Department of Internal Affairs
Te Tari Taiwhenua
Purpose
1.
This briefing updates you on the Department of Internal Affairs’ (the Department)
current volumes in passports, citizenship, RealMe Verified Identities and births, deaths
and marriages applications. It also sets out how the Department is managing upcoming
planned system changes and forecast volumes.
2.
Data on delivery performance for the Department’s life and identity products is
included as Appendix A.
Current services and upcoming changes
Contact Centre
Out of Scope
IN-CONFIDENCE
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Department of Internal Affairs
Te Tari Taiwhenua
Passports
Out of Scope
IN-CONFIDENCE
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Department of Internal Affairs
Te Tari Taiwhenua
Out of Scope
Citizenship by grant
May and current work on hand
16. In May the Department received 3,062 applications and completed 3,063 applications
for citizenship by grant2. This is a 39% increase in completed applications from April
and is due to more working days in May and efficiency gains following the significant
systems changes in March and follow up release delivered on 11 May.
17. On 31 May there were 16,280 applications on hand, a decrease of 1.3% from last
month. Of these applications 6,119 are allocated and being assessed and 10,161 are
unassigned. Applications that are allocated and being assessed for eligibility in May
were received in February 2025. New system functionality now allocates the oldest
application to staff, enabling us to reduce the average age of applications on hand.
18. Following the recent system changes and new ways of working, staff productively is
now beginning to stabilise and build week on week. The weekly output for completed
applications during the second week of May exceeded the target of 750 applications,
signifying a reduction of the application backlog.
19. The graph below shows the applications received and completed from May 2024 to
May 2025 and the work on hand at 1 June 2025.
2 Completed applications are applications where the applicant was granted citizenship or has been referred to
you as a submission.
IN-CONFIDENCE
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Department of Internal Affairs
Te Tari Taiwhenua
Out of Scope
Citizenship by descent registration
Out of Scope
Birth, deaths and marriage registrations
Out of Scope
IN-CONFIDENCE
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Department of Internal Affairs
Te Tari Taiwhenua
Out of Scope
RealMe verified identities
Out of Scope
IN-CONFIDENCE
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Department of Internal Affairs
Out of Scope
Life and identity products and services performance measures
41. The Life and Identity products and services performance measure dashboards are
attached at Appendix A. These dashboards are also available on the Department’s
website here: Life and Identity Services Performance Measures Dashboard - dia.govt.nz.
42. We are in the process of updating the dashboards to reflect the Department’s non-
financial performance measures from 1 July 2025. The updated dashboards will be
available for your review and feedback in June, ready for publication from August 2025
once data is available.
Recommendation
43. Officials are available to discuss the contents of this briefing with you if this would be
of assistance.
Rachel Leota
Deputy Secretary
Regulatory and Identity Services
IN-CONFIDENCE
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