Immigration New Zealand staff are being accused of using a confidential client database like a dating website.

Ten complaints have been made against agency officers in the past year for accessing client records without authorisation.

Seven complaints involving nine staff members were found to be substantiated, while three are under investigation.

Following Immigration New Zealand investigations, one staff member has resigned, four have received final warnings and another is facing disciplinary action.

A former staff member told the New Zealand Herald that staff sometimes logged in to look at information on wealthy and interesting clients "for fun".

"We would joke about which client would make a good boyfriend, and recommend in jest the rich ones to our single colleagues," she said.

"It's similar to how people would look and laugh at people and the information they put on dating websites."

Immigration New Zealand spokesman Marc Piercey said misuse of client records will not be tolerated and it takes breaches of its code of conduct extremely seriously.