Peter Dunne
Wellington, August 11, 2017
The government has announced moves to improve transparency about the number of people gaining New Zealand Citizenship through exceptional circumstances.
The Department of Internal Affairs will be publishing six-monthly figures showing the number of grants made under the exceptional circumstances contained in section 9(1)(c) of the Citizenship Act 1977.
These figures are available from today.
Transparent process
Publishing high level information about decisions supports the public to have trust and confidence in how citizenship applications are assessed, particularly where Ministerial discretion is used to grant citizenship.
Decisions on applications for New Zealand Citizenship are made by the Minister of Internal Affairs, with each application carefully considered on a case-by-case basis.
Applicants are required to demonstrate that they meet core criteria as set out in legislation.
Ministerial discretion
If an applicant does not meet all of the core criteria, the Internal Affairs Minister can use discretion to grant citizenship if the applicant has demonstrated that their circumstances are exceptional, and that granting them citizenship would be in the public interest.
Information on the number of persons granted New Zealand Citizenship through exceptional circumstances can be found at
https://www.dia.govt.nz/Citizenship-Grants
For further information on section 9(1)(c) of the Citizenship Act 1977, and to view a non-exhaustive list of factors that may be considered by the Minister of Internal Affairs under this provision, visit https://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/wpg_URL/Services-Citizenship-Citizenship-policy?OpenDocument
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