New Zealand citizenship

This section describes the requirements for people wanting to gain New Zealand citizenship by grant, referred to as naturalisation.^[36] New Zealand does not restrict its citizens from having other citizenships.

General criteria for naturalisation

Most applicants for the grant of citizenship must meet the following standard requirements.

• Applicants must be entitled to reside indefinitely in New Zealand.
• Applicants must have been in New Zealand for 1,350 days in the past 5 years, including 240 days in each of those 5 years. During these days, applicants must have been entitled to reside indefinitely in New Zealand.
• Applicants must be of good character, including having no disqualifying convictions.
• Applicants must have sufficient knowledge of the rights and responsibilities of being a New Zealand citizen.
• Applicants must have sufficient knowledge of the English language.
• Applicants must intend to reside indefinitely in New Zealand.

The Minister of Internal Affairs can reduce the presence period if an applicant has been in New Zealand as a resident (or otherwise entitled to reside indefinitely) for 450 days in the 20 months immediately preceding application and in other exceptional circumstances. The English language requirement can be waived if it would cause undue hardship to the applicant to meet that requirement. The Minister may also grant citizenship regardless of an applicant not meeting the standard requirements (except the disqualifying convictions requirement):

• if there are exceptional circumstances such that it would be in the public interest
• to a child under the age of 16
• to a child of a citizen by descent
• if the person would otherwise be stateless.

The disqualifying conviction requirement (which provides for a varying disqualifying period depending on the length of sentence) can be waived only if there are exceptional circumstances relating to that conviction.

There are also 'special' provisions that are not subject to the standard requirements or the disqualifying convictions provisions. These provisions provide a grant for:

• Samoans who were in New Zealand on 14 September 1982
• Samoans who entered New Zealand on or after 15 September 1982 and are entitled to reside indefinitely in New Zealand
• children born overseas between 1 January 1949 and 1 January 1978 to female citizens by grant or birth.

The first two special provisions come from the Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982, which reflect New Zealand's relationship with Samoa. The third provision rectifies a disadvantage of the previous British Nationality and New Zealand Citizenship Act 1948, which prevented citizenship by descent being passed through the female line.

Recent changes to criteria

The last amendments to the Citizenship Act were in 2005. Before 2005, applicants must have been ordinarily resident in New Zealand for only 3 years. The ordinarily resident requirement meant applicants could spend the 3 years in New Zealand on temporary permits (although they must have held a residence permit or been otherwise entitled to reside indefinitely in New Zealand when applying for the grant).

A transitional provision means the 3-year requirement is still applicable to people who applied for residence before or on 21 April 2005. That transitional provision runs out on 21 April 2010, and the 5-year requirement will then apply to all grant applicants. The 2005 changes also introduced the disqualifying convictions system. Before the changes, convictions were considered under the good character requirement. No changes have been made to the language requirement, and there are no cultural or economic tests for citizenship.^[37]

Citizen-only restrictions

People approved permanent residence in New Zealand have most of the rights of New Zealand citizens. Permanent residents are entitled to vote and have access to a range of services and entitlements, including:

• publicly funded healthcare
• publicly funded disability support services
• publicly funded aged care
• publicly funded compulsory education
• domestic tuition fees at tertiary institutions
• access to the unemployment benefit^[38]
• access to the retirement pension.^[39]

Foreign nationals have restricted access to employment in some government departments. For instance, most people employed by the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service and in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade have to be New Zealand citizens, as well as in the Identity Services business group of the Department of Internal Affairs. There are also some restrictions on foreign access to New Zealand land under the Overseas Investment Act 2005. Some educational scholarships are restricted to New Zealand citizens.

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