Guidelines - Place and country of birth scenarios for citizenship
Home > Citizenship > Citizenship by grant > Guidelines - Common place and country of birth
scenarios for citizenship
In this article:
Record the smallest acceptable place as the place of birth
In-progress citizenship applications (on 8 December 2025)
Use standard English spelling
Current and historical place and country names
Hospital only listed on birth document
Place names that end in ‘City’
Place of registration
Unable to confirm acceptable place of birth
Refugee applicants
Requests for an unacceptable place of birth
Country-specific advice and exceptions
Previous place of birth policy
under the Official Information Act 1982
When to use | Mō āhea whakamahi
Before using these guidelines, ensure you have read and understood the place of birth policy. Policy
— Place and country of birth for citizenship
These guidelines have been developed to help you with some common place and country of birth
scenarios. The aim is to record the smallest acceptable ‘place’ listed on the applicant’s birth
Released
certificate as the applicant’s place of birth.
These guidelines are not meant to be a complete list of everything you might encounter. Country Book
and Google are also good sources of information.
Professional judgment may be used but your decision should not go against the place of birth policy.
Discuss with your peer network if you need further support.
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Roles | Mā wai
Act
Life and Identity Services O icer (CBG trained)
Guidelines | Ngā aratohu
Information
Record the smallest acceptable place as the place of birth
Record the smallest acceptable ‘place’ that appears on the birth certificate.
Official
The table below gives some examples of how place of birth might be recorded on a birth certificate.
the
If birth document records….
then….
suburb, city, district and province
record the suburb
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province only
record the province
district only
record the district
check passport for an acceptable place.
state only
If not, contact the customer for a place that
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is. LISO to check that the POB the applicant
confirms is in that State.
See: ‘country-specific advice and exceptions.
If not, check passport for an acceptable place.
country only
If not, contact the customer for a place that is
acceptable. LISO to check that the POB is in
that country.
1982
hospital only
See: ‘hospital only listed on birth document’.
Act
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In-progress citizenship applications (on 8 December 2025)
Applications in progress (currently with a LISO) as at 8 December 2025, including applications not yet
approved must use the previous place of birth policy. See: ‘Previous place of birth policy’.
Information
Note: the old and new Place of birth policies cannot be combined.
If an applicant disagrees with the place of birth recorded see ‘Requests for an unacceptable place of
birth’ below for further instructions.
When assessing an in-progress application you must add a note into the ‘Biodata matches supporting
Official
documents’ task indicating which policy was applied. This will assist the validator and anyone else
looking at the application in determining if the correct policy was applied. See: Procedure – Biodata
the
matches supporting documents
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under
Use standard English spelling
Place names can include hyphens and apostrophes but must not include brackets or accents. This is
in line with passports’ policy.
If a place name cannot be found in Google Maps, or other reliable sources of information such as
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MapQuest, Mapcarta or a website from the country’s local government authority, the spelling of the
place of birth should be (in order of preference) the spelling:
1. in the birth document
2. in the passport
3. used by the applicant.
If the birth certificate is not in English, use the spelling from the translated certificate.
If the applicant does not agree with the spelling on the translated birth certificate, it is their
responsibility to have the translation redone and to provide the updated translation.
For more information, see: Guidelines - Determining place name spellings for citizenship purposes
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Current and historical place and country names
The names of some places and countries may have changed during the lifetime of an applicant.
The applicant may have either:
the current name, or
the historical name (if the name was in use at the time of the applicant's birth and is consistent
with the documents provided).
When checking current and historical names of places and countries:
current place names should be matched with current country names, and
historical place names matched with historical country names.
For example:
Saigon with South Vietnam and Ho Chi Min City with Vietnam
under the Official Information Act 1982
Salisbury with Southern Rhodesia and Harare with Zimbabwe.
The applicant cannot have a mix of the two, for example: Salisbury, Zimbabwe.
Note: Applicants may use di erent but equivalent country names. For example:
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England: United Kingdom or Great Britain
Russia: Russia or Russian Federation
Record the country of birth exactly as the applicant has entered it on the application form
If you are not familiar with the place or country name, see: Guidelines: Current and historical names
of countries and territories.
You can also discuss with your peer network or use Google maps or a reliable alternative such as
1982
MapQuest or Mapcarta if you are unsure.
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Act
Hospital only listed on birth document
Google the hospital to find its location. For example, if the hospital is located in a city, you should
record the city. If you cannot find where the hospital is located or establish an acceptable place to
record, check the passport for an acceptable place. If neither record an acceptable place, then
contact the customer for one that is.
Information
If the applicant was born in ‘Samoa’ and a hospital is recorded as their place of birth, see: ‘Samoa’ in
‘country-specific advice and exceptions’ below for further information on hospital locations.
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Official
Place names that end in ‘City’
the
Some place names end with the word ‘City’ as an integral part of the name. If ‘City’ is an integral part
of the name, it must be recorded on the citizenship record.
under
Note: Integral means that the place of birth would not be recognisable without ‘City’.
Some examples of this are:
Ho Chi Minh City
Kuwait City
Panama City
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Mexico City
Other places may use the ending ‘City’ but not as an integral part of the name. This is common in the
Philippines and Taiwan.
If you are unsure whether or not you should record ‘City’ as part of the place of birth, you should
discuss with your peer network or use Google maps or a reliable alternative such as MapQuest or
Mapcarta.
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1982
Place of registration
Act
Generally, the place of registration will be the same as the place of birth.
Birth certificates from the UK may record a di erent place of registration from the place of birth. You
should record the place of birth and not the place of registration.
Birth certificates from some countries (such as Chile, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland) will state a
place of registration or residency, rather than a place of birth. In these cases, the place of birth should
Information
be recorded as per the place of registration or residency on the certificate.
If the applicant does not want their place of registration or residency recorded, they must have
supporting evidence of their exact place of birth.
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Official
the
Unable to confirm acceptable place of birth
If the applicant has lost their birth document and has di iculty obtaining another copy from their
home country, and their passport does not record a place of birth, you must ask if they have another
under
document that does.
See section ‘Documents not provided’ in Policy - Documents required for citizenship applications for
further instructions.
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Refugee applicants
If the applicant is a refugee, they often will not have a birth document but usually have a Certificate of
Identity (COI) issued to them by Immigration New Zealand which records their country of birth.
You should not insist that a refugee obtain a document from their country of birth, but it is
appropriate, however, to ask the applicant in the first instance if a birth document or another
document which records a place of birth, is in their possession. Their response should be in writing.
Some refugees may have a Refugee Travel Document (RTD), issued by Internal A airs, which records
a place of birth. You can accept this provided it is acceptable and aligns with their country of birth.
If the applicant does not have a document which records their place of birth, you may accept what
the applicant has requested, provided it is within the country of birth recorded on their COI and is an
acceptable place.
If an applicant was born in a refugee camp, you may need to use Google Maps or other reliable
sources of information such as MapQuest, Mapcarta, or a website from that country’s government or
the UNHCR to determine where the refugee camp is located when deciding what place of birth is to
be recorded.
If the camp is not located in the country recorded on the COI, you will need to contact the applicant
for an explanation.
Make a clear note about your decision to record the place of birth, and upload a link, screenshot of
the map or other source material as evidence to support your decision.
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Requests for an unacceptable place of birth
Where an applicant disagrees with, or questions their place of birth, send CBG – Applicant disagrees
under the Official Information Act 1982
with place of birth recorded template to the applicant.
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Country-specific advice and exceptions
Includes:
Gibraltar
Hong Kong
Korea
Macao
1982
Monaco
New Zealand
Act
Samoa
Singapore
United Kingdom
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Information
Gibraltar
Gibraltar must be entered in both the place and country of birth fields in CCMS.
Official
The citizenship certificate will print with just ‘born in Gibraltar’.
For citizenship by descent applications processed in DCS only the country is entered.
the
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Hong Kong
under
See quick reference table below for applicants who were born in Hong Kong.
When born
Place of birth Country of birth
Print on certificate
Born before 1 July 1997
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
(two options - applicant's
Released Hong Kong
choice)
China
Hong Kong SAR, China
SAR
Born on or after 1 July
1997
Hong Kong
China
Hong Kong SAR, China
SAR
must be recorded as
Note: Brackets must not be used, do not record Hong Kong (SAR)
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If an applicant was born in Hong Kong before 1 July 1997, they can choose either: Act
Born in Hong Kong, or
Born in Hong Kong SAR, China.
Follow the steps below if an applicant was born in Hong Kong before 1 July 1997:
1. Ask the applicant for their preference
2. Use this email template to send to the applicant Email templates for recording Hong Kong
and Macao on citizenship certificates.docx
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3. Update CCMS with their preference – note Hong Kong may appear at the bottom of the
country drop down list.
4. Send 'LET185 – Biodata' (If preference is Hong Kong ensure the letter says, ‘born in Hong
Kong,’ not ‘born in Hong Kong, Hong Kong’).
Official
If an applicant was born in Hong Kong after 1 July 1997, they must have:
the
Born in Hong Kong SAR, China.
Follow these steps if an applicant was born in Hong Kong after 1 July 1997 and has requested just
‘Hong Kong’.
under
1. Update CCMS to ‘Hong Kong SAR’ as the place of birth and ‘China’ as the country of birth.
2. Let the applicant know that their place and country of birth will be recorded as Hong Kong
SAR, China . You can do this with a paragraph at the beginning of the LET185 and/or a phone
call. See: Email templates for recording Hong Kong and Macao on citizenship
certificates.docx
3. Send Let 185 – biodata letter.
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Previous policy for Hong Kong
Previous CCMS system constraints meant that applicants born in Hong Kong before the
territory was handed back to China could only have their country of birth recorded as Hong
Kong (SAR) or China.
Changes to CCMS country tables on the 5 April 2024 meant that Hong Kong was now available
for use as a valid country of birth and Hong Kong (SAR) was no longer available for customers
to select as a valid country of birth when lodging their CCMS application.
Hong Kong SAR can only be used as a place of birth. The decision to record this place of birth
was confirmed with MFAT.
Note: Those applicants, born before the handovers, who received their certificates prior to the CCMS
update can request their certificate is reissued with Hong Kong as the country of birth.
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Korea
Korea often records place names followed by a su ix. The su ixes should not be included.
For example, Yeoksam-dong should be recorded as Yeoksam.
Check the Country Book for more specific information on the use and meaning of these su ixes.
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Macao
See quick reference table below for applicants who were born in Macao.
Place of
Country of
Print on
under the Official Information Act 1982
When born
birth
birth
certificate
Macao
Macao
Macao
Born before 20 December 1999(two options -
applicant’s choice)
Macao SAR,
Macao SAR China
China
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Born on or after 20 December 1999 must be
Macao SAR,
Macao SAR China
recorded as
China
Note: brackets must not be used, for example, do not record Macao (SAR).
If an applicant was born in Macao before 20 December 1999, they can choose either:
Born in Macao, or
Born in Macao SAR, China
Follow these steps below if an applicant was born in Macao before 20 December 1999:
1. Ask the applicant for their preference
2. Use this email template to send to the applicant Email templates for recording Hong Kong
and Macao on citizenship certificates.docx
3. Update CCMS with their preference – note Macao may appear at the bottom of the country
drop down list.
Send ‘LET185 – Biodata’ (If preference is Macao ensure the letter says, ‘born in Macao,’ not ‘born in
Macao, Macao’).
If an applicant was born in Macao after 20 December 1999, they must have:
Born in Macao SAR, China
Follow these steps if an applicant was born in Macao after 20 December 1999 and has requested
just ‘Macao’.
1. Update CCMS to ‘Macao SAR’ as the place of birth and ‘China’ as the country of birth.
under the Official Information Act 1982
2. Let the applicant know by using this template Email templates for recording Hong Kong and
Macao on citizenship certificates.docx that their place and country of birth will be recorded as
Macao SAR, China. You can do this with a paragraph at the beginning of the LET185 and/or a
phone call.
3. Send ‘LET185 – Biodata’
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Previous Policy for Macao
Previous CCMS system constraints meant that applicants born in Macao before the territory was
handed back to China could only have their country of birth recorded as Macao (SAR) or China.
Changes to CCMS country tables on the 5 April 2024 mean that Macao is now available for use as a
valid country of birth and Macao (SAR) is no longer available for customers to select as a valid country
of birth when lodging their CCMS application.
Macao SAR can only be used as a place of birth. The decision to record this place of birth was 1982
confirmed with MFAT.
Note: Those applicants, born before the handovers, who received their certificates prior to the CCMS
Act
update can request their certificate is reissued with Macao as the country of birth.
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Monaco
Monaco must be entered in both the place and country of birth fields in CCMS.
Information
The citizenship certificate will print with just 'born in Monaco'.
For citizenship by descent applications processed in DCS only the country is entered.
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Official
New Zealand
the
If an applicant is born in New Zealand, follow the general policy: Policy — Place and country of birth
for citizenship
under
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Samoa
Western Samoa o icially changed its name to Samoa, e ective 4 July 1997.
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The first-place name given on a Samoan birth certificate should be recorded for citizenship
purposes, for example, if the place of birth is listed on the birth certificate as X Y, the place of birth
should be recorded as X.
If there is a discrepancy between documents regarding the applicant’s place of birth, the discrepancy
needs to be queried with the applicant.
Use the following places of birth if the hospital is recorded:
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Hospital
City/Town/Village
Act
Afega Hospital
Afega
Foalalo Hospital
Foalalo
Foaluga Hospital
Foaluga
Fusi Hospital
Fusi
Information
Lalomanu Hospital
Lalomanu
LBJ TMC Hospital (American Samoa)
Faga'alu (American Samoa)
Official
Leulumoega Hospital
Leulumoega
the
Lufilufi Hospital
Lufilufi
Medcen Hospital
Vailima
under
Motootua or Apia
Motootua Hospital or Tupua Tamasese
Meaole Hospital (TTM)
Note: Do not add the apostrophe sometimes included
on older birth certificates
Poutasi Hospital
Poutasi
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Safotu Hospital
Safotu
Siufaga Hospital
Siufaga
Tuasivi Hospital or Malietoa Tanumafili II
Tuasivi
Hospital
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1982
Singapore
Act
Singapore must be entered in both the place and country of birth fields.
The citizenship certificate will print with just ‘born in Singapore’.
For citizenship by descent applications processed in DCS only the country is entered.
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Information
United Kingdom
Some UK documents will contain places with both short and long versions of a name referring to the
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same place.
For example, Kingston and Kingston upon Thames and Kingston-upon-Thames are all the same place
the
and are used interchangeably.
Record the place of birth as it appears on their birth certificate.
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under
Previous place of birth policy
Previous policy for determining the place of birth to be recorded for citizenship was for consideration
to be given to:
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The applicant’s preference, as stated on their application
The preference being recorded in either the applicant’s birth certificate or passport, and
The preference meeting the criteria of either a city, town, village or suburb.
This was to ensure that the place of birth recorded for citizenship aligned with passport policy and
ICAO standards (which require the place of birth recorded in a passport to be represented by the
village, town or suburb).
This was updated on 8 December 2025 for the applicant’s birth certificate or an equivalent document
to primarily be used to determine the place of birth to be recorded for either a citizenship certificate
or New Zealand passport. Overseas birth documents generally will record a more specific place of
birth than an overseas passport.
Note: This policy cannot be applied retrospectively. When assessing an applicant’s request to amend
their place of birth, LISOs must apply previous policy to determine whether an error was made at the
time of application.
See: Policy - Request to amend citizenship certificate details
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Related pages
Policy – Place and country of birth for citizenship
Policy - Documents required for citizenship applications
Policy - Birthplace details to be displayed in a passport
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under the Official Information Act 1982
Get help or give feedback
To get help, report an error or give feedback, go to Contacting a support team
Last updated 23 December 2025
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