Irish New Zealanders say they are struggling to get passports after a surge in applications caused by new British border rules and Brexit.

Dual citizens are reporting long waits, lack of updates, and sometimes heartbreaking consequences when passports do not land in time.

Among them is Dara Shearer, who applied in February for her Irish passport but did not get it until last Friday. The retired dentist and researcher, who has lived in New Zealand for 40 years, wants action to speed up the process to help overseas-based Irish citizens trying to fly to the UK.

When Britain ordered its own dual citizens to use UK passports to return there, it also meant dual Irish citizens all over the world had to travel on an Irish passport to get into Britain, too.

That's because the UK and Ireland operate a Common Travel Area, allowing each other's citizens work and residence rights.

Shearer said the rush of applications when people found out they were no longer able to use New Zealand passports at the British border from February coincided with a resurgent demand for the Irish passport and its EU work and travel rights, in the wake of Brexit.

"This created a perfect storm of a massive number of passport applications and subsequent backlogs," said Shearer, from Oamaru. "It's a bit of a shambles really. Some more clarity about the timeframe would be helpful - on their website, they still say 20 days turnaround for a first-time applicant. I mean, that's laughable, obviously. That's a month.

"In reality, the timeframe is anywhere between four to six months - longer when you factor in the time for posted documents to get from NZ to Dublin."

Social media is awash with similar - and dissimilar - stories. One Wellington man had his first-time Irish passport in 11 weeks, while other families had to get emergency documents or miss family events after their passport did not arrive in time.

'Panicking'

Shearer said she felt sorry for others with urgent reasons to travel to Britain, such as family illness, weddings or bereavement, or who just had trips planned.

She also discovered applications expired once they had been in the passport processing system for six months - just as she was approaching that time.

She filled out an online complaint form and her passport was approved within days. But she and her husband Nick Shearer had already missed out on a trip to Britain, where they first met.

"We have actually just come back from six weeks in Europe, we got back at the beginning of June. But we avoided the UK obviously, because neither of us had valid Irish passports so we couldn't enter."

Shearer said because her previous Irish passport expired in 2015 her application was not treated as a renewal, leading to a slower process and document request.

"I'd like maybe for them to get more staff, too. I feel quite sorry for the staff at the office, they probably are dealing with a lot of flak with people who are panicking."

Foreign Affairs sees rise in applications

Ireland's population is similar to New Zealand's, but millions more people have Irish ancestry and live overseas. Estimates of diaspora numbers differ wildly - between 50 million and 100m+.

According to official Stats NZ data, 21,261 people identified as Irish in the last census. However, the Irish in Aotearoa report from 2020 estimated one in six New Zealanders had Irish links - and it's possible the number could be far higher.

The Irish Foreign Office, which runs passport services, told RNZ it had seen an increase in first-time and renewal applications from New Zealand.

It said its advertised passport approval time remained 20 working days (four weeks), although that excluded postage times and requests for further documents.

"The Passport Service endeavours to process all applications within the advertised turnaround times, however these turnaround times are not a service delivery guarantee. Processing begins on the date that the Passport Service receives any supporting documentation required."

Applications with incorrect photos or a missing document took longer, it said.

It acknowledged that passport applications expired after six months, citing reasons including International Civil Aviation Organisation regulations on the requirement for a recent photograph.

The Passport Service did not detail the increase in application volumes it is dealing with. UK Home Office figures show overseas passport applications almost tripled to more than 300,000 in the first quarter of 2026.

Shearer questioned whether Irish embassies could check birth and marriage certificates rather than having to post them to Dublin, to save time and money.

The Irish Embassy in Wellington said it had only a small part to play as the Irish Passport Office processed applications.

"The Embassy's role in the passport process is to verify the witnesses, where required, of NZ-based applicants and to answer queries from members of the public," said deputy head of mission Paul O'Hara. "We have a busy Consular Office that responds to a range of enquiries on a daily basis. We would encourage anyone who has any queries or concerns about their applications or citizenship to contact us directly at wellingtonembassy@dfa.ie "