11 February 2026
45 Pipitea Street, Wel ington 6011
Phone +64 4 495 7200
dia.govt.nz
Eddie J
fyi-request-33477-
[email address]
Tēnā koe Eddie
OIA request 25/26-0726 - Request for information about citizenship ceremonies in Timaru
Thank you for your Official Information Act (Act) request received by the Department of Internal
Affairs (Department) on 9 January 2026.
You requested –
1. The planned dates and months for citizenship ceremonies scheduled to take place in
Timaru during 2026.
2. The current number of individuals who have been approved for citizenship but have not
yet been assigned to a citizenship ceremony in Timaru.
3. The oldest citizenship approval date for applicants in Timaru who are stil awaiting
assignment to a citizenship ceremony.
For ease of response, I have numbered your request.
Caveats:
This data was col ated on 22 January 2026 and is accurate as at this date.
As the data is extracted from dynamic systems, there may be smal variances when
compared with prior or future datasets.
In response to your request I can provide you with the fol owing information.
Question one
I can advise the dates for the Timaru citizenship ceremonies in 2026 are as fol ows:
3 February 2026
5 May 2026
4 August 2026
6 October 2026
Please note that scheduled dates for citizenship ceremonies are tentative and are subject to
change.
Question two
I can advise that there are 86 applicants that have been approved for citizenship but have not
yet been assigned to a ceremony in Timaru.
Question three
I can advise that the oldest approval dates for applicants in Timaru who have not yet been
assigned to a citizenship ceremony are July 2025 and August 2025. These two applicants were
invited to attend citizenship ceremonies but did not attend.
The next oldest approval date for an applicant in Timaru who has not yet been assigned to a
citizenship ceremony is 13 October 2025.
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. Al requestor data,
including your name and contact details, wil be removed prior to release. The released
response wil 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.
Nāku noa, nā
Julia Taylor
Director Branch Performance
Regulatory and Identity Services
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