Character Requirements for New Zealand Visas
Every applicant for a New Zealand visa must meet good character requirements. Police certificates are required from applicants aged 17 and over who intend to stay 24 months or longer, and must be less than six months old when the application is submitted. From 2026, an application missing a required upfront certificate may be declined without further contact.
Quick Facts
| Who it applies to | Every applicant, for every visa |
| Police certificate trigger | Applicants aged 17 and over staying 24 months or longer |
| Certificate recency | Must be less than 6 months old at submission |
| Repeat applicants | May not need to supply certificates provided with an earlier application |
| Upfront rule from 2026 | An application missing a required certificate may be declined without further contact |
| Exempt from the upfront rule | Fiji, Hong Kong and Israel |
| False or misleading information | Treated as a character issue and a ground for deportation liability |
| Character waiver | Exists as a process. The test INZ applies is not published |
What "good character" means in practice
Character is one of the four requirements that run across the whole New Zealand visa system, alongside identity, health and the specific criteria of the visa category. INZ's own guidance sits under five headings:
- Being of good character
- Details of character requirements
- Providing police certificates
- Explaining a character issue when you apply
- Character waiver processes
Two things follow from that structure. First, INZ expects a character issue to be explained at the point of application, not discovered later. Second, a waiver process exists, which means a character issue is not automatically the end of an application.
We do not publish a threshold table. Content stating that particular sentence lengths trigger an automatic decline is not sourced to INZ's current pages, and we do not repeat it. Where the answer to your question is a specific conviction and a specific visa, that is a matter for INZ or a licensed immigration adviser rather than a published table.
Police certificates
A police certificate is a document issued by a police or government authority showing whether you have a criminal record in that country. It is the primary evidence INZ uses for character.
| When required | Applicants 17 and over intending to stay 24 months or longer |
| Recency | Less than 6 months old when the application is submitted |
| Repeat applicants | You may not need to provide one if you supplied it with a previous application |
Which countries you need certificates from is not published as a general rule. The commonly-repeated formulation — your country of citizenship plus any country you have lived in for five years or more since turning 17 — does not appear on INZ's current police certificates page, and we do not state it as fact. Category-specific rules do exist: the Dependent Child Resident Visa, for example, requires certificates from countries of citizenship and any country where the child spent twelve months or more in the past decade.
Check the requirement for your own visa on INZ's page. Getting the country list wrong is a slow, expensive mistake, because some police authorities take months to issue a certificate.
See police certificates for NZ visa applications.
The 2026 upfront police certificate rule
This is the most consequential recent change in the character area, and it is under-covered.
From 2026, an application lacking a required upfront police certificate may be declined without further contact. INZ is not obliged to write to you, ask for the missing document, or give you a chance to supply it. The application can simply be declined.
Three jurisdictions are exempt from the upfront requirement: Fiji, Hong Kong and Israel. Applicants from those places are not required to supply the certificate at the point of application.
For everyone else, the practical effect is that a police certificate has moved from being something INZ might request during processing to something that must be in the application when it is lodged. Given that some authorities take weeks or months to issue one, and that certificates expire at six months, the sequencing matters: request the certificate early enough to have it, but not so early that it ages out before you submit.
See the upfront police certificate rule explained.
False or misleading information
This is the character issue people create for themselves, and it is treated more seriously in New Zealand than most applicants expect.
Providing false or misleading information in a visa application is a character issue in its own right, and INZ treats information supplied in a previous application as relevant to a current one. An inconsistency between what you told INZ two years ago and what you are telling it now is a character question, not a clerical one.
It is also a ground for deportation liability. Where false or misleading information was provided, deportation liability can arise even after a visa has been granted — the grant does not close the question.
INZ publishes separate guidance where false or misleading information is linked to migrant exploitation, recognising that some people are induced into submitting incorrect information by an employer or an unlicensed agent. That is a distinct situation with a distinct pathway, and the Migrant Exploitation Protection Work Visa exists partly for it.
See false or misleading information in a visa application.
Character and deportation liability
Character does not stop mattering once a visa is granted. INZ publishes five grounds on which deportation liability can arise:
- You stay beyond the expiry date of your visa
- You breach other conditions of your visa — INZ's own example is working while holding only a visitor visa
- You commit a criminal offence
- Your circumstances no longer meet the rules or criteria your visa was granted under
- False or misleading information was provided
Appeal rights depend on the circumstances and on when the liability arose, and appeals are heard by the Immigration and Protection Tribunal.
One limitation is significant and rarely published: you cannot appeal if the last visa you held was a limited visa. That directly affects Recognised Seasonal Employer workers, who hold Limited Visas. See limited visas explained and deportation liability explained.
We do not publish deadlines for responding to a deportation liability notice. INZ does not publish them on its own page, and a reader who missed a statutory deadline because we printed the wrong number would suffer real harm. If you have received a notice, the deadline that applies to you is in the notice itself and in the Tribunal's own guidance — read both, and get advice quickly.
Character waivers
A character waiver process exists. INZ lists "Character waiver processes" as one of the five headings in its own character guidance.
The test INZ applies is not published in retrievable form, and this page does not invent one. What the process weighs, what evidence helps, and how a waiver interacts with a particular category all sit outside what INZ publishes openly.
That has a clear consequence. If you have a character issue and are considering a New Zealand visa, the published rules will not answer your question, because the published rules do not extend to the waiver test. Confirm the position with INZ, or engage a licensed immigration adviser or a New Zealand lawyer. See character requirements and character waivers and how to check an adviser's licence.
Explaining a character issue when you apply
INZ maintains a dedicated heading for this, which tells you something about how it expects applications to be presented: a character issue disclosed and explained at the point of application is handled differently from one INZ finds later.
Disclosure and explanation are what the published process contemplates. Non-disclosure creates a second, separate problem — the false or misleading information issue described above — on top of whatever the original matter was.
We do not advise on how to frame an explanation. That is tailored advice, and under the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007 it may only be given by a licensed immigration adviser, a New Zealand lawyer, or another person exempt from licensing. Giving it without a licence carries up to NZ$100,000 and seven years' imprisonment, and the Act applies whether or not the advice is given for payment.
Character across the visa families
| Visa family | Character position |
|---|---|
| NZeTA and visa waiver | Character requirements apply. Australian passport holders transiting must also meet them |
| Visitor visas | Good character required |
| Student visas | Good character required |
| Work visas | Good character required |
| Residence | Fullest assessment, with police certificates as standard |
The requirement is universal. What varies is the evidence INZ asks for, which is driven by the length of stay and the category rather than by the visa's name. A three-week holiday and a residence application both require good character; only one of them routinely requires a police certificate.
See character requirements for New Zealand residence and moving to New Zealand with a criminal record.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the character requirements for a New Zealand visa?
Every applicant must meet good character requirements. INZ publishes guidance under five headings covering what good character means, the detail of the requirements, police certificates, explaining a character issue when you apply, and character waiver processes.
When do I need a police certificate for a New Zealand visa?
If you are aged 17 or over and intend to stay in New Zealand for 24 months or longer. The certificate must be less than six months old when you submit the application. You may not need one if you provided it with a previous application.
What happens if I do not include a police certificate?
From 2026, an application missing a required upfront police certificate may be declined without further contact — INZ is not obliged to ask you for it. Fiji, Hong Kong and Israel are exempt from the upfront requirement.
Can I get a New Zealand visa with a criminal record?
INZ does not publish an automatic-decline table, and a character waiver process exists. Whether a particular conviction affects a particular application is an assessment of individual circumstances, which INZ or a licensed immigration adviser can address. This site does not assess it.
Which countries do I need police certificates from?
INZ does not publish a general rule on its current pages. Some categories set their own — the Dependent Child Resident Visa requires certificates from countries of citizenship and any country where the child spent twelve months or more in the past decade. Check the requirement for your own visa.
Is a character waiver available?
A character waiver process exists and INZ lists it in its own guidance. The test INZ applies is not published, so nobody can tell you from public information how a waiver would be assessed. Confirm with INZ or a licensed adviser.
What counts as false or misleading information?
INZ treats false or misleading information supplied in any visa application, including a previous one, as a character issue. It is also a ground for deportation liability, which can arise after a visa has been granted.
Can character issues lead to deportation after I have a visa?
Yes. Deportation liability can arise from overstaying, breaching visa conditions, committing an offence, no longer meeting the criteria your visa was granted under, or having provided false or misleading information. Appeal rights depend on circumstances, and there is no appeal where the last visa held was a limited visa.
How long do I have to respond to a deportation liability notice?
We do not publish a day count, because INZ does not publish one and a wrong figure would cause real harm. The deadline that applies to you is stated in the notice you received. Read it, check the Immigration and Protection Tribunal's own guidance, and get advice immediately.
Primary source: Immigration New Zealand's guidance on character requirements, third-party checks and police certificates and on deportation and how you can appeal. Verified 20 August 2026. Where this page does not state a threshold, a country list or a deadline, it is because INZ does not publish one in retrievable form.
This page is general information about published requirements. It is not immigration advice and does not assess whether you meet the character requirements.
