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Purpose: To verify identity information provided by an application in support of their application for issuance, renewal, amendment, or cancellation of an Electronic Identity Credential (EIC), or to keep the core information contained in an EIC accurate and up to date.
Disclosures:
Births disclosure to IVS: Child’s names, gender, birth date and birth place and country, citizenship by birth status, marriage date, registration number, mother’s names, father’s names, since died indicator and still born indicator.
Deaths disclosure to IVS: Names, gender, date of birth, place of birth, date of death, place of death and age at death.
Marriages disclosure to IVS: Names, date of birth, date of marriage, registration number, country of birth, gender, place of marriage, spouse’s names.
Citizenship disclosure to IVS: Names, gender, birth date, birth place, photograph, citizenship person identifier, citizenship certificate number, certificate type and certificate status.
Passports disclosure to IVS: Names, gender, date of birth, place of birth, photograph, passport person identifier, passport number, date passport issued, date passport expired and passport status.
Immigration disclosure to IVS: Whether a match is found, client ID number and any of the pre-defined set of identity related alerts.
Compliance: Compliant.
| Information matching provision | Electronic Identity Verification Act 2012, s.39 |
| Year authorised | 2012 |
| Year commenced | 2013 |
| Programme type | Confirming eligibility |
| Online transfers | Yes |
System description
When people apply for electronic identity credentials the matches that occur depend on the information and documents they provide to establish their identity. Some checks are made during the online application process for people who apply using their passport or citizenship certificate. Checks of the birth, death, marriage, civil union, name change, passport or citizenship records may also be made by IVS staff, for any type of applicant.
Where applicants provide documentation issued by Hospitality New Zealand, or NZ Police, or NZTA, this information is sent to the appropriate agency for confirmation.
The checks are necessary to ensure that only one Electronic Identity Credential is issued based on any of the various identity records that an individual might use.
All activity on a record, including searches, creates an auditable ‘footprint’ that provides protections against inappropriate browsing of personal information and could also be used in any investigation into misuse of an electronic credential.
The matching programme was implemented in 2013. Prior to the set up of the matching programme, 1,729 EICs were issued in 2011/2012 based on existing online credentials and one of these EICs was also revoked that year.
| 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | |
| EIC applications | 242,838 | 217,370 | 180,511 | 233,585 | 382,355 |
| EIC applications abandoned | 66,462 | 70,575 | 46,658 | 62,296 | 120,152 |
| EICs issued | 149,777 | 127,763 | 86,067 | 98,611 | 163,684 |
| EICs cancelled | 100 | 241 | 104 | 115 | 194 |
| Number of challenges to discrepancies | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| INZ matching | 51,767 | 51,661 | 38,601 | 45,312 | 76,594 |
| HNZ matching | 1,114 | 1,137 | 821 | 946 | 1,054 |
| Police matching | 103 | 88 | 30 | 36 | 270 |
| NZTA matching | 21,943 | 21,929 | 16,696 | 20,778 | 38,568 |
| Number of Agencies allowing access using EICs | 17 | 16 | 16 | 18 | 19 |
| Use of EICs | 242,240 | 311,265 | 417,058 | 697,032 | 366,795 |
Matches to Births, Deaths, Marriages Citizenship and Passports are all called by the IVS system when an IVS application is processed. Applicant details are only sent to Immigration when the application is based on Immigration documents (to verify the application) or the applicant may hold immigration documents (to ensure the application is not a duplicate).
From April 2015 people could apply for an EIC along with their passport application.
During April 2020 3,660 applications were abandoned/ cancelled by applicant as AA stores were closed due to CoVid-19 level 4 lockdown and customers were unable to have their photo taken. Only CoApply and WPC applications were being received at this time.
The utility of this provision was assessed in a report Identity Verification Service Matching Programme (April 2018)
