We investigated the electronic properties of Zn-doped InAs/InP core-shell nanowires by using first principles calculations. It is found that efficient p-type doping of InAs nanowires can be achieved by remotely doping the InP shell. The activation energy of Zn dopant is zero since the valence band offset and one-dimensional hole gas is created in the InAs core without thermal activation. Moreover, the separation between the free carrier and ionized dopant may result in higher carrier mobility due to the reduced scattering. Our results provide insights for the efficient p-type doping of nanodevices based on III−V nanowires.