Dear Department of Internal Affairs,

I have a few questions regarding how city (or town) of birth is assessed and recorded for New Zealand passport applications, particularly for applicants born outside New Zealand.

1. Guidelines for assessing city (town) of birth

Can you share any guidelines or internal instructions used when assessing an applicant’s city (or town) of birth for New Zealand passport applications, particularly for overseas births?

2. Historical city name changes

If available, can the Department share any reference material or lists used to account for historical city name changes, including changes due to regime change, renaming, or administrative restructuring?

For example:
- Bombay → Mumbai
- Nanking → Nanjing
- Saigon → Ho Chi Minh City

3. Birth city no longer exists

How does the Department handle cases where the applicant’s birth city no longer exists, for example where it has been merged into another city or administrative area?

4. Birth city name has changed (use of historical vs current names)

How does the Department handle cases where the applicant’s birth city has changed name since the time of birth?

In particular:

- Is the city of birth recorded in the passport required to use the current official name, or can a historical name also be used?
- Does the applicant have any discretion in choosing which name is recorded, where both the historical and current names clearly refer to the same city?

For example:
- If an applicant’s birth certificate records the place of birth as Bombay, can the applicant choose to have either Bombay or Mumbai recorded as the city of birth in their New Zealand passport?
- Conversely, if an applicant was born in Ho Chi Minh City, can the applicant choose to have Saigon recorded as the city of birth?

Yours faithfully,

David Singh