9 April 2026
45 Pipitea Street, Wel ington 6011
Phone +64 4 495 7200
dia.govt.nz
Eddie J
[FYI request #34063 email]
Tēnā koe Eddie
OIA request 25/26 0969 Request for citizenship ceremony data
Thank you for your Official Information Act (Act) request received by the Department of Internal
Affairs (Department) on 13 March 2026.
You requested –
1. Number of individuals who have been approved for citizenship but have not yet been
assigned to a citizenship ceremony
2. The oldest citizenship approval date who are stil awaiting assignment to a citizenship
ceremony and were never assigned the citizenship ceremony before.
Can you provide this information for the below districts:
Auckland
Wellington
Hamilton
Tauranga
Whangarei
Rotorua
Palmerston North
Whakatane
Thames-Coromandel
Christchurch
Dunedin
Invercargil
Nelson
Waimakariri
Queenstown
Timaru
Ashburton
Kaikoura
In response to your request, please refer to Appendix A attached alongside this letter. Appendix
A sets out the fol owing information:
Table one – Number of individuals approved for citizenship by grant awaiting ceremony
allocation, by Council.
Table two – Oldest citizenship by grant approval date for individuals awaiting assignment
to a Citizenship ceremony (never previously assigned to a ceremony), by Council.
Auckland Council runs ceremonies in nine different locations in the Auckland region. This
response reflects the data for all nine Auckland ceremonies. Please note that as on 27 March
2026, there were no individuals approved for citizenship by grant awaiting ceremony allocation
in Kaikōura.
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, 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.
Nāku noa, nā
Julia Taylor
Director Branch Performance
Regulatory and Identity Services
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