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386A: Serving and giving notices, etc, to other people
or “How to properly deliver official notices and documents to people”
You could also call this:

“How to provide an address for official immigration communications”

When you need to provide an address for official immigration purposes, you have a few options. You can give your own physical address, whether it’s in New Zealand or another country. Or, you can use the address of a lawyer or someone else in New Zealand who you’ve asked to accept mail for you.

If the address you’ve given doesn’t work for sending you mail, and you’ve provided a postal address as a backup, that postal address will be used instead.

If you’re under 18 and not married or in a civil union, your address for service is different. It’s either the address of the person you’re listed as a dependent child for, or the address given by an adult who’s been chosen to look after your interests.

If you’re in custody or have to live at a certain address by law, your address for service is the postal address of where you’re staying.

You can change your address for service anytime by writing to an immigration officer, a refugee and protection officer, or the Tribunal.

If you gave an address before the Immigration Amendment Act 2015 came into effect, your New Zealand address is still used unless any of the special situations mentioned earlier apply.

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Next up: 387A: Contact address

or “How to choose and change your immigration contact address”
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Part 11 Miscellaneous provisions
Notice requirements and addresses for communications

387Address for service

  1. A person's address for service is, unless any of subsections (2) to (4) apply, either of the following provided by the person:

  2. the person's physical address (whether in or outside New Zealand):
    1. a physical address in New Zealand of a lawyer or other person who is acting as an agent for the person and is authorised by the person to accept service on his or her behalf.

      1. If the address provided by a person as his or her address for service is known not to be an address at which service can properly be effected, and if subsections (3) and (4) do not apply, the person's address for service is the person's contact address, if that address is a postal address.

      2. If a person is under 18 years of age and is not married or in a civil union, the person's address for service is,—

      3. if, in the notice or other document that is being sent, the person is named as a dependent child of another person, the address for service of that other person; or
        1. if a responsible adult has been determined or nominated under section 375 (or under section 141B of the former Act) to represent the person's interests, the address supplied by the responsible adult under section 375(7) (or under section 141B of the former Act).

          1. If a person is detained in custody or is required under an enactment to reside at a particular address, and if subsection (3) does not apply, the person's address for service is the postal address of the place where the person is detained or required to reside.

          2. A person who has provided an address for service may at any time substitute a different address for service by giving written notice of the new address to an immigration officer, a refugee and protection officer, or the Tribunal, as the case requires.

          3. Subsection (7) applies if the latest address provided by a person was provided before section 97 of the Immigration Amendment Act 2015 came into force.

          4. Despite subsection (1), the person's address for service is the person’s New Zealand address (within the meaning of the Act as in force before section 97 of the Immigration Amendment Act 2015 came into force), unless any of subsections (2) to (4) applies.

          Notes
          • Section 387: replaced, on , by section 97 of the Immigration Amendment Act 2015 (2015 No 48).