Pandemic sees drop in new citizens

7:17 pm on 25 March 2021

A person applying for citizenship is calling the application process a "shambles" because of the slow processing speed.

A New Zealand passport with silver fern on a red background (file photo)

Photo: 123RF

The Department of Internal Affairs blames Covid-19 for causing a backlog.

RNZ spoke to a man who complained to Internal Affairs about the slow pace of his application which he filed in November.

Last week, he was told it had not yet been assigned to staff, and it would take another five to six months before this happened.

Internal Affairs told the man the Covid-19 alert levels have had an impact on its citizenship team, and they were only now dealing with applications from July last year.

The man said that the process was a "shambles" and he thought Covid-19 was just an "excuse".

This is all while the number of new citizens in New Zealand has dropped in the last year, thought to be because of the pandemic.

In 2020, New Zealand welcomed nearly 31,870 citizens, down from 44,413 in 2019 - a decrease of about 30 percent.

Te Tari Taiwhenua, the Department of Internal Affairs, does not collect data on why people apply for citizenship.

But it believed the drop was because of worldwide Covid-19 disruption and is forecasting the trend will continue this year.

The department said there are various ways that people can become citizens, including "by descent" when they have a parent who was born in New Zealand or "by grant" if they have migrated to New Zealand and applied for citizenship.