New Zealand became part of the Five Country Conference - which also includes Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States - in 2009 and this year is the first New Zealand has chaired the annual meeting.
Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse said it could be a tricky balance in immigration between facilitating travel for low-risk travellers and also ensuring opportunities are minimised for terrorists and criminals to travel undetected.
''The FCC has led critical work in this area to share data and resources to attract legitimate travellers and deter undesirable individuals.''
The conference was an important forum in which ''like-minded'' immigration agencies explored ways to work co-operatively to improve immigration systems.
Immigration New Zealand programme manager Arron Baker said the co-operation allowed New Zealand ''to be in more places'' and manage shared risks.
Mr Baker said work was being done to align United Nations refugee resettlements and immigration officials were discussing ''strategy challenges'' such as handling a growing tourism environment.
The sharing of fingerprints has proved to be very effective and the system is managed by the Five Country Conference.
Mr Baker said the co-operating countries had similar legal frameworks and privacy laws, although minor adjustments were made in the agreement to reflect individual characteristics.
Last month, a joint visa application centre was opened in Singapore to process New Zealand, Australian and British visas in the city state, which was an initiative of the Five Country Conference.
