year ended 31 March 1934.
After the creation of New Zealand citizenship with the passing of the British Nationality and New Zealand Citizenship Act, 1948 (which came into force on 1 January 1949), residence in New Zealand no longer qualified British or Commonwealth citizens for a New Zealand passport, and they had to apply for New Zealand citizenship then for a passport, with increased work for the Department of Internal Affairs. In 1950 the number of passports issued topped ten thousand, twice as many as were issued in 1939. . Between 1948 and 1977, New Zealand passports bore the words 'New Zealand citizen and British subject'.
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