[Carey]

We're hoping we can take our original documents away with us after taking everything in by hand to NZ House soon, but knowing that we leave our passports there, how do we get them back. Another trip to London is not really feasible, so can we include a pre-paid recorded delivery envelope?

What did you do?

[catt]

If you plan to use your passports soon i would take in photocopies verified by a solicitor saves on the worry of not having them for a quick trip to the continent if you want to.:nice1

[Georgebulldog]

OH took all our stuff in & I was expecting it all back the same day but didn't get it, it does say somewhere you can pay for special delivery, we didn't as too rushed at the time but it came back & had to be signed for, not sure if this is the norm though

[nickydwuk]

I left mine there too. Was told it all documents will be returned by special courier including passports. Just waiting for visa's to be added to passports then hope to get them all back.

[Carey]

But did you provide a sef addressed pre-paid registered or courier pack with your application?

[nickydwuk]

No as I was expecting to hand them in and speak to a visa officer so that they could check them and give them back to me. Unfortunately we were a little late to see someone so just left them all with them.

[liveAdream]

You can ask for the passports back immediately.

For those items you must have them back, they checked and certified on the spot. OH asked for ours not retained when we submitted our ITA. Like others, they did not certify every piece of document, presumably it might have taken a long time to review them all.

[peebles16]

But did you provide a sef addressed pre-paid registered or courier pack with your application?

We posted out ITA off to London (bit of a trek from Scotland to hand it in :) ) and included pre-paid delivery envelopes. One to get all paperwork back and second one to get passports with lovely blue stickers in :yes We were happy to be without passports for a while as weren't planning any trips. Whole thing was sent 'special delivery' and so had to be signed for either end and we could track it.
All worked out fine for us

Cheers
Karenx

[Georgebulldog]

No didn't give them any envelope at all they just sent it back special delivery

[nickydwuk]

Mine all arrived back today by special delivery.

[Pebbles]

Like Cat we provided certified copies since we need our passports nearly on a day to day basis for id purposes. Our local council made copies with official stamp and signature. Did not send in original passports until they were ready to issue the blue stickers and got them back by courier within a week (to NL).

Good luck with these last paperwork hurdles!