Passport prices will increase again on Thursday, the second of three planned hikes.
The price of an adult passport, which has to be renewed every 10 years, will jump from $199 to $206, while the price of a child passport, which has a five-year validity period, will rise from $115 to $120.
It's a result of the Government's decision last year to agree to passport increases of approximately 3.97 percent annually each year for three years.
Ministers agreed to three smaller increases rather than a significant one-off increase. The first increase came last year and the third will come next May.
After the three increases, the adult passport price will have risen from $191 to $215 and the child passport will have jumped from $111 to $125.
"Passports are important identity documents that enable Kiwis to travel overseas, do business and connect with their family and loved ones," said Justin Rowlands, Department of Internal Affairs general manager partners and products.
"The passport service is funded on a cost recovery basis; this means that passport fees cover the costs associated with passport and travel document production."
The amount received through passport fees took a significant hit when New Zealand's borders were closed during the pandemic.
In the 2021/22 year, there were 272,796 passport applications. This has jumped to 441,352 for the 2022/23 year, as of May 22.
This is still well down from the 730,000 in 2018/19. During COVID, in the 2020/21 year, there were just 150,000 applications.
Rowlands said that while demand for passports increased during 2022, the income loss from the previous years made the scheduled adjustments still necessary to keep the service running.
"Another reason for the fee increases is the change in the validity period of New Zealand passports from five to ten years, decided in 2015. This change means that costs need to be recovered from a smaller number of passports issued."
He said the fees last year as well as repayable capital injections from the Government covered the cost of passports being issued.
After Cabinet's decision last year, the Government said the passport costs remained in line with overseas counterparts.
