NZ Citizenship applications submitted in 2021

[newarrival]

Looking at the historically processed citizenship, I think everything is normal except those months, and the numbers was always like that (averaging 2,958 applicants per month)

Before covid, the process was relatively fast; a friend of mine applied on Monday and got approved on Thursday in the same week.

But now it's like 7-12 months. Not sure what's happening back there.

I got my citizenship around 7 years ago, but it definitely took more than two days back hen. My daughter and I applied in person at the office in Wellington, and, as far as I remember it was a couple of months at least until we heard back.

[helpplease]

Hi all,

I applied for citizenship in April 2021 online, fees deducted and got same standard response via auto generated email that my application will be actioned in next 7-10 months, so i'm not expecting anything before Nov 21, till then im sitting queitly and relaxed. 😬

[Dank]

I got my citizenship around 7 years ago, but it definitely took more than two days back hen. My daughter and I applied in person at the office in Wellington, and, as far as I remember it was a couple of months at least until we heard back.

Thanks newarrival. This is helpful.

[jawnbc]

Did mine in 2017 in-person in Auckland. Got my approved letter less than 10 days later. Had to wait a couple of months for a ceremony.

[l00k]

A new FYI from a guy named Daniel

https://fyi.org.nz/request/15427-cit...incoming-59038

Extract:

“The first reason for the increase in allocation time is that the Department accepts applications at appointments. Prior to December, applications accepted at appointment were assigned to a case officer who began processing the application immediately. The Department recognised that this was prioritising applications received at appointments above those received by mail or submitted online. Because of this, the Department changed its processes in December 2020.”

So that wasn’t a myth - prior to Dec 2020, in-person applications were processed faster than online application. Though they are now treated as the same.

“While applications are still accepted at appointments, those applications are now put in the same queue to be assigned as other paper applications. While these applications were small in volume, they did impact the average working days from date submitted to date assigned to a case officer.”

[Sackboy]

Interesting reading, but I still can't believe it because they're still processing August 2020 applications. (They've been doing that for like 3 months now).

[l00k]

July 2020 and August 2020 created the largest backlog in history.

Also the number of applications processed has decreased a lot.

Jan 2021: 819
Feb 2021: 1,283
Mar 2021: 2,081
Apr 2021: 1,165
May 2021: 1,456

Source: from the OIA for the same guy (Daniel)

https://fyi.org.nz/request/15426/res...021%200563.pdf

Last year it is more than 2,000 applications processed per month for many months

https://fyi.org.nz/request/14230/res...pendix%20A.pdf

[Eckard]

"Currently they are processing Aug 2020 applications. " - is it possible to retrieve to information online?

[Sackboy]

They've been saying like that since April. I read it somewhere here, from one of the FYI request.

[l00k]

The processing time from CO allocation to approval actually remained quite stable.

Jan 2021: 47 days
Feb 2021: 41 days
Mar 2021: 41 days
Apr 2021: 49 days
May 2021: 38 days

Note it was 33 days for Jan and Feb 2020 (pre-covid)

So the main cause of the backlog is actually the time between submission to allocation.

https://fyi.org.nz/request/15426/res...021%200563.pdf