Changing Your Name Between Australia and New Zealand

If you have identity documents, financial accounts or other records in both Australia and New Zealand, changing your name can be more complicated than dealing with records in just one country.

You do not automatically need to register your name change in both countries. Australia and New Zealand have separate identity systems, and the document accepted by one organisation may not necessarily be accepted by another.

Before deciding where to register your name change, consider:

• Where you were born
• Where you currently live
• Which passport or passports you hold
• Where you expect to live long term
• Which country holds most of the records you need to update

New Zealanders living in Australia

If you were born in New Zealand and now live in Australia, you may be eligible to register a legal name change with Births, Deaths and Marriages in the Australian state or territory where you live.

The eligibility and residency rules vary between states and territories. NSW, for example, currently requires overseas-born applicants to have lived continuously in NSW for the previous three years. Other states generally have shorter residency requirements.

You may also be eligible to register your name change in New Zealand. New Zealand allows adults to change their name if they were born in New Zealand, are a New Zealand citizen, or are entitled to live in New Zealand indefinitely.

This means some New Zealanders living in Australia may have more than one possible way to legally register their new name.

Will New Zealand accept an Australian name change?

For a New Zealand passport, yes.

If you legally change your name outside New Zealand, New Zealand Passports allows you to apply for a passport in your new name using the official document confirming your overseas name change.

If the document is not in English, additional translation requirements apply.

This means you do not automatically need to register the same name change again in New Zealand simply to update your New Zealand passport.

Other New Zealand government agencies, banks and private organisations may have their own requirements, so check with organisations individually if you hold significant records in New Zealand.

What if I changed my surname after marriage?

Marriage name changes are different from registering an entirely new legal name.

If you were married in Australia and are taking your spouse’s surname, you generally do not need to register a separate legal name change in Australia. Your official Australian marriage certificate is normally used as evidence of your new surname.

New Zealand also generally allows someone to use their spouse or partner’s surname following marriage or civil union without separately registering a legal name change.

If you hold records in both countries, check what evidence each important organisation requires rather than assuming the same document will be accepted everywhere.

Australians living in New Zealand

If you are an Australian citizen living in New Zealand, check the Australian Passport Office requirements before deciding where to register your legal name change.

Australian passports are generally issued in your most recently registered Australian name, supported by documents such as an Australian birth certificate, citizenship certificate or Births, Deaths and Marriages name change certificate.

This means that registering a legal name change in New Zealand does not necessarily mean that the New Zealand document alone will be enough to change the name on your Australian passport.

There are different rules for some Australians who were born or live overseas, so check the Australian Passport Office requirements that apply to your circumstances before registering your name change.

Can Australians register a name change in New Zealand?

Some can.

New Zealand allows a person aged 18 or over to register a name change if they:

• Were born in New Zealand
• Are a New Zealand citizen
• Are entitled to live in New Zealand indefinitely

Australian citizens are generally able to live in New Zealand indefinitely, although your individual immigration status should still be checked before relying on this eligibility.

If you were born outside New Zealand, you may also need to provide evidence of your birth and your citizenship or residence status.

Being eligible to register your name change in New Zealand does not necessarily mean it is the most practical option. Consider which passports and records you ultimately need to update before applying.

Will every organisation accept the same name change certificate?

No.

Passport offices, government departments, banks, superannuation funds, share registries, insurers and private businesses can all have their own requirements for proving a change of name.

A document accepted to update your New Zealand passport may not necessarily satisfy an Australian bank, superannuation fund or government agency, and vice versa.

If an organisation does not accept the document you have, ask what additional evidence it requires to establish the connection between your previous and new names.

Do not assume that you need to close and reopen an account simply because your first name change request is rejected. This can be particularly impractical for banking, investments, superannuation and other longstanding financial accounts.

Do I need to register my name change in both countries?

Often, no.

You may be able to register your name change in one country and then use that official evidence to update many of your records in both Australia and New Zealand.

For example, New Zealand Passports expressly accepts official evidence of a name change registered outside New Zealand.

However, individual organisations can set their own evidence requirements, so there may be circumstances where additional documents or another process are required.

If you have important identity, financial or government records in both countries, check the requirements of those organisations before deciding whether a second registration is necessary.

Where should I register my name change?

There is no single answer that works for everyone.

Consider:

• Which country you currently live in
• Where you expect to live in the foreseeable future
• Which passport you primarily use
• Where most of your government and financial records are held
• Whether you are eligible to register a name change in both countries

If most of the identity and financial records you need to update are in one country, it may be practical to investigate that country’s name change process first.

Before applying, check whether the resulting name change document will also be accepted for your passport and any important records you hold in the other country.

Easy Name Change cannot provide legal or immigration advice about which country you should register your name change in.

Can Easy Name Change help with my Australian records?

Yes.

Once you have the appropriate evidence of your new name, Easy Name Change can help you update the Australian organisations that accept that documentation.

Instead of researching each organisation’s name change procedure individually, your personalised Easy Name Change kit provides the relevant instructions, forms, letters and emails for the Australian organisations you select.

Easy Name Change has been helping people through name changes since 2008 and has helped more than one million people worldwide.

If you also have records in New Zealand, you will need to update those organisations separately according to their own requirements.