8 February 2022
45 Pipitea Street, Wellington 6011
Phone +64 4 495 7200
dia.govt.nz
Thayr
fyi-request-18194-
[email address]
Tēnā koe Thayr
Request for information relating to citizenship processing timeframes
Re: Your Official Information Act (Act) request 2122-0415 received by the Department of
Internal Affairs (Department) on 16 November 2021.
You requested –
•
Can I get how many unallocated paper citizenship application per month between Jan
2021 to April 2021 ?
•
Can I get how many unallocated online citizenship application per month between Jan
2021 to April 2021 ?
•
Also can we get those information monthly upload it on citizenship website instead keep
asking for it here ?
You then advised in an email of 9 December 2021 –
Just for clarification I am asking for the remain unallocated application per month between Jan
2021 to April 2021.
As explained in our reply of 14 December 2021, we had interpreted the initial wording of your
request to be for the average number of unallocated applications per month and that we now
understood it to be for the remaining unallocated applications at the end of each month.
You responded that same day saying yes, and linked a table of data saying you were seeking
something similar.
In accordance with section 15(1AA) of the Act, your clarified request was therefore to be
treated as a new request, replacing the original. We advised the deadline for response changed
accordingly to 27 January 2022, but that we would respond as soon as practicable.
We then provided our response on 17 December 2021 to refuse your request under section
18(d), as the data discussed would soon be made publicly available.
You have since responded on 14 January 2022 to explain that you were in fact seeking –
How many application for each month still to need to be allocated between March 2021 to
December 2021 for paper and online application separately. I clearly showed example from
another request in my previous request. and here more clear one.
So data should look like this
Date Paper online
March 2021 500 1000 unallocated application remain that received in March
April 2021 400 2000 unallocated application remain that received in April
and so on
As there was a misunderstanding with your initial request, we are providing you with the correct
data initially sought, without treating it as a new Official Information Act request.
I note the latest wording of your request states you are seeking data for March to December
2021. As your initial request was for January to April 2021, I clarified that as at the date this data
will be pulled, we will be providing you with the current number of paper and online
applications still waiting to be allocated from the months January, February, March and April
2021. You responded “Yes and thank you”.
You will now find the data you seek in the table below.
Un-allocated
Month submitted
Online
Paper
January 2021
2
8
February 2021
439
18
March 2021
1676
497
April 2021
1802
492
In response to your question about whether we can publish this data on our website and update
it monthly, I would like to point out that the Department already publishes a range of data
relating to citizenship processing timeframes on our website. This is data that is considered to
be useful information for the public, and which we update monthly. I can confirm that we
currently have no plans to publish more datasets.
I would like to reiterate from previous responses to you that in addition, we also proactively
release all Official Information Act responses relating to the citizenship backlog and processing
timeframes, and regularly update citizenship processing timeframe information our website,
both of which you and the rest of the public have access to.
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As previously made clear to you on several occasions, the Department considers the significant
number of responses already provided to you in addition to all the information we have made
publicly available, to have been more than comprehensive. It is important for you to understand
that we have no further information to provide that we believe is of actual value to you.
I would also like to reiterate again that the Department is aware of the frustration experienced
by many surrounding the current citizenship processing timeframes. It is important for you take
note and be assured that the Department has initiatives underway to reduce the citizenship
application backlog, speed up processing, and improve general customer experience.
Should you have an application in that is of concern to you, I again
strongly encourage you to
contact the citizenship office directly on 0800 22 52 52 or at [email address] for an
update.
I am confident this letter has addressed the
last of your concerns regarding official information.
If it has not, we would like you to contact us directly via phone so that we can be clear on what
exactly it is that you are trying to determine. We would like to resolve this matter for you so
that you are satisfied with what will be our final response, as it is not sustainable for the
Department to continue putting resources into gathering data and preparing responses to your
ongoing requests that are all of such a similar nature.
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.
Ngā mihi
Anne-Claire Wyseur
Manager Operational Policy and Official Correspondence (Acting)
Service Delivery and Operations
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