Emergency appointments without certificates

In an emergency, security firms can hire staff who don’t have certificates of approval. Learn how this works.

Staff illness or an emergency could mean that you don’t have enough staff with certificates. If this happens, you can let us know and make an emergency appointment. This lasts 2 weeks.

You may want to do this when you can’t wait 10 days for a temporary certificate for example.

You can make an emergency appointment if:

  • you need to hire someone because of illness or emergency and you don’t have enough staff with certificates and
  • the person you’re hiring has applied for a certificate and paid the fee and
  • you’re satisfied they’re eligible and
  • you tell us before making the emergency appointment and
  • the person has not worked on an emergency appointment for more than 2 weeks in the past (unless we have approved the appointment before you make it).

You must immediately stop a person from working if we instruct you to.

You can’t make an emergency appointment for someone applying under the trans-Tasman mutual recognition scheme.

How to make an emergency appointment

You must email us this form before they start work.

Emergency appointment form [PDF, 240 KB]

You must apply again after 2 weeks. You might want to do this if a temporary certificate has not been received and the emergency still applies. You can do this using the form above.

Email: PSPLA@justice.govt.nz

It’s free to apply for an emergency appointment.

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