This privacy statement will explain how the New Zealand Border Agencies will collect, access, and use the personal information provided through the New Zealand Traveller Declaration (NZTD) online and paper forms (the NZTD declaration) to manage the lawful entry of a traveller and their belongings safely and securely into New Zealand.
This statement applies to those individuals who have submitted a declaration using either the NZTD online form or the NZTD paper form available upon arrival in New Zealand.
This statement uses ‘you’ and ‘your’ to refer to the person travelling to New Zealand whose personal information is included in the NZTD declaration.
What is privacy
Privacy is the right to have your personal information used and managed fairly and transparently.
Personal information is defined in the Privacy Act 2020 (the Act) as “information about an identifiable individual”. All of the information collected through the NZTD declaration is considered personal information.
Privacy Act 2020 – New Zealand Legislation
The Act establishes the rules for how personal information must be managed by agencies through the 13 Information Privacy Principles (IPPs). This privacy statement describes how the New Zealand Border Agencies comply with the IPPs, and other legislation that these agencies are subject to where it overrides or changes how the Act applies.
Who is collecting your personal information and under what authority
Each New Zealand Border Agency will collect, use, and disclose your personal information in accordance with their statutory powers and the requirements of the Act. The New Zealand Border Agencies are:
New Zealand Customs Service (NZCS) Te Mana Ārai o Aotearoa
NZCS is responsible for the security of the New Zealand border and the collection of revenue on taxable goods crossing the border.
The Customs and Excise Act 2018 establishes NZCS and its roles and responsibilities. NZCS’ questions in the NZTD online and paper forms are a legal document for the purposes of the Customs (Arriving Passenger and Crew Declarations) Rules 2018. These rules set out the prescribed information travellers arriving in New Zealand must provide for their personal baggage or other effects to be deemed entered under section 75(1) of the Customs and Excise Act.
Customs and Excise Act 2018 – New Zealand Legislation
Immigration New Zealand (INZ) Te Ratonga Manene, a part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) Hīkina Whakatutuki
INZ administers the Immigration Act 2009 and is responsible for the granting of visas, of permission to enter New Zealand, and for confirming the right to reside in New Zealand.
Immigration Act 2009 – New Zealand Legislation
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) Manatū Ahu Matua
MPI administers the Biosecurity Act 1993 and is responsible for managing biosecurity risks and keeping harmful organisms out of New Zealand.
Biosecurity Act 1993 – New Zealand Legislation
How your personal information will be managed
The purposes of collecting personal information through the NZTD declaration are to:
- validate the identity of a traveller;
- conduct risk assessments and analysis of the information provided upon the travellers arrival in New Zealand;
- facilitate lawful entry of an individual and their belongings into New Zealand;
- administer the Immigration Act 2009, including decision-making relating to a grant, revocation and/or cancellation of a visa or entry permission;
- evaluate and manage any duty owed on incoming goods;
- evaluate and manage any biosecurity risks presented by incoming persons and goods; and
- test and improve the operation of NZTD systems and related processes.
For information collected through the NZTD online form the following additional purposes apply:
- to provide the traveller with targeted information about how they can expect to proceed into New Zealand upon arrival based upon their responses;
- to provide the traveller with direct information about their declaration, when requested by the traveller through correspondence and phone calls with contact centre operators;
- to confirm whether the traveller is eligible to travel to, and/or enter, New Zealand; and
- to conduct risk assessments and analysis of the information provided in advance of the traveller’s arrival in New Zealand.
Find a full list of the questions asked in the NZTD declaration and which agency is able to collect and use the information you provide:
Border agencies collecting information
If you are making a declaration using the NZTD online form all of the information included in your declaration will be accessible to Immigration contact centre operators if you request support with your declaration. Contact centre operators are unable to amend or delete declaration information or to make a declaration submission on behalf of a traveller.
Sharing information with other agencies
Statistics New Zealand Tatauranga Aotearoa
Under section 26 of the Data and Statistics Act 2022, NZCS is making a mandatory request for data from you via the NZTD declaration on behalf of Statistics New Zealand. The data to which this request relates includes:
- If you live in New Zealand:
- What country you spent the most time in while overseas
- The main reason for your trip overseas
- Which country you will mostly live in for the next 12 months;
- If you do not live in New Zealand:
- Whether you intend to stay in New Zealand permanently (and if so, for how long)
- Your main reason for coming to New Zealand
- In which country you last lived for 12 months or more.
The information you provide contributes to important international travel and migration statistics for New Zealand. This is why you have a legal obligation to answer all questions as requested. It is an offence to fail or refuse to respond. For more information, call 0800 809 464 or visit the Statistics New Zealand website.
Ministry of Health Manatū Hauora and Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora
Under Parts 3 and 4 of the Health Act 1956 the Ministry of Health and Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (together Health) are authorised to monitor and manage incoming health threats such as infectious diseases and exposures to hazardous materials.
To support the monitoring of such risks at the New Zealand border NZCS shares the following information for every arriving traveller with Health:
- Date, time, and port of arrival into New Zealand;
- Date, time, and port of departure;
- Occupation;
- List of the countries you have been to outside of New Zealand in the last 30 days;
- If you live in New Zealand:
- What country you spent the most time in while overseas;
- If you do not live in New Zealand:
- In which country you last lived for 12 months or more;
- If you arrive in New Zealand by air, NZCS will also share your Flight number.
Sharing this information assists Health to monitor potential health threats and to target contact tracing efforts towards individuals who may have been exposed to a health threat during their transit to New Zealand. For more information, call 0800 400 569 or visit the Health website.
Information collected through the NZTD declaration may be shared with other agencies to administer health, wildlife, police, fine enforcement, justice, benefits, social service, electoral, inland revenue, and currency laws. Information may be shared under exceptions in the Privacy Act, including for the purposes of law enforcement or to address a threat to public health or public safety.
Retention and disposal of your information
The NZTD systems are managed and operated on behalf of the Border Agencies by NZCS and MBIE, who are responsible for the security of the information held in these systems. These systems are hosted in New Zealand and in Australia. Under certain limited circumstances (e.g. providing services, maintenance, support, troubleshooting requests, and/or business continuity purposes), information may be stored or accessed by authorised service providers in countries outside New Zealand and Australia.
Information collected through the NZTD paper form will be digitised after your arrival and retained in digital format. Information collected through both the NZTD online and paper forms will be retained in a non-identifiable format for system performance and reporting purposes.
Information arising from interactions with Border Agencies upon arrival in New Zealand will be retained by the appropriate Border Agency and may include information submitted through the NZTD declaration. Information will be retained and disposed of in accordance with each Border Agency’s obligations under the Public Records Act 2005.
Additional information for if you are arriving in New Zealand on a maritime vessel
If you arrive in New Zealand by sea and have not completed the NZTD declaration using the online form prior to your arrival, border officials may provide you with a secure device which you may use to complete your NZTD declaration. Paper forms are also available.
You will not be able to amend your NZTD declaration using the NZTD online form once your declaration has been seen by a border official for the first time. You may still inform a border official of any subsequent changes to the information you declared, which the border official will be able to record.
If you do not permanently disembark from your maritime vessel during your time in New Zealand, you will still need to complete a declaration, but some questions in the declaration will not be asked or may be voluntary.
Those traveller’s arriving in New Zealand as crew members of a maritime vessel may meet their obligations to NZCS by completing a NZTD digital declaration or by completing the paper forms which will still be available.
Completing a declaration on behalf of another person
A person may complete a declaration for another person who is travelling to New Zealand. It is the responsibility of the person completing the declaration on behalf of a traveller to obtain the consent of the traveller before doing so. It is the responsibility of both the person completing the declaration and the traveller to ensure the information provided in the declaration is correct and accurate.
When completing a declaration on behalf of another traveller, the name and contact information of the person completing the declaration will be collected and may be used as described in this statement. A copy of the declaration, including the details of the person who completed it, will be available to the traveller.
Your access to your information
If you have completed a declaration using the NZTD online form, you may access and amend your declaration at any time before you arrive in New Zealand and present your passport to a border official or an eGate system. If you complete an NZTD paper form this will be collected from you before you leave your port of arrival.
Should you wish to access your personal information submitted in your declaration after this time you may contact NZCS using the details below.
Under the Act you are entitled to request access to any information an agency holds about you, and to request correction of this information if you believe it to be incorrect. You may do this by contacting the relevant agency directly using the details below. You may be asked to provide proof of your identity when you do so.
Contacting Border Agencies
You can contact NZCS to request access to or correction of any of your information held by NZCS using the details found on their website:
Privacy – New Zealand Customs
You can contact INZ to request access to or correction of any of your information held by INZ using the details found on their website:
Request or change your personal information – Immigration New Zealand
You can contact the MPI to request access to or correction of any of your information held by MPI using the details found on their website:
Access rights to information about you – Ministry for Primary Industries