Presence requirements for New Zealand Citizenship by grant

[johnotbc]

hi, We(family of 3) were granted resident visa on 23 Feb 2018.based on that I think I(we) will be eligible to apply to citizenship after 23 October 2022. I was just wondering if someone could review this for me. I have calculated the presence requirement as per worked examples and hopefully i have done it correct.
Travel dates outside NZ
24 Dec 2018 - 22 Jan 2019 (30 days)
30 Dec 2021 - 19 March 2022 (80 days)

Presence
Year 1 24 October 2021 to 23 October 2022 > 285 days > 80 days outside NZ (365-80=285) - Requirement Met
Year 2 24 October 2020 to 23 October 2021 > 365 days > No Travel - Requirement Met
Year 3 24 October 2019 to 23 October 2020 > 365 days > No Travel - Requirement Met
Year 4 24 October 2018 to 23 October 2019 > 335 days > 30 days outside NZ(365-30=335) - Requirement Met
Year 5 24 February 2018 to 23 October 2018 > 241 days > No Travel - Requirement Met
Total presence = 285+365+365+335+241=1591 days

I will check on the calculator to on the day I become eligible. My passport was renewed in late 2019 and PR visa was issued on the new passport. Not sure if that will be an issue?? Any suggestions if somebody else have encountered issues with presence calculator due to this.

Please, may I understand why you have your 5th year counted from 24 February 2018 to 23 October, instead of ending 24 February 2019?

[sunny_singh305]

Please, may I understand why you have your 5th year counted from 24 February 2018 to 23 October, instead of ending 24 February 2019?

Hi as its been said that 5 year period is calculated backwards from the date when you submit your application. In my case year 5 would be 24 October 2017 - 23 October 2018 but i became resident on 23 February 2018. So i only calculated from 24 February 2018 to 23 October 2018 and for that period i have met the 240 days presence requirement.
I am hoping someone would correct me if i have done something wrong.

[rizjunior]

The presence will work like this if you apply on 23/10/2022
23/10/2022 to 23/10/2021
23/10/2021 to 23/10/2020
23/10/2020 to 23/10/2019
23/10/2019 to 23/10/2018
23/10/2018 to 23/02/2018--- 23+30+31+30+31+31+30+31+30+31+5= 303

It goes other way round. You do not calculate from the date you get resident visa from, its the date you intend to apply for citizenship from. Look at the time duration of 23/10/2018 to 23/10/2017, obviously you will calculate till 23/02/2018 and if that duration is 240 days you are good to apply.

hi, We(family of 3) were granted resident visa on 23 Feb 2018.based on that I think I(we) will be eligible to
apply to citizenship after 23 October 2022. I was just wondering if someone could review this for me. I have calculated the presence requirement as per worked examples and hopefully i have done it correct.
Travel dates outside NZ
24 Dec 2018 - 22 Jan 2019 (30 days)
30 Dec 2021 - 19 March 2022 (80 days)

Presence
Year 1 24 October 2021 to 23 October 2022 > 285 days > 80 days outside NZ (365-80=285) - Requirement Met
Year 2 24 October 2020 to 23 October 2021 > 365 days > No Travel - Requirement Met
Year 3 24 October 2019 to 23 October 2020 > 365 days > No Travel - Requirement Met
Year 4 24 October 2018 to 23 October 2019 > 335 days > 30 days outside NZ(365-30=335) - Requirement Met
Year 5 24 February 2018 to 23 October 2018 > 241 days > No Travel - Requirement Met
Total presence = 285+365+365+335+241=1591 days

I will check on the calculator to on the day I become eligible. My passport was renewed in late 2019 and PR visa was issued on the new passport. Not sure if that will be an issue?? Any suggestions if somebody else have encountered issues with presence calculator due to this.

[rizjunior]

One more thing, just wait for the presence calculator to make you eligible. If it says not eligible, keep on checking and apply when it says eligible to apply. You will save lot of time as the automated checks will pass presence otherwise it will go to a second queue where it may take months. That's what happened to our case.

[sunny_singh305]

The presence will work like this if you apply on 23/10/2022
23/10/2022 to 23/10/2021
23/10/2021 to 23/10/2020
23/10/2020 to 23/10/2019
23/10/2019 to 23/10/2018
23/10/2018 to 23/02/2018--- 23+30+31+30+31+31+30+31+30+31+5= 303

It goes other way round. You do not calculate from the date you get resident visa from, its the date you intend to apply for citizenship from. Look at the time duration of 23/10/2018 to 23/10/2017, obviously you will calculate till 23/02/2018 and if that duration is 240 days you are good to apply.

Thanks for that i might have put the dates other way around but calculations are correct i believe and yes for the last year as i have not travelled the 240 days requirement is met from 23/2/2018 to 23/10/2018.

[sunny_singh305]

One more thing, just wait for the presence calculator to make you eligible. If it says not eligible, keep on checking and apply when it says eligible to apply. You will save lot of time as the automated checks will pass presence otherwise it will go to a second queue where it may take months. That's what happened to our case.

I am hoping the calculator will show i am eligible if not i guess the risk is delay in approval. How much time did it take in your case?
I have seen somewhere that calculator showed eligible 2.5 months after they applied.

[rizjunior]

Its 15 month now, I have case officer but presence requirement is going through second stage of approval.

[sunny_singh305]

thanks it quite a long wait, hopefully yours will come soon.

[pedditi03]

Makes sense, given that the Department of Internal Affairs works backwards from your application date.

Let's say that someone gains residency on January 1st 2020, and applies for citizenship exactly 4 years and 240 days later (which would be August 28th 2024 in this example). The Citizenship Office will then look at the following time periods:

• Period 1: August 29th 2019 to August 28th 2020
• Period 2: August 29th 2020 to August 28th 2021
• Period 3: August 29th 2021 to August 28th 2022
• Period 4: August 29th 2022 to August 28th 2023
• Period 5: August 29th 2023 to August 28th 2024

And assuming no international travel at all, their calculations would come to:

• Period 1: 240 days (as the period August 29th 2019 to December 31st 2019 cannot be counted in this example, due to residency being gained on January 1st 2020)
• Period 2: 365 days
• Period 3: 365 days
• Period 4: 365 days
• Period 5: 366 days (extra day, leap year)

As you can see in this example, the requirement is exactly met (each of the 5 periods is 240 days or more, and the sum of all 5 periods is 1,350 days or more) -- but as the first of the periods is exactly 240 days, this example leaves no margin for error. If the person was out of the country for 5 days between January 1st 2020 and August 28th 2020 (and forgot to consider this, or didn't think they had to consider this), the time spent in Period 1 drops to 235 days, and the presence requirement is no longer met. Sounds like this is what caught you out.

I think the confusion comes in because people believe that the Citizenship Office works forwards from the date residency is gained, but this is not correct: they work backwards from the date you lodge your application. The only reliable way of calculating one's eligibility is thus to do as the Citizenship Office does: work backwards from the date of application to determine the date ranges of the five periods (as in my example), then calculate presence in each of those periods (making sure all of them are 240 days or more), and if that's good, add them all up to make sure the combined total is 1,350 days or more. This confusion could be solved by the Citizenship Office providing an example, much like mine, on how to calculate presence -- the example scenarios provided are somewhat vague in this regard.

Can you apply the citizenship after completing another 5-6 days after Aug 28 2024 to meet the criteria in the first year? Given the min requirement only met for 235 days, my question is if someone spends a few more days after the meeting, can they be eligible?

[JandM]

Don't forget, the time periods are counted BACKWARDS from the date of application. If the person delays putting in their application for (say) six days, then ALL the time periods will be nudged forward by that same amount. So Kelerei's example dates would be altered to September 4th - September 3rd for each period, and the applicant would have to consider their eligibilty between those dates instead.