2 February 2024
45 Pipitea Street, Wellington 6011
Phone +64 4 495 7200
dia.govt.nz
Dhiraj via FYI
fyi-request-25192-
[email address]
Tēnā koe Dhiraj
OIA request 23/24 0450 Request for Citizenship Timeframes
Thank you for your Official Information Act (Act) request received by the Department of Internal
Affairs (Department) on 15 December 2023.
You requested –
Can you please provide the update on application status submitted on November 2022:
1. Submitted on each day in November 2022 in a table with workstream and their
status
2. By country list in a table with workstream and their status for November 2022
3. Total application status in each workstream for year 2022 and 2023 till date in a
table
4. Total approved applications from year 2023 till date and total unassigned
applications from year 2022
5. If the number of approved applications from year 2023 is higher or around same with
the number of unassigned applications of year 2022, why the older applications
aren't prioritized?
In response to your request I can provide you with the following information.
Please refer to Appendix A, attached with this letter which has the following data which is
current as at 11 January 2024.
Question one response
Please refer to Table 1, Appendix A
.
Question two response
Please refer to Table 2, Appendix A.
Question three response
Please refer to Table 3, Appendix A.
Question four response
Please refer to Table 4, Appendix A.
Question five response
It may be helpful to explain that once an application has been filtered into the relevant
workstream for processing, the oldest application in a workstream is worked on first. Please see
below for an explanation of how the applications are processed, this will help you understand
how the applications are completed.
There are six different workstreams for managing citizenship by grant applications. All
applications start off by being placed into workstream two. They are then filtered into other
workstreams using system logic or automated assessment of applications.
• Workstream one – Applications transferred from workstream two that have been pre-
assessed by an administrator for completeness, or have been automatically filtered to
workstreams three, five and six and, after the initial manual assessment, it is deemed
that further manual assessment is required.
• Workstream two – All applications begin in this queue and are filtered to other queues
using system logic. Applications that are not automatically able to go to workstream
three, four, five and six remain in this queue until they are picked up by an administrator
and pre-assessed for completeness, before then being moved to workstream one.
• 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 is required.
• Workstream six – Applications submitted on paper that meet all automated checks.
It is important to mention here that we have removed the pre-assessment of
applications. These are internal operational matters and will not affect the current processing
of applications.
You may be interested to know that there is a lot of publicly available information online about
citizenship and the timeframes for processing citizenship applications. The Department, for
example, regularly proactively publishes Official Information Act responses on its website,
including information about citizenship timeframes. Responses have been proactively released
here https://www.dia.govt.nz/Official-Information-Act-Requests-2.
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.
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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
Julia Taylor
Manager Operational Policy and Official Correspondence
Service Delivery and Operations
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