Extending your name reservation

You must use your name reservation to incorporate a new company or change a company name within 20 working days.  If you find you are running out of time – on the 19th or 20th working day you can extend your name reservation.  This will give you another 20 working days in which to complete the incorporation or company name change.

Before you begin

To extend a name reservation with the Companies Office:

1. You will need to be logged on as a registered user of the website, Read more...
2. Be the original applicant who reserved the name or in the case of a name reserved by an organisation, a member of the organisation.

Step one | Locate the name reservation or company

From the Online Services - Do It Now menu choose Incorporate a NZ Company¹ from the Start a Company menu.

¹ Note | If you originally reserved the name using the Incorporate or register another type of company option, choose this option again now.

A list of existing name reservations will appear, select the name reservation you wish to extend from the listed provided and select Continue.
 

Step two | Extend the name reservation

Upon entering the incorporation screen or by selecting the Review tab located along the top of your screen you will be presented with a message advising you your name reservation is due to expire shortly.  Select Yes to extend the application.

To extend your name reservation you must pay the application fee of NZ$10.22.  You can pay this fee either by charging it to your:

• Direct debit account
• Credit card or
• Debit card

Select the appropriate payment option and enter the email address you would like the tax invoice sent to.

Select the Continue button to process the payment.

Confirmation of your payment will appear on screen and a tax invoice will be emailed to you.  Select the Continue button.

Confirmation that your name has now been reserved for a further 20 working days and the new expiry date will appear on screen.  You will also be notified via email the details of this extension.

FAQs

Will I also be charged the incorporation fee?

No, you will only pay the fee associated with re-reserving your name.

Why does the application still say it is about to expire or expired in 'My Unfinished Business'?

As long as the confirmation and new expiry date appeared on your screen when you extended the name reservation, the name reservation has been extended.  Your 'My Unfinished Business' will not necessarily update with the new expiry date.

Why don’t I have the option to extend my name reservation when I enter the incorporation or review screens?

Once you have started to incorporate your company, the extend name reservation option is only available once.  After this time if you wish to extend the name reservation, you will need to ask us to withdraw the name (or let it expire) and start the name reservation process again.  You will need to pay any fees you have already paid including the reservation fee of NZ$10.22 and the incorporation fee of NZ$153.33.