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New Zealand law explained for everyone

Immigration Act 2009

Miscellaneous provisions - Fees, bonds, levies, etc

398: Costs of deportation or repatriation

You could also call this:

“Who pays for sending someone out of New Zealand and helping their family”

The government can pay for sending someone out of New Zealand from a special bank account. If you’re sent away and have a partner or child here, the government might help them join you in your new country.

If the government pays to send you away, you have to pay them back. This includes the cost of finding you, keeping you safe, and your travel. The amount you owe can be the real cost or an estimate. If you pay too much, you can ask for the extra money back.

If the person sent away is under 18 and not married, their parent or guardian has to pay. Any money paid back goes into the government’s bank account.

The government can’t make you pay for the same thing twice. If a court says something different about the costs in section 355(6), that decision is followed instead of these rules.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM1441230.

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Immigration and citizenship > Border control
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Part 11 Miscellaneous provisions
Fees, bonds, levies, etc

398Costs of deportation or repatriation

  1. Subject to this section and to any order of a court under section 355(6), all costs incurred by the Crown in deporting or repatriating any person from New Zealand may be paid from a Crown Bank Account.

  2. Subsection (3) applies if—

  3. a person has been or is to be deported or repatriated from New Zealand; and
    1. that person has in New Zealand a spouse, civil union partner, de facto partner, or dependent child; and
      1. the Minister is satisfied that the effect of the deportation or repatriation has been or will be to separate the person from the spouse, partner, or dependent child.

        1. The Minister may provide the person or the person’s spouse or partner with such assistance as the Minister thinks fit for the purpose of reuniting the spouse, partner, or dependent child with the person in the country to which the person has been or is to be deported or repatriated, and any such assistance may include the grant of a sum out of a Crown Bank Account to meet all or part of the travelling or other costs that will be incurred in any such exercise.

        2. The costs incurred by the Crown in deporting or repatriating a person are recoverable as a debt due to the Crown, and those costs include (without limitation) costs incurred—

        3. in locating, detaining, transporting, and maintaining the person pending his or her deportation or repatriation; and
          1. in paying for travel for the person outside New Zealand.

            1. The costs recoverable by the Crown may be the actual costs (determined after the deportation or repatriation has been effected), or an estimate of those costs determined by,—

            2. in the case of deportation costs only, an immigration officer, in which case the estimate must be noted on the deportation order along with a statement requiring those costs to be paid; or
              1. in the case of either deportation costs or repatriation costs, a court of competent jurisdiction, on application by the Minister or an immigration officer.

                1. Where the estimated costs of deportation or repatriation are recovered from a person, if the amount recovered exceeds the actual costs of the deportation or repatriation, the excess must, on application by the person in the prescribed manner, be refunded to the person.

                2. If the person deported or repatriated is under 18 years of age and not married or in a civil union, the costs of his or her deportation or repatriation are recoverable from the person's parent or guardian.

                3. Any costs recovered under this section must be paid into a Crown Bank Account.

                4. Nothing in this section or in section 55, 118, or 355 authorises the Crown to recover any particular cost more than once.

                Compare
                Notes
                • Section 398(4): replaced, on , by section 101 of the Immigration Amendment Act 2015 (2015 No 48).
                • Section 398(5): replaced, on , by section 101 of the Immigration Amendment Act 2015 (2015 No 48).
                • Section 398(6): replaced, on , by section 101 of the Immigration Amendment Act 2015 (2015 No 48).
                • Section 398(6A): inserted, on , by section 101 of the Immigration Amendment Act 2015 (2015 No 48).