300,000 passports renewed online in two years

Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne says more than 300,000 people have now renewed their passports online in the two years since the launch of adult passport renewals in November 2012.

“Online adult passport renewals are a part of a drive by the Government to change the way New Zealanders deal with government departments. The Passports Online Renewal Service is a great example of what we can achieve with successful IT projects,” says Mr Dunne.

The online passport renewal service has saved New Zealanders over $7 million in passport fees in two years. New Zealand is the first country to have online passport renewals. More than 70,300 New Zealanders overseas have renewed their passports online.

“People expect that it should be easy to deal with government departments for the services they need. The Government is delivering on this as part of our Better Public Services goals. We want 70 per cent of the most common transactions with government to be able to be done online by 2017. Online passport renewals are easy and weare on track to meet the 70% target of those eligible to renew their adult passport online.

“Our world class online passport service and the success of the Department of Internal Affairs and New Zealand Post verified RealMe account service with 30,000 users, illustrates why New Zealand has been invited to be a foundational member of a new international group of digital leaders - the ‘D5 group’. The D5 is a group of the most digitally advanced countries in the world. I am attending the inaugural D5 meeting in London next week,” says Mr Dunne.

The Passport Online Renewal Service is available for adults over the age of 16, who are renewing their passport at a cost of $124.50, $10 less than renewing an adult passport using a paper form. A full list of eligibility criteria can be found at www.passports.govt.nz.

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