Latest Citizenship Timeline - adults only

[johnotbc]

Hello everyone,
I have just received an email notification confirming the approval of our citizenship (myself, wife, and 3 kids).
We applied on 9th of March 2023, just as soon as the online calculator showed we were eligible. We did an online application for all of us.

Residency was granted on 9th of June 2018.
We were out of New Zealand between 10th December 2018 to 10th January 2019 (about a month outside).

I am now waiting for the ceremony invitation in Wellington.

Thank you all for the wonderful information you have been providing to support one another,

[Sunny Ahluwalia]

Got approved today. Applied 10th March 2023

[aitty]

Joint Application April 2022 - Still waiting to be allocated to a case officer. Any updates on April 2022 applications?

[Wrightwoo]

How can some people get approved just a month, and others have to wait forever.......

[Kelerei]

How can some people get approved just a month, and others have to wait forever.......

Quite simply, because each person's circumstances are different. The ones that take longer are those that, for reasons specific to them, require additional manual processing.

I'm expecting that, when I lodge my own citizenship application next year, I'll be requiring additional manual processing myself due to one of my answers to the character questions. Nothing that was directly my fault: in the 2019/20 financial year, the company that I worked for at the time (which paid us monthly) moved our salary payments from the 7th of the month to the last working day of the month, and didn't realise that IRD would see 13 monthly payments instead of 12 for that financial year. The result is that all of us ended up owing quite a chunk of money to IRD. The company immediately admitted their error and reimbursed us for those IRD payments -- but still, it means that I need to answer "yes" to the "have you ever owed money to a government department" question, provide supporting evidence of the circumstances and that I'm in good standing with IRD, and then have all of that manually assessed. Consequently, I'm fully expecting to be in the upper percentile of processing time.

[TheNewKiwi]

I'm fully expecting to be in the upper percentile of processing time.

Same with me. Through no fault of my own. my birth certificate lists the US *county* of my birth, but not the city. DIA needs the city. Because that was not listed on my birth certificate, I had the "long road" to citizenship.

You never know what will affect your timeline.

[meowskie]

Hi, I am now qualified to apply for citizenship based on the online presence calculator but my husband, who arrived in NZ 16days after our resident visa was approved, still shows that he does not meet the presence requirements.

What do you think will happen to our application if we applied for citizenship together?

[Kelerei]

Hi, I am now qualified to apply for citizenship based on the online presence calculator but my husband, who arrived in NZ 16days after our resident visa was approved, still shows that he does not meet the presence requirements.

What do you think will happen to our application if we applied for citizenship together?

You each need to meet the eligilibity criteria in your own right. In your place, I'd wait another 16 days.

[Kamalnadala]

Hi everyone
I have question i’ve got residency in 2016 in december and I went overseas for two months in 2021 but i was stuck there cause of covid. I tried to come back but my flight tickets and MiQ cancelled twice So Is am eligible to apply or no?

[Kelerei]

Hi everyone
I have question i’ve got residency in 2016 in december and I went overseas for two months in 2021 but i was stuck there cause of covid. I tried to come back but my flight tickets and MiQ cancelled twice So Is am eligible to apply or no?

This is a documented exceptional circumstance (see the Citizenship Guidance Document) where the Minister of Internal Affairs has delegated authority to the Citizenship Office to accept the reduced presence requirement (being present in New Zealand for at least 450 days in the 20 months immediately before the application for citizenship was lodged).

For you to be approved in this manner, you will need to submit evidence that:

• you have a permanent base in New Zealand; and
• you had specific plans to return to New Zealand when you travelled, but were unable to return due to the Covid pandemic; and
• you attempted to return to New Zealand as soon as you reasonably could, and did return; and
• were it not for the disruption to your travel caused by the Covid pandemic, you would have met the standard presence requirement (at least 1,350 days in the 5 years immediately before applying, and at least 240 days in each of those 5 years).