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Thread: Citizenship Update

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2015
    Location
    NZ
    Posts
    7

    Default Citizenship Update

    HI there

    Anyone has any update on Citizenship application status in recent weeks ? It is now close to 3 months since i applied online.

    Thanks
    Hutch

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2019
    Location
    New Zealand (ex: South Africa)
    Posts
    1,201

    Default

    Citizenship applications are currently being processed in 5 to 10 months. You're not even close to that timeframe yet, so be patient.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2019
    Location
    New Zealand
    Posts
    7

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Hutching56 View Post
    HI there

    Anyone has any update on Citizenship application status in recent weeks ? It is now close to 3 months since i applied online.

    Thanks
    Hutch
    Same, mine is taking forever too. Thought it would be a simple process but don't know why it's been taking so long.
    Does anyone know if we can travel within the waiting time frame?

    Thank you

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Location
    New Zealand
    Posts
    19

    Default

    Zen95,

    There is a word called as "Patience". From your other posts, I can see that you have applied citizenship on 18th June 2020. To what you have been calling forever - "1 month and 4 days" is not the right word.
    The standard citizenship application process now takes 5-10 months, average 7 months. (Does not matter whether applied online or in-person). Rather than expressing your waiting frustration on these posts, keep calm and wait. It will take months. NZ Citizenship application process is much better than Australia where people have to wait for 15-18 months.

    Here is my Citizenship application timeline to give you an idea:
    Resident Visa Granted - Oct 2014
    Permanent Resident Visa granted - Oct 2016
    Applied for NZ Citizenship "ONLINE APPLICATION" - Nov 2019 (Applied after completing 5 years)
    First email from DIA for Application received - Nov 2019
    Second email from case officer for in-person identity verification at DIA office - Mar 2020
    Third email from DIA - Citizenship Application approved May 2020
    Citizenship certificate received - June 2020.

    So good luck and enjoy.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2019
    Location
    New Zealand (ex: South Africa)
    Posts
    1,201

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Zen95 View Post
    Does anyone know if we can travel within the waiting time frame?
    If you hold a Permanent Resident Visa, you have the indefinite right to leave and re-enter New Zealand: you only need to ensure that your Permanent Resident Visa is in a valid passport.

    If you hold a Resident Visa instead, you may only leave and re-enter New Zealand within the validity of the travel conditions of the visa.

    Regardless of which residence class visa you currently hold, you are advised to inform the Department of Internal Affairs of any absence abroad: not doing so may result in the Citizenship Office placing you on their "lost contact" list and possibly declining your application as a consequence, and/or your Intention to Reside may become questionable. See the Intention to Reside policy and Lost Contact policy in the Citizenship Guidance Document for more on this.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2019
    Location
    New Zealand (ex: South Africa)
    Posts
    1,201

    Default

    I thought of another reason why you'd want to notify the Citizenship Office of your intentions to travel, or to even defer travel entirely (if COVID-19 isn't reason enough right now)...

    As soon as one becomes a New Zealand citizen by grant, INZ will immediately cancel any visa held by that person. Legally, a New Zealand citizen cannot hold a New Zealand visa (Section 13(4) of the Immigration Act 2009), and if you think about it, it would be rather pointless even if it were legal. The side effect of this though is that there's a short period of time, from when one is issued a certificate of New Zealand citizenship, to when one either receives a New Zealand passport or gets INZ to place a citizenship endorsement in their foreign passport, where one cannot travel.

    In the Before Times, this wouldn't be a problem: you would have been in New Zealand anyway to attend the citizenship ceremony, and you would have been able (albeit at great cost) to get a New Zealand passport the next day via the call-out service if the need to travel was urgent enough to warrant that. Nowadays though, the Minister of Internal Affairs has waived the requirement to attend a citizenship ceremony due to COVID-19, and all such ceremonies are cancelled for the foreseeable future: the Citizenship Office will now simply post the certificate directly.

    And, this could very well cause problems if you're outside the country when this happens. Consider a scenario where the certificate has been issued but is still sitting with the couriers to be delivered, and meanwhile you're trying to check in for a return flight to New Zealand with a residence class visa that has now been cancelled by INZ because the Citizenship Office has issued your certificate of citizenship. Good luck getting through the border, or even on the plane, with a now-cancelled visa and no evidence of citizenship (either a NZ passport or a NZ citizenship endorsement in your foreign passport). And good luck getting either a NZ passport or a NZ citizenship endorsement in your foreign passport without having your citizenship certificate (which is now in a different country from you) as proof that you are entitled to either.

    With this worst-case scenario in mind, it wouldn't be a bad idea to let the Citizenship Office know if you'll be out of the country: you would be able to, for example, request that the grant of New Zealand citizenship be deferred until your return.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    New Zealand
    Posts
    156

    Default

    Anyone wants to share Citizenship updates - AUG Month?

    Please mention if
    1. Applied online OR in person
    2. How long it takes for the approval

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Location
    New Zealand
    Posts
    46

    Default

    My timeline:

    Applied 1 july f in person
    Approved 25 july
    Certificate 10 aug
    Passport applied by post 12 aug
    Passport received 19 aug

    19 aug evening- passport kept in cupboard.Cannot go anywhere😔😔😔😔😔
    Last edited by Vishalbhop; 2nd September 2020 at 08:43 PM.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    37,822

    Default

    I got my renewed passport the week lockdown started in the UK, complete with new picture. I'm carefully shielding because of a medical condition, so I reckon, by the time they've got a vaccine sorted and I might go anywhere, I shall look totally different!

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Auckland
    Posts
    11

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Vishalbhop View Post
    My timeline:

    Applied 1 july f in person
    Approved 25 july
    Certificate 10 aug
    Passport applied by post 12 aug
    Passport received 19 aug

    19 aug evening- passport kept in cupboard.Cannot go anywhere😔😔😔😔😔
    Only 24days? So fast

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