I recently found this and thought everyone applying for residency should know.
A lot of people on this blog would eventually like to become NZ citizens, some to call themselves kiwis and some who can then go to Australia.
The requirement for New Zealand citizneship is essentially spending five years in New Zealand after getting residence. This used to be three years until 2005. It doesn't matter how much time you have spent in NZ on temporary visas like visitor, work or student and only the time spent as a resident(on a residence class visa) matters for citizenship.
I would like to throw a comparison of requirements for citizenship in some other countries, so that people know how much time they will have to spend before they can get citizenship here in NZ.
Once again NZ citizenship requirement -
5 years after obtaining residence (a residence class visa) and "no time considered on temporary visas" towards citizenship.
As an example example - You spend 3 years studying in NZ and then work for 2 years and then get your residence (This makes total time spent in NZ before getting residence 5 years). After this point you will have spend another 5 years in NZ until you will be eligible for NZ citizenship.(i.e Total time 10 years until citizenship in this case).
Australia -
After 4 years of stay in which "one year as a resident (on a residence class visa) " and the other three years can be on any visa.
Example - you went to Australia to study a three year degree and then immediately got your residence, you can then get Australian citizenship after just one year.( Total time in this case for citizenship 4 years).
Also, Australian permanent residents and citizens are both granted residence on arrival in NZ and in case of New Zealanders going to Australia, only NZ citizens can stay and work indefinitely and NZ permanent residents don't get anything and need to apply for a visa to go there like everyone else.
Canada -
After 4 years of stay and in which "2 years as a resident (on a residence class visa) " and the other 2 years can be on any visa.
United Kingdom -
After 5 years in the UK and in which "one year as a resident" and other 4 years on any visa.
As an example - If you went to the UK and studied there for 4 years and then got your residency(also called as indefinite leave to remain), then after just one year you can get citizenship there.
Conclusion -
You will have to stay at least 5 years in NZ for citizenship if you come here as a resident and almost 9-12 years if you come here as a student or worker.
If your sole purpose of coming here is to migrate to Australia after getting citizenship then I would recommend looking at Aussie PR straightaway and migrating to Australia. That way you can get citizenship much much earlier and can then come to NZ if you want.
For NZ citizenship -
http://www.dia.govt.nz/Services-Citi...nship#fourteen
For Australian citizenship -
http://www.citizenship.gov.au/learn/...conferral.htm/
For UK citizenship -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_nationality_law
See citizenship by naturalization in the above link.
For Canadian -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_nationality_law