Please provide the number of applications approved for citizenship from March 2019. Who do not meet he presence requirement of 1,350 days due to the border closure and permanent resident not being able to enter New Zealand.
This would help large number of people who are not eligible to apply for New Zealand citizenship because they were stuck overseas. Borders were closed and only citizens were allowed to come back at one stage. this has affected large number of permanent residents who are trying to apply for citizenship and not able to meet the presence requirement because boarders were closed.
This data would guide all those people and help them to know wether they can apply for citizenship or not. it will also reduce the burden on call center of DIA as no information is available about this topic.
Data does not exist
13 Feb 2023 45 Pipitea Street, Wellington 6011 Phone +64 4 495 7200 dia.govt.nz Anonymous via FYI info@data.govt.nz Tēnā koe OIA request 22/23 0501 Request for Citizenship data Thank you for your Official Information Act (Act) request received by the Department of Internal Affairs (Department) on 25 December 2022. You requested – • I would like to request the number of applications approved for citizenship from March 2019. Who do not meet the presence requirement of 1,350 days due to the border closure and permanent resident not being able to enter New Zealand. In response to your request I can confirm that we do not hold such statistics. Your request must therefore be refused pursuant to section 18(e) of the Act as the information requested does not exist. I note that the Department is aware some New Zealand residents may have been unable to return to New Zealand for an extended period due to travel restrictions associated with Covid-19, and that this may have an affect on their ability to meet the presence requirement if they were to apply for citizenship. It may be helpful for me to explain that as the five-year presence criteria counts back from the day someone applies for citizenship, and is not calendar years, the applicant may have the option to split their overseas travel into two year periods by applying on a date that would have been half way through their travel. For more information on the presence requirement please refer here; Presence in NZ requirements | New Zealand Government (www.govt.nz). If an applicant would still not meet the presence criteria for Citizenship by Grant then they would have the option to proceed as a written submission to the Minister to be considered under exceptional circumstances. If they proceed with a submission, staff would work with the applicant to document their circumstances, and clearly outline how Covid-19 affected their ability to meet presence, for the Minister’s consideration. In case it is of interest to you, the Citizenship Guidance Document - dia.govt.nz on our website sets out the Minister’s Policy on exceptional circumstances on page 10. I would like to thank you for bringing to our attention that this sort of data may be of interest to the public. I have passed your correspondence onto the appropriate staff members for consideration of collecting this type of data moving forward. As this information may be of interest to other members of the public, the Department has decided to proactively release a copy of this response on the DIA website. All requestor data, including your name and contact details, will be removed prior to release. The released response will be made available here: https://www.dia.govt.nz/Official-Information-Act-Requests-2. You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision. Information about how to make a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602. Ngā mihi, Julia Taylor Manager Operational Policy and Official Correspondence Service Delivery and Operations
2 Votes
Agency responded