Photo: RNZ / Yiting Lin
Immigration New Zealand has tightened screening measures related to visa applications requiring police certificates from Indian nationals.
From 1 December, Immigration New Zealand will only accept police clearance certificates issued by a regional passport office of India's Ministry of External Affairs when required in applications from individuals who reside in India.
Until now, visa applicants have been allowed to provide police clearance certificates from an office of the deputy commissioner or superintendent of police, or from their local police station.
However, Immigration NZ said such certificates were difficult to authenticate due to format inconsistency.
"To ensure that the police clearance certificates we receive are more consistent, only police clearance certificates issued by the regional passport office of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs will be accepted as meeting the immigration requirements," Immigration New Zealand said in a statement.
Requirements for Indian nationals living outside India and for non-Indian nationals who currently or have previously resided in India have not changed.
Immigration New Zealand typically asks applicants to provide a police clearance certificate as evidence of good character when applying for certain visas depending on the desired duration of stay.
"If you are from India and submitting a police clearance certificate application from 1 December 2025, remember to check you are meeting the new requirement," Immigration New Zealand said.
"It takes time to gather the documents for a visa application, so make sure you leave enough time to request your police clearance certificate."
