12 February 2025
45 Pipitea Street, Wel ington 6011
Phone +64 4 495 7200
dia.govt.nz
David Singh
fyi-request-33500-
[email address]
Tēnā koe David
OIA request 25/26-0738 Request for citizenship ceremony dates and data in Christchurch
Thank you for your Official Information Act (Act) request received by the Department of Internal
Affairs (Department) on 13 January 2026.
You requested –
1. Can you provide a list of the confirmed dates, time, and venue, for the upcoming
citizenship ceremonies hosted by Christchurch City Council from January 2026 and
December 2026.
2. For each of the ceremonies, could you also please provide the capacity and the amount of
applicants al owed and invited to date for this ceremony for the relevant date.
3. I would also like to know, at the moment, in the Christchurch City Council area, how
many CBG applicants has their application approved and waiting for an al ocation to a
ceremony? How many applicants has been al ocated to a ceremony? How many
applicants are waiting for a ceremony?
For ease of response, I have numbered your request.
In response to your request I can provide you with the fol owing information.
Questions one and two
I note, Christchurch City Council (CCC) also received this part of your request and they provided
a response to you on 20 January 2026. Therefore, we refer you to their response for answers to
his portion of your request - https://fyi.org.nz/request/33499-citizenship-ceremonies-dates-
christchurch-city-council-2026#incoming-137511. Since that response the Council has scheduled
a further two ceremonies, on 28 April and 25 May. There is capacity for 320 applicants at the
April and May ceremonies.
I can advise that, as at 11 February 2026, the al ocated number of applicants invited to
citizenship ceremonies hosted by CCC in 2026 are:
56 applicants for the 6 February 2026 (Waitangi Day) ceremony,
319 applicants for the 10 February 2026 ceremony,
314 applicants for the 9 March 2026 ceremony,
17 applicants for the 30 March 2026 ceremony,
1 applicant for the 28 April 2026 ceremony, and
No applicants are currently al ocated to the 25 May 2026 ceremony.
Question three
Caveats:
This data was col ated at 2:11pm on 11 February 2026 and is accurate as at this time and
date.
As the data is extracted from dynamic systems, there may be smal variances when
compared with prior or future datasets.
I can advise that there are:
707 applicants that have been al ocated to a ceremony at the Christchurch City Council
in 2026.
298 applicants waiting to be al ocated to a ceremony at the Christchurch City Council.
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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