A missing Indian World Youth Day pilgrim has fronted up to New Zealand immigration officials and told them he wants to go home.
Forty pilgrims, part of a wider group of over 200 people, disappeared last month while on stopovers in New Zealand before flying to Sydney to take part in the Pope's World Youth Day rally.
Since then four of the Indians have returned home, and now the fifth has surfaced.
A Department of Labour spokesman said the fact the man was missing had been known, but not his location.
"He contacted us and said he wanted to go home, so arrangements are being made for that," the spokesman said.
"We'll keep looking for the others, we've got a fair idea where 20 of them are."
The one-month New Zealand entry visas for 16 of the pilgrims expire at midnight tonight, and 18 at midnight tomorrow. One man has a longer permit.
So far 10 have applied to remain in New Zealand and their applications were being considered.
Three of them were seeking extensions to their visitor's permit, and seven had applied for student permits.
Earlier this week Immigration officials warned the missing Indians that if they had to be removed from New Zealand they would be banned from any form of re-entry for five years.
Members of the group were believed to have paid $NZ17,000 ($A13,000) to an agent in India who organised their travel visas and told them they could stay in New Zealand "forever".
The department spokesman said today that officials were continuing to gather information about alleged fraud and would eventually decide whether to pass it on to Indian authorities.
