Latest Citizenship Timeline

[TheNewKiwi]

Hi guys good day

anyone applied between December 2020 and January 2021 any update?

I applied 17th Feb 2021 still waiting

thanks

Both people I know who submitted in Feb 2021 are still waiting, as is another who submitted September 2020.

[rooskie]

Hi guys good day

anyone applied between December 2020 and January 2021 any update?

I applied 17th Feb 2021 still waiting

thanks

I applied in Jan 2021. Haven't heard from DIA since.

[TheNewKiwi]

This post on page 8 of this thread shows they are currently processing September/October 2020.

[frootbat]

Partner and I applied online Aug 2020.
He has just received an email that states his contact details and goes on:

If you do not keep us up-to-date with your contact details and current circumstances, or respond to our requests for information, after six months your application will be presented to the Minister for a decision based on the available information.
When your application is completed, it will be sent to the Minister of Internal Affairs for consideration and you will be sent an email with the result.

This email isn’t actually requesting any information or reply, it seems to me a tacit acceptance process ie if it’s ok say nothing.
My reading of the above is that they will leave it 6 months THEN present his application to the Minister and it will THEN be sent to DIA. Then and only then might he get invited to a citizenship ceremony of which the last this year in our district is in November so I don’t much fancy his chances.
Am I reading the above correctly or is it better than the email makes out? I’m reluctant to email DIA because they’re already so unbelievably slow I daren’t delay them further.
Can’t believe it’s taking so long, what the hell do they actually DO?
Meanwhile I’ve heard nothing about my own application (applied on the same day)

Well we (both) replied to this ambiguous email with a very brief 'my contact details are up to date' for the avoidance of any confusion, and received confirmations in early and mid-June respectively that our applications were 'approved'. Since then, silence.
Our next citizenship ceremony is late August and the one after that is November, so getting slightly impatient I phoned an 0800 number this morning which got me an email address, to which I enquired about the August ceremony. I've got a response today suggesting we might get an invitation. It took 10 months from application to approval and (if we go in August) 1 year and 3 weeks from applying to completion, and we are very straightforward cases.
I still can't fathom what takes so long, surely once you've been approved it should be very simple to allocate you to a ceremony not a 2-5 month wait, they could even let people go online and book themselves? That way they might spend less time responding to OIA requests from disgruntled would-be citizens and more time processing applications.
Whatever. Hope it is all over soon. Good luck everyone else who is waiting.

[kyozera]

Well we (both) replied to this ambiguous email with a very brief 'my contact details are up to date' for the avoidance of any confusion, and received confirmations in early and mid-June respectively that our applications were 'approved'. Since then, silence.
Our next citizenship ceremony is late August and the one after that is November, so getting slightly impatient I phoned an 0800 number this morning which got me an email address, to which I enquired about the August ceremony. I've got a response today suggesting we might get an invitation. It took 10 months from application to approval and (if we go in August) 1 year and 3 weeks from applying to completion, and we are very straightforward cases.
I still can't fathom what takes so long, surely once you've been approved it should be very simple to allocate you to a ceremony not a 2-5 month wait, they could even let people go online and book themselves? That way they might spend less time responding to OIA requests from disgruntled would-be citizens and more time processing applications.
Whatever. Hope it is all over soon. Good luck everyone else who is waiting.

Are you in Auckland?
I applied in July 2020, got mine approved May 2021. I haven't received my ceremony invite yet.

[Dank]

Are you in Auckland?
I applied in July 2020, got mine approved May 2021. I haven't received my ceremony invite yet.

Congratulations kyozera.

[newarrival]

Well we (both) replied to this ambiguous email with a very brief 'my contact details are up to date' for the avoidance of any confusion, and received confirmations in early and mid-June respectively that our applications were 'approved'. Since then, silence.
Our next citizenship ceremony is late August and the one after that is November, so getting slightly impatient I phoned an 0800 number this morning which got me an email address, to which I enquired about the August ceremony. I've got a response today suggesting we might get an invitation. It took 10 months from application to approval and (if we go in August) 1 year and 3 weeks from applying to completion, and we are very straightforward cases.
I still can't fathom what takes so long, surely once you've been approved it should be very simple to allocate you to a ceremony not a 2-5 month wait, they could even let people go online and book themselves? That way they might spend less time responding to OIA requests from disgruntled would-be citizens and more time processing applications.
Whatever. Hope it is all over soon. Good luck everyone else who is waiting.

But the ceremony part isn't dealt with by DIA, it is the local council that runs them and invites the people (at least that was my understanding). I can't rememberexactly any more, but I thought we got our approval letter (by post, not email), then anotherletter with the date and time ofthe ceremony. Mind you, it is almost ten years ago now, so everything might have changed.

[Kelerei]

But the ceremony part isn't dealt with by DIA, it is the local council that runs them and invites the people (at least that was my understanding). I can't rememberexactly any more, but I thought we got our approval letter (by post, not email), then anotherletter with the date and time ofthe ceremony. Mind you, it is almost ten years ago now, so everything might have changed.

While the Department of Internal Affairs doesn't provide much detail, I found some juicy tidbits on the Upper Hutt City Council website that indicates that this is a joint effort.

It appears to work as follows:

• Once there is a certain threshold of candidates awaiting a ceremony, DIA notifies the local council. (Note that the Upper Hutt City Council states that the allocation of candidates to ceremonies is DIA's responsibility.)
• The local council then prepares to host the ceremony, and provides DIA with the date and any other pertinent information.
• DIA is responsible for notifying the citizenship candidates about their ceremony date, location, and any other details required for the candidate to attend.
• The local council hosts the ceremony, and the candidates pledge their allegiance to New Zealand and receive their certificates. While not explicitly mentioned, I can imagine that this would require considerable co-ordination between the local council and DIA. Also, INZ would need to be kept informed because, by law, they must cancel the visas of all the candidates once they become citizens.

Might be other corroborating information on other local council websites, haven't checked.

[allune]

Wonder if like the residency queue is the government purposely making citizenship processing slow to mitigate brain drain to Australia and other countries…

[TheNewKiwi]

Wonder if like the residency queue is the government purposely making citizenship processing slow to mitigate brain drain to Australia and other countries…

When I submitted my application last week, I had a chat about this with the woman who reviewed my application. She told me that prior to March 2020, the processing time was much shorter. Then DIA had the trifecta: massive increase in applications, covid lockdown, and implementing a new online application system. It resulted in a massive backlog, that they are still struggling to clear. She said they had borrowed some workers from passport processing for a while while travel was more restricted, but now that passport applications are back up to normal, they lost them again. They just hired a bunch more workers, so hopefully things will pick up soon. I don't know if that is truly the reason, but that's what they're telling people.