The source of truth is
R5.95 in the operational manual.
R5.95.1 pretty much answers all your questions in this regard, and I've quoted it verbatim below:
- Character checks must be carried out for partners (aged 17 and over) supporting Partnership Category applications.
- The supporting partner character check consists of:
- a New Zealand police certificate obtained by Immigration New Zealand; and
- a police or similar certificate, less than 6 months old, from any country in which the supporting partner has lived 12 months or more (whether on one visit or intermittently) in the last ten years.
- Despite (b), an immigration officer may, where they have reason to suspect the supporting partner may not meet character requirements, request a police certificate from the supporting partner for any country in which they have lived for 12 months or more since they turned 17.
- Where an application is submitted without the required police certificate(s), an immigration officer may nevertheless accept the application, and obtain any necessary clearances after acceptance, if a supporting partner requires a police certificate from a country:
- that does not issue police certificates to individuals; or
- for which no instructions in respect of how to obtain a police certificate is available.
- If a police certificate is not available from a particular country, the supporting partner must provide a separate statutory declaration in both English and the supporting partner's first language, which must:
- detail the supporting partner's attempts to obtain a police certificate; and
- state whether the supporting partner has been convicted, or found guilty of, or charged with any offences against the law of that country; and
- be corroborated by other information confirming the supporting partner's character.