New Zealand Adoptions

Receiving Your Original Birth Certificate
You must be 20 years of age to receive your original birth certificate if you were adopted in New Zealand.

Adopted before 1 March 1986
For adoptions in this time period, the birth parents have the right to veto transmission of information about them to the birth child. These vetoes last 10 years and must be renewed. Additionally, adopted people from this time period who are living in New Zealand must receive their original birth certificate through an Adoption Counsellor.

Adopted on or after 1 March 1986
Birth parents have no right to veto for adoptions in this time period. Adopted people can directly receive their original birth certificate without seeing an Adoption Counsellor.

In either case, you can apply for an original birth certificate using the form at the top of this page of the New Zealand government website.

More information about anything to do with Adoption is available on

Receiving Other Documentation relating to an Adoption
Other documents and records (in addition to the original birth certificate) relating to your adoption kept by Oranga Tamariki/Ministry for Children can be retrieved by an adoption social worker. You must give them a copy of your original birth certificate.