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Bad boy American singer Bobby Brown will face character checks before being let into the country.
Brown has been in trouble with the law including on battery charges against his former wife singer and actress Whitney Houston.
Brown is set to perform two concerts in New Zealand but some are questioning whether he should be kept out of the country, given his rocky past.
Brown, due to perform in Rotorua on July 15 and in Auckland two days later, has yet to apply for a visa.
Department of Labour group manager for border security Api Fiso said the singer would have to apply for a work visa, like all musical entertainers wanting to work in New Zealand.
He said Brown's representative had been told the singer must apply for a work visa prior to coming.
"This application should be lodged as soon as possible in order to be considered," he said.
"As with all visa applications, the applicant must meet the standard entry requirements including health and character requirements."
Rotorua MP Steve Chadwick has raised Brown's proposed trip with Immigration Minister David Cunliffe, after being approached by the Rotorua Review, a community paper.
The paper, which posted a report on the Stuff website yesterday, suggested anyone with Brown's background should not be allowed into New Zealand.
"Aspects of Brown's questionable past, an unenviable litany of malevolence involving. . .sexual battery and drug use offences, have been raised with the (immigration) department," the report said.
It questioned why the singer should be allowed to enter New Zealand when "relatively minor indiscretions" would stop anyone entering the US.
Ms Chadwick said it was not up to her to judge, but she had said she would put the case to the minister.
"I heard today from David Cunliffe that no visa application has been received, so that's quite interesting given that the concert isn't far away."
The Immigration Service is part of the Department of Labour, and a department spokeswoman confirmed last night no visa application had been received from Brown.
The Rotorua Review said tickets for the Rotorua concert went on sale last week at $54 each.
www.stuff.co.nz
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