Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

 Plain Language Law homepage
Back to
387: Address for service
or “How to provide an address for official immigration communications”
You could also call this:

“How to choose and change your immigration contact address”

Your contact address is the address you choose for people to contact you about immigration matters. You can pick a postal address, an email address, or the address of someone acting for you, like a lawyer.

If the address you’ve chosen isn’t working, immigration officials will try to use another address they think will reach you. This could be another address you’ve given or one they’ve found out about.

If you’re under 18 and not married, your contact address is usually your parent’s address or the address of 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, that becomes your contact address.

When you give an email address as your contact address, you’re saying it’s okay for officials to send you important documents there.

You can change your contact address anytime by telling an immigration officer, a refugee and protection officer, or the Tribunal in writing.

If you gave your address before the law changed in 2015, your contact address is the New Zealand address you gave then, unless other rules apply.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

Next up: 387B: Departures from sections 386A to 387A

or “Exceptions to the standard rules for sending notices and documents”
Next

Part 11 Miscellaneous provisions
Notice requirements and addresses for communications

387AContact address

  1. A person's contact address is whichever of the following addresses the person has designated as his or her contact address, unless any of subsections (2) to (4) applies:

  2. the person's postal address:
    1. an electronic address for the person:
      1. the postal address or electronic address of a lawyer or other person who is acting as an agent for the person.

        1. If a person's designated contact address is known not to be an address at which the person can be contacted, and if subsections (3) and (4) do not apply, the person's contact address is whichever of the following addresses is considered most likely to be the address at which the person can be contacted:

        2. any other address referred to in subsection (1) that has been provided by the person:
          1. any address for the person that is obtained, after this section comes into force, as a result of the exercise by an immigration officer or constable of any of the powers under section 274, 276, 277, 278, or 280.

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

            2. if, in the notice or other document that is being sent, the person is named as a dependent child of another person, the contact address 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 contact address is the postal address of the place where the person is detained or required to reside.

                2. If a person's contact address is an electronic address, the person is deemed to have consented to receive at that address all notices or other documents required to be supplied, notified, or in any other way given to the person, but only if the person provides the address after this section comes into force.

                3. A person who has designated an address as a contact address may at any time substitute a different contact address by written notice to an immigration officer, a refugee and protection officer, or the Tribunal, as the case requires.

                4. Subsection (8) applies if the latest address provided by a person was provided before section 97 of the Immigration Amendment Act 2015 came into force.

                5. Despite subsection (1), the person's contact address 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 387A: inserted, on , by section 97 of the Immigration Amendment Act 2015 (2015 No 48).