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Thread: Citizenship presence requirement

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
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    Default Citizenship presence requirement

    Hey guys

    So I got a bit of time in the lockdown to calculate my citizenship application date.
    After reading a few threads I got a bit confused. In my understanding you got to spend 1350 days, 240 each year from the time you were granted residency. I was hoping to be able to apply after the 4years 8 months mark but not so sure now. In my first year I spent 50 days overseas. Every other year I spent 14-16 maximum. Does this mean I can't apply after 4 years 8 months? I was granted residency in 22nd March 2016 so my plan was to apply for citizenship in November 2020.

    Hope you're all going good in this lockdown

  2. #2
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    This is how to calculate things:

    1. Determine the five year periods immediately preceding the date on which you plan to apply.
      • By means of example, if you plan to submit your application for citizenship on 25th November 2020, the preceding five year periods would be:
        • 25th November 2019 - 24th November 2020
        • 25th November 2018 - 24th November 2019
        • 25th November 2017 - 24th November 2018
        • 25th November 2016 - 24th November 2017
        • 25th November 2015 - 24th November 2016
    2. For each of those five year periods, determine how many days you have spent in New Zealand with residence. If any five year period comes to less than 240 days, you will not meet the presence requirement on the date on which you plan to apply.
    3. Add the days for each five year period, to get a total for the entire five years. If this total comes to less than 1350 days, you will not meet the presence requirement on the date on which you plan to apply.
    4. If all individual five year periods come to 240 days or greater, and the total for all of the five year periods comes to 1350 days or greater, you meet the presence requirement on the date on which you plan to apply.


    To do this accurately, you have to know your exact arrival and departure dates for each period of absence (you can count the day of departure or arrival itself as a day spent in New Zealand). INZ holds the records of your border movements, and the Department of Internal Affairs will query these records when they process your application. You can request INZ to release these records to you here -- just don't expect a response before the COVID-19 lockdown ends. You'll almost certainly want to get these records from INZ if there's possible ambiguity as per the date recorded itself: for example, my usual entry into New Zealand is QF163 from Sydney, which gets into Wellington at around midnight (and thus, it can be a bit uncertain as to which date INZ considers me entering the country!).

    The "4 years 8 months" thing comes about because someone who never travels outside of New Zealand will meet the presence requirement after exactly 4 years and 8 months!
    Last edited by Kelerei; 26th March 2020 at 05:42 PM.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2018
    Location
    Oman
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    But there is a question on citizenship form " have you lived in NZ on resident status for five years or more??"
    What to do with this question?? If somone says yes but he/she has only lived 4y 8months...then basically its kind of a lie....so what are the consequences?? Does it come under fraud?? Or you would just be declined and re apply after another 4 months??

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
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    37,824

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    This is nothing official, but thinking about that last question just from the point of view of understanding the English... If somebody said to me, 'Where do you live?' I'd tell them the town where my home is, although I might at that time be in somewhere else on holiday, or staying temporarily in a hotel while working. So I would think that if your home has been in NZ since the date five years before you apply, and your trips out of the country have just been temporary stays, you could honestly answer 'yes'.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Christchurch New Zealand
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Kelerei View Post
    This is how to calculate things:

    1. Determine the five year periods immediately preceding the date on which you plan to apply.
      • By means of example, if you plan to submit your application for citizenship on 25th November 2020, the preceding five year periods would be:
        • 25th November 2019 - 24th November 2020
        • 25th November 2018 - 24th November 2019
        • 25th November 2017 - 24th November 2018
        • 25th November 2016 - 24th November 2017
        • 25th November 2015 - 24th November 2016
    2. For each of those five year periods, determine how many days you have spent in New Zealand with residence. If any five year period comes to less than 240 days, you will not meet the presence requirement on the date on which you plan to apply.
    3. Add the days for each five year period, to get a total for the entire five years. If this total comes to less than 1350 days, you will not meet the presence requirement on the date on which you plan to apply.
    4. If all individual five year periods come to 240 days or greater, and the total for all of the five year periods comes to 1350 days or greater, you meet the presence requirement on the date on which you plan to apply.


    To do this accurately, you have to know your exact arrival and departure dates for each period of absence (you can count the day of departure or arrival itself as a day spent in New Zealand). INZ holds the records of your border movements, and the Department of Internal Affairs will query these records when they process your application. You can request INZ to release these records to you here -- just don't expect a response before the COVID-19 lockdown ends. You'll almost certainly want to get these records from INZ if there's possible ambiguity as per the date recorded itself: for example, my usual entry into New Zealand is QF163 from Sydney, which gets into Wellington at around midnight (and thus, it can be a bit uncertain as to which date INZ considers me entering the country!).

    The "4 years 8 months" thing comes about because someone who never travels outside of New Zealand will meet the presence requirement after exactly 4 years and 8 months!


    Thank you that makes a bit more sense.

    So following your maths, if I received residency on 22-3-2016 and originally I wanted to apply on the 17-11-2020 that would not work because I spent 14 days overseas within that period. To complete the 240 days then I need to apply on 1-12-2020? Provided I hadn't left the country between now and that date(which I doubt I will, seeing current state of the world)

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2019
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aron View Post
    So following your maths, if I received residency on 22-3-2016 and originally I wanted to apply on the 17-11-2020 that would not work because I spent 14 days overseas within that period. To complete the 240 days then I need to apply on 1-12-2020? Provided I hadn't left the country between now and that date(which I doubt I will, seeing current state of the world)
    Let's see:

    • If you apply on 2020-11-17, one of the five one year periods you must look at is 2015-11-17 to 2016-11-16.
    • Anything before 2016-03-22 gets discarded as you didn't have residency yet, and it's exactly 240 days between 2016-03-22 and 2016-11-16.
    • Now, if you spent 14 days outside New Zealand between 2016-03-22 and 2016-11-16, that drops it to 226 days.
    • 226 is less than 240, so you fail the presence requirement for the first one-year period. This means that you fail the entire presence requirement, and there's no point in calculating time spent in New Zealand for the remaining four one-year periods.


    Now, let's re-do this, but applying on 2020-12-01 instead:

    • The first of the five one-year periods is now between 2015-12-01 and 2016-11-30.
    • Again, anything before 2016-03-22 is discarded, so it's now 254 days of residence in that period before taking time spent outside of the country into account.
    • Assuming that you've still spent 14 days outside of New Zealand between 2016-03-22 and 2016-11-30, then once we've deducted that, it's now exactly 240 days.
    • The first of the five one-year periods is therefore OK. This process must now be repeated with the remaining four one-year periods.


    Like I said before, you need to know your exact travel history to get an accurate answer.

  7. #7
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    Feb 2016
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    Christchurch New Zealand
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    Thank you that's what I thought. The rest of the years should all be fine as I only spent a couple weeks overseas around Xmas. Thanks very much!

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
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    NZ
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kelerei View Post

    The "4 years 8 months" thing comes about because someone who never travels outside of New Zealand will meet the presence requirement after exactly 4 years and 8 months!
    Are you sure you got your maths right?

  9. #9
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    Location
    NZ
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    I think the 240 days in the 5th year comes from the strict interpretation of the law here

    "The requirements referred to in subsection (1)(d) are as follows:
    (a)
    that the applicant is entitled in terms of the Immigration Act 2009 to be in New Zealand indefinitely:
    (b)
    that the applicant was present in New Zealand—
    (i)
    for a minimum of 1 350 days during the 5 years immediately preceding the date of the application; and
    (ii)
    for at least 240 days in each of those 5 years,—"

    http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/p...est/whole.html

    You may still be able to apply on the 240th day of the 5th year but better confirm that with the authorities and please let us know if you do.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2018
    Location
    Oman
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    To make it very simple...as per my understanding..If you don't travel during first 8 months after your first entry to NZ...you can apply citizenship after 4 years 8 M.

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