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I currently live in New Zealand, and in a few weeks I'm going to be leaving to visit and travel in Europe for about a year.

I've got both British and New Zealand citizenship, and about a month ago renewed my British passport. The problem is that I needed to send my New Zealand passport along with my application—while my British passport has arrived, my New Zealand passport hasn't returned yet.

This puts me in an interesting situation, as I have no idea how long it will be until my New Zealand passport arrives in the post, but have a fixed date for departure. Do I actually need it to leave New Zealand, or will presenting my British one be enough?

I'm thinking about waiting a few days before my departure date, and if it still hasn't arrived, using the urgent passport service to get a passport—but if I don't have to spend the money I would prefer not to.

Once the passport arrives in New Zealand, I can get family members to courier it to me, so re-entry shouldn't be a problem.

Gagravarr
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user3500240
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1 Answers1

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Another dual-citizen Kiwi here. Our government actually has pages on this, and whilst it's fine for you to travel on either passport, it's best to enter NZ when you return on your NZ passport - otherwise you're not technically a resident, and would have to have a visa and so on.

The relevant links:

although the first one is really the one applicable to you.

Mark Mayo
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