- Document dated 14 June 2018, received the same day.
- Pasted here from the source PDF, with minor formatting.
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Any currently-applied policy or guideline to deciding which names are acceptable for New Zealand citizens, especially pertaining to the spelling of names. You are not interested in policies and guidelines around offensiveness, length, or resemblance to official rank and titles. You also clarified on 6 June 2018 that by ‘New Zealand citizens’ you are referring to those registered on the New Zealand birth and citizenship registers.
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Any currently-applied further policy or restrictions on top of these, specifically to the representation of names in New Zealand passports.
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Reasons why these rules or guidelines are applied or were established.
Under section 18(8) of the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 1995, names may be rejected by the Registrar-General for the reasons you have mentioned. Additionally, names may be rejected if the Registrar General does not consider them a name, for example a number or symbol. Hyphens and apostrophes are acceptable.
There are no other policies or legislation under which the Registrar-General may decline to register a name.
Due to the limitations of the Department’s birth registration system, special characters such as umlauts may not appear (sic) the birth certificate, but will have been recorded in the birth register.
When determining the name to be recorded in the citizenship register, the Department’s policy is that the name used on the applicant’s passport (a copy of which is provided at the time of application) is taken to be the current name — consideration is given to the name recorded in other official identity documents, including the applicant’s preference, prior to registration being completed.
The Passport Office matches the details provided by an applicant against official records held by the Department (i.e. the New Zealand birth and citizenship registers).
If an applicant requests a name that is different from their previous passport or official records, they must provide evidence of a legal name change. In addition, names are recorded in accordance with ICAO specifications for Machine-Readable Travel Documents: https://www.icao.int/publications/Documents/9303_p3_cons_en.pdf
The Department is bound by legislation with regard to the names recorded in New Zealand birth register, and ICAO guidelines with regard to the name recorded on a New Zealand passport.
Citizenship policy provides that the name recorded in the New Zealand citizenship registers must be one which the applicant is clearly entitled to use based on the documents provided, as this name forms an important part of a citizen’s identity in New Zealand.
Signed by: Briget Ridden
Manager Branch Development and Support Service Delivery and Operations
For context: