Citizenship conditions question

[brunomuzo]

Hi all,

If someone is granted citizenship in NZ what are the conditions or expectations thereafter in terms of relocation to another country ?

In other words,is someone "bonded " and expected to live in NZ forever OR there's a certain period of time one must stay onshore before being legible for relocation OR because one is now a Kiwi citizen ,they have the same rights to relocate like any other citizen at any given time?

Regards

Bruno

[everest]

Hi all,

If someone is granted citizenship in NZ what are the conditions or expectations thereafter in terms of relocation to another country ?

In other words,is someone "bonded " and expected to live in NZ forever OR there's a certain period of time one must stay onshore before being legible for relocation OR because one is now a Kiwi citizen ,they have the same rights to relocate like any other citizen at any given time?

Regards

Bruno

My personal opinion is that you are granted Citizenship on the condition you "intent" to remain in NZ and set up home here permanently. Please refer to https://www.govt.nz/browse/passports...z-citizenship/
but after the grant if for whatever reason your situation changes and you leave the country and would want to resettle in NZ, there are no impediments to you doing that anytime of your life. In other words you are not treated any differently to another who aquired it at birth. BUT please remember it could be an offence to knowingly aquire citizenship when you do not intent to live in NZ.

[ChrisMwn]

Hi all,

If someone is granted citizenship in NZ what are the conditions or expectations thereafter in terms of relocation to another country ?

In other words,is someone "bonded " and expected to live in NZ forever OR there's a certain period of time one must stay onshore before being legible for relocation OR because one is now a Kiwi citizen ,they have the same rights to relocate like any other citizen at any given time?

Regards

Bruno

At the time you apply for and are granted citizenship you are required to declare that you intend to remain in New Zealand"

However intentions can change at any time and there as a NZ Citisen you are free to trial whenever you like and remain out of NZ indefinitely

[Rohit]

Hi Everyone,

If someone can please help me with my query: I will be completing my all conditions to apply for NZ citizenship in Jan 2021. However, my current nationality passport expires in Nov. 2020 and I read online that current waiting time to get Citizenship application processed is around 6 months. So, under these circumstances, I just wanted to know if it is possible to apply for citizenship, may be in Oct. 2020 itself. If I can, this will help me in 2 things:

1. I may not be required to renew my current nationality passport in Nov and pay for that. Then on top of that, I would also need to get my PR transferred to new passport and I would be paying all this cost, just for 2 months.
2. If I get to apply in Oct. 2020, then by the time application gets processed (6 months), it would have already crossed Jan 2021 and all condition would have been met.

Please suggest. If anyone has been through same situation. Thanks.
Rohit

[JandM]

Answered your PM.

[Kelerei]

Hi Everyone,

If someone can please help me with my query: I will be completing my all conditions to apply for NZ citizenship in Jan 2021. However, my current nationality passport expires in Nov. 2020 and I read online that current waiting time to get Citizenship application processed is around 6 months. So, under these circumstances, I just wanted to know if it is possible to apply for citizenship, may be in Oct. 2020 itself. If I can, this will help me in 2 things:

1. I may not be required to renew my current nationality passport in Nov and pay for that. Then on top of that, I would also need to get my PR transferred to new passport and I would be paying all this cost, just for 2 months.
2. If I get to apply in Oct. 2020, then by the time application gets processed (6 months), it would have already crossed Jan 2021 and all condition would have been met.

Please suggest. If anyone has been through same situation. Thanks.
Rohit

You need to meet all conditions for New Zealand citizenship on the date on which you apply. Internal Affairs assesses your presence in New Zealand as of the date that your complete application is received and the citizenship processing fee is paid. Submitting early will result in you not meeting the standard presence requirement.

It is possible, but difficult, to have the presence requirement reduced to 450 days in the 20 month period prior to application. This presence reduction is only granted in exceptional circumstances, and you must be prepared to satisfy the Minister of Internal Affairs of such exceptional circumstances.

According to the guidance document issued to citizenship case officers, the policy for a reduction in the presence requirement, as well as situations where a case officer may approve such an application without it having to go to the Minister of Internal Affairs as an individual submisison, is as follows:

To be considered under this section the applicant must have been in New Zealand for at least 450 days in the 20 months immediately before the application for citizenship was lodged and have held New Zealand residence through Immigration New Zealand for that whole period.

Assessment is required on a case by case basis. Exceptional circumstances arise when the situation is well outside the normal run of circumstances found in citizenship grant cases generally.

The circumstances do not have to be unique or very rare, but they do have to be truly an exception rather than the rule, or they would need to be out of the ordinary and comparatively rare.

[...]

Applicants may be included on the presence schedule where the Department is satisfied that the applicant is eligible for consideration under section 8(7) (i.e. has exceptional circumstances and meets the reduced presence threshold), clearly has a permanent base in New Zealand and genuine reasons for absence that were directly related to work-related travel or study or family illness.

Applicants who have exceptional circumstances that relate to any other reason, other than those listed above, will come to the Minister as an individual submission.

However, before you consider this route, take note of the following with regards to the passport of your current nationality:

• You do not need to renew your current passport if you do not intend to travel out of New Zealand before you obtain citizenship and a New Zealand passport (which you may apply for as soon as you have received your citizenship certificate at a citizenship ceremony).
• If you do renew your current passport, there is no fee involved if you only want an eVisa letter. If you want a physical sticker in your new passport instead, a fee still applies.

Personally, if the country of your current nationality allows dual citizenship, I would suck it up and get the foreign passport renewed anyway. You may have to anyway, if you intend to retain your original citizenship and visit your original country. An example: both my partner and I are South African citizens by birth, and British citizens by descent. We must, by law, enter and exit South Africa using our South African passports; if we use the British ones, we risk being convicted of a criminal offence and jail time.

If you still want to take the presence reduction route, you should discuss your situation with the Citizenship Office prior to applying. You can find the contact details here.