Prime Minister Chris Hipkins (right) poses with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during his visit across the Tasman when the deal was announced. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Almost 2000 New Zealanders have applied for Australian citizenship, just days after the country's direct pathway came into effect.
The new rules came into force on 1 July, giving New Zealanders who had been on the Special Category Visa and lived in Australia for four years a clear pathway to get citizenship.
From 2001 until 1 July although New Zealanders could remain in Australia indefinitely on a Special Category Visa, getting permanent residency and citizenship was much more difficult.
Applying for citizenship during that period was expensive, and not a guarantee. It also meant New Zealanders living in Australia but who were not Australian citizens, missed out on things like jobseeker support, student loans, and disability payments and even the right to vote.
In contrast during that period, Australians in New Zealand had a clear pathway to citizenship after five years.
The Australian government announced a direct pathway to citizenship for New Zealanders in April this year, ending a tension between the two countries that had lasted for more than 20 years.
The Australian Department of Home Affairs said since 1 July, 1962 New Zealanders had applied for the direct pathway.
This was out of an estimated 300,000 New Zealanders living across the ditch who had become newly eligible after the law change.
Advocacy group for New Zealanders living in Australia, Oz-Kiwi said the initial numbers for citizenship applications were promising, but it expected many more to come.
Chairperson Joanne Cox said she hoped the daily applicants would be in the thousands, with at least 10,000 by the end of the month.
"We expect over the course of the coming weeks and months that there'll be more people applying, not everyone is going to jump on straight away.
"Overall I think people are really excited and they're really happy to actually have had this application process starting," Cox said.
"We just have to wait and see how long it takes for those applications to be finalised."
The Department of Home Affairs website said majority of its applications take five months or more to complete.
