Surge in 10-year passport applications expected
A surge of applications is expected from New Zealanders wanting new 10-year passports which become available from Monday.
Since 2005 New Zealanders have been issued five-year passports, but in May the Government announced passports would return to being valid for 10 years.
From Monday New Zealanders aged 16 years and older can apply for the new passport at a cost of $180 - $40 more than a five-year version.
Children's passports remain at five years due to the rate at which their appearance changes.
Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne said many people wanting to renew their five-year passports would have been holding off until November 30 to apply for a 10 year passport.
"There has been a lull over the past few weeks in applications," Dunne said.
"I'm expecting there to be quite a surge from next week."
The Department of Internal Affairs had assured him that new passports would be issued within 10 working days.
"Hopefully we will be able to deliver a quality service and turn those around as quickly as we can."
No extra staff were hired by to cope with the expected influx because the Department of Internal Affairs was confident it could cope with existing resources, he said.
"If we are embarrassed on that score then obviously we'll look at that position again."
While the 10-year passports were more expensive than the current version they worked out cheaper per year of validity, he said.
House of Travel commercial director Brent Thomas said 10-year passports would be well received by New Zealanders.
"It's something the public has been asking for some time," Thomas said.
Applying for a passport could be a time consuming process due to getting the paper work in order and making sure identification photos were suitable, he said.
"Sometimes there's a bit of toing and froing so doing that once every 10-years is going to be better than once every five."
With 10-year passports about half as many people would get caught out trying to leave for an overseas holiday only to find their passport was invalid, he said.
People who had already applied for a five-year passport could not upgrade their application to 10-year validity.
The Department of Internal Affairs said on its website the timeframe was tight for people needing a 10-year passport before Christmas.
"We are expecting a high number of 10-year passport applications in early December and postal services are busy, so it's best to allow plenty of time if you have Christmas travel plans."
The new passport validity period brings New Zealand passports in line with the United States, British, French, Dutch, German and Australian passports.
Written by John Anthony. First appeared on Stuff.co.nz.