Before you apply

Find out what an animal and biosecurity control endorsement allows you to do, who can apply and what you need to provide in your application.

Pest controllers are now animal and biosecurity controller
Firearms registration requirements
When you need an endorsement
Who is eligible to apply
Duration of Animal and biosecurity control endorsement
Duration has been extended
How much it costs
Information you need to provide in your application
New multi-user agreements for animal and biosecurity controllers

Pest controllers are now animal and biosecurity controller

Under the Arms Act 2026, former pest controllers are called animal and biosecurity controller.

Animal and biosecurity controllers may include:

Department of Conservation staff involved in animal control operations.
People undertaking animal recovery operations under a Department of Conservation concession.
Staff of biosecurity management agencies involved in animal control.
People who run businesses or work providing services for animal control purposes.
Owners, managers, and employees of agricultural, horticultural, or forestry businesses affected by pest animals.

Meaning of animal and biosecurity controller | Arms Act 2026, Part 1, section 7 | New Zealand Legislation website

Firearms registration requirements

If you’re applying for or renewing a firearms licence or endorsement, you must register all items in your possession within 30 days of submission, including those you have a permit for.

Firearms Registry

When you need an endorsement

You must apply for an endorsement to use restricted items in your animal and biosecurity control work:

Applications for endorsements: applicants for or holders of firearms licence, museum licence, or visitor licence - Arms Act 2026, section 187 (8) | New Zealand Legislation website

You cannot use pistols or restricted weapons for animal and biosecurity control work.

When you have an endorsement, you are eligible to apply for a permit

Once you have an endorsement, you are eligible to apply for a permit to import or possess restricted arms items or their parts.

Permits

Who is eligible to apply

To apply for an endorsement for animal and biosecurity control work, you must:

be aged 18 or over
have a New Zealand firearms licence, or be applying for one.

And one of the following must apply to you.

You are a person who is employed or engaged by the Department of Conservation and involved in operations for the purpose of controlling wild animals or animal pests in accordance with a specified Act (subject to prescribed limits, if any).
You are a person who is the holder of a concession granted by the Minister of Conservation to undertake wild animal recovery operations in accordance with a specified Act (subject to prescribed limits, if any).
You are a person who is employed or engaged by a management agency as defined in section 100 of the Biosecurity Act 1993 and involved in operations for the purpose of controlling wild animals or animal pests in accordance with that Act (subject to prescribed limits, if any).
You are a person whose sole business, or a substantial part of whose business, is providing services to control any prescribed wild animals or animal pests, or a person employed or engaged by that person for that purpose (subject to prescribed limits, if any).
You are a person who is the owner or manager, or is an employee, of an agricultural, a horticultural, or a silvicultural business, if there is a real possibility that the commercial viability of the business would be detrimentally affected to a significant extent by the presence of prescribed wild animals or animal pests on any land used for that business (subject to prescribed limits, if any).

Duration of Animal and biosecurity control endorsement

This Animal and biosecurity control endorsement lasts for 2 years and 6 months, or until:

your firearms licence expires or is surrendered or revoked
your endorsement is surrendered or revoked.

Duration has been extended

Under the new Arms Act 2026, the Animal and biosecurity control endorsement duration has been extended to five years.

This change will take effect from 22 February 2028 and will significantly reduce the administrative effort and costs for applicants, who were previously required to renew their endorsement every two years and six months.

Duration of endorsement | Arms Act 2026, Part 4, Section 194 | New Zealand Legislation website

How much it costs

Application fees:

apply for an endorsement – $204
apply for other endorsements at the same time, you only pay $204 in total.

This endorsement fee is in addition to a firearms licence application fee.

Endorsement application fee reminder (two options - pay once)

There are two options to pay your endorsement application fee, but you should only pay once:

online through MyFirearms, OR
at a NZ Post shop.

The easiest way to pay is through MyFirearms as part of an online endorsement application (Please note a 1.9% surcharge applies to card payments).

If you are not applying through MyFirearms, pay your application fee at a NZ Post shop.

Fees include GST, cover the cost of processing your application, and are not refundable, regardless of the outcome of your application.

Information you need to provide in your application

When you apply for an endorsement, you need to provide the following information.

Reasons

You must explain why you cannot use a standard firearm or standard magazine to control wild animals or animal pests.

You will be asked for information to help determine whether you have a genuine need to possess restricted firearms and restricted magazines.

Security arrangements

You must provide the address where items are stored and describe your secure storage arrangements.

Your security arrangements will also be inspected.

If you do not have secure storage yet, you will not be allowed to take possession of the items until you have installed endorsement level security.

Referee details

You must provide 3 endorsement referees.

Referee 1 must be:

your spouse/partner or next of kin (they do not have to have a firearms licence).

Referee 2 must be:

knowledgeable about wild animal recovery or animal pest control
know and understand your activities, interest, and experience in wild animal recovery or animal pest control.

Referee 2 should also have a current animal and biosecurity control restricted firearm endorsement, and not be your employee.

Referee 3 must:

be 20 years or older
know you well (but not related to you)
demonstrate long-term experience with firearms.

If you are an animal and biosecurity control business owner or the owner/manager of an agricultural, horticultural or silvicultural business

You must also provide information about your business, including:

a letter from your accountant confirming the percentage of your income that comes from pest control and the regions you work in
your business's animal and biosecurity control operations
why you must use restricted firearms for this work
your management and development of employees and contractors – their training, testing, health and safety, and security.
documentary evidence of pest control engagements and operations such as contracts, invoices, concessions with the agency, authority or client.

If you are an employee or contractor of a animal and biosecurity control business

You must also provide information about:

your animal and biosecurity control or wild animal recovery activities
why you must use restricted firearms for this work.

Your employer must read and sign your application form.

A photo – if you are applying only for an endorsement

If you are only applying for an endorsement, and not a licence, you must provide a photo.

You must supply a recent, good quality digital photograph that is a good likeness of yourself. A scanned copy of a photograph will not be accepted.

The photograph must meet the minimum requirements. Passport photos from commercial outlets will typically meet these requirements.

This means the photograph must:

have been taken within the last 12 months
be a full front view of your face – chin to forehead and both sides of your face
show head and shoulders, with the head filling most of the photograph
be of you without a hat or head covering (except where your religion requires you to wear a hat or head covering)
have a plain, light-coloured background
be in colour and in focus
be in portrait format (with a 4:3 aspect ratio)
be in JPG or JPEG format
be between 25KB and 10MB
be between 900 and 4500 pixels wide and 1200 and 6000 pixels high.

We will not accept photographs that do not meet these standards.

You may have to answer the same questions as when you applied for a firearms licence. We ask these questions again to make sure we have the latest information when we review your application.

New multi-user agreements for animal and biosecurity controllers

From 23 February 2028, Firearms Safety and Education New Zealand will introduce multi-user agreements that allow specified employees of animal and biosecurity control to share restricted firearms without requiring a permit to possess or Registry updates for each short-term transfer.

These agreements apply to transfers of less than seven days. Organisations must maintain internal records of all firearm transfers and provide them to the regulator upon request. 

This change will significantly reduce the administrative costs and effort for applicants, who were previously required to update the Registry and obtain a permit for each short-term transfer, particularly when firearms are routinely shared among the same users.

Exception for employees of animal and biosecurity controllers sharing possession of restricted firearms | Arms Act 2026, section 33 | New Zealand Legislation website