31 May 2023
45 Pipitea Street, Wellington 6011
Phone +64 4 495 7200
dia.govt.nz
Zane Collins
fyi-request-22667-
[email address]
Tēnā koe Zane
OIA request 22/23 0814 Request for Citizenship Timeframes
Thank you for your Official Information Act (Act) request received by the Department of Internal
Affairs (Department) on 3 May 2023.
You requested –
•
Please provide how many of the online applications of citizenship by grant submitted in
April 2022 have been progressed.
Content requested:
a. Submitted Month Number of Approved Application
b. Number of Processing Application
c. How many buckets are allocated per month
d. No of applications submitted in April 2022 waiting to be allocated to a case officer
in different buckets i.e., requesting the number of applications in each bucket
separately
e. application status by country in each bucket separately
f. age of the oldest applications submitted in each bucket separately
g. ETA processing times for applications picked up over the last 6 months
For ease of answering I have labelled your questions.
In response to your request, I can provide you with the following information.
‘Bucket’ is an internal word that the Department uses. Essentially it means workstream. When
you apply, your application is triaged into a workstream with similar applications. There are six
different workstreams. All applications start off by being placed into workstream two and then
are filtered into other workstreams using system logic. Please see basic overview of
workstreams:
•
Workstream one – Applications from workstream 2 that were not automatically able to
go into workstream 3, 4, 5 or 6, and that have been pre-assessed by an administrator for
completeness.
•
Workstream two – All applications begin in this queue are filtered to other queues using
system logic. Applications that are not automatically able to go to workstream 3, 4, 5 and
6 remain in this queue until they are picked up by an administrator and pre-assessed for
completeness, before then being moved to workstream 1.
•
Workstream three – Online applications that meet all automated checks.
•
Workstream four – Applications assessed under the Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act
1982.
•
Workstream five – Online applications that meet all automated checks except presence
and/or English. Manual assessment required.
•
Workstream six – Applications submitted on paper that meet all automated checks.
Putting applications into workstreams is an internal process which allows the Department to
assign Life and Identity Service Officers to process similar types of applications based on their
skills.
Please see attached alongside this letter, Appendix A which shows the following tables with
information as at the 12 May 2023:
•
Table One: the
current status of applications for Citizenship by Grant submitted online
during April 2022.
•
Table Two: oldest submitted date of unassigned Citizenship by Grant applications in
each Workstream.
•
Table Three: average number of working days taken to process Citizenship by Grant
applications (from assigned until outcome determined).
•
Table Four: status of Citizenship by Grant applications for each country in each
Workstream.
Response
Questions (a) and (b) Response
Please refer to Appendix A, Table One.
Question (c) Response
This question does not align with how the workstreams operate; therefore, I have refused this
part of your request under section 18(e) that the document alleged to contain the information
requested does not exist or, despite reasonable efforts to locate it, cannot be found.
Question (d) Response
All 177 unassigned applications from April 2022 are in Workstream One.
Question (e) Response
Please refer to Appendix A, Table Four.
Question (f) Response
Please refer to Appendix A, Table Two.
Page 3 of 3
Question (g) Response
Please refer to Appendix A, Table Three.
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 its 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.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision.
Information about how to make a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
freephone 0800 802 602.
Ngā mihi
Kate Raggett
Manager Operational Policy and Official Correspondence
Service Delivery and Operations
Page 3 of 3
