JAJ

It seems that NZ is now planning to introduce transitional arrangements for implementing the new 5 year residence requirement:
From http://www.citizenship.govt.nz:

Residence Requirement

The Bill proposes to:

increase the standard period of residence in New Zealand from three years to five years for all new permanent residents from 1 January 2005. The Bill will effectively create three categories of applicants:

1. people who lodge their applications for a grant before 1 January 2005 and who will be assessed entirely against the current requirements;
2. people who apply between 1 January 2005 and 31 December 2009, but who were entitled to be in New Zealand indefinitely before 1 January 2005. These people will have to meet the current residence requirement (three years ordinary residence) but will have to meet all the other new requirements; and
3. people who obtain residence on or after 1 January 2005 and who will have to meet all of the new requirements for the grant.

It's probably still a good idea for anyone eligible and keen to apply to get on with it now as the Bill is not yet finalised and may still change.

Automatic Citizenship by Birth in NZ
It looks like this will change (from 1.1.05)

The Bill will include provisions that will restrict citizenship by birth in New Zealand to the children of New Zealand citizens and permanent residents. Under this provision people coming to New Zealand on temporary permits solely to give birth so that their New Zealand-born children are citizens will no longer be able to do this.

Jeremy

westiepom

We applied for citizenship as soon as we were eligible in July and have just had a letter back saying that we will not be allocated a case officer for 4 months - just checked my visa statement and they've taken the money out though. They didn't have to wait 4 months to get on to that !!

Stuee

Same here, didnt wait 4 months to take my money.

Stuee

JAJ

About 30% of applications for Australian citizenship are processed the same day, and about 90% within one month. Usually the more complex cases, or cases where people apply 'online' rather than in person and have to wait for an interview, are the ones that take a little longer to finalise.

The longest component of the wait in Australia is the time before the ceremony, 1-2 months in most urban areas (where councils usually organise ceremonies frequently), maybe longer in regional and rural areas.

Jeremy

BritboyNZ

Wow, looks like they've been snowed under. I sent my application off in early April (literally a couple of days after they announced the proposed change to 5yrs), had interview with case officer to return docs in July, got approval letter 2 weeks after that. ceremony is next tues. total time - just over 5 months from submitting application to attending ceremony.

As long as you've submitted your application, the changes won't affect you (was told this by my case officer when I met her).

All the best

Russ

JAJ

Hardly suprising when they announce a change like this. Even if the transitional arrangements are included in the final Bill, many people won't understand the finer points and will just panic.

It's always better to apply for something in good time than continually put it off and then stress out when the rules change or your application is caught up in an avalanche of others and you just have to wait (even if you need citizenship in a hurry).

Jeremy