Hon Brooke van Velden
Minister of Internal Affairs

After six years of not meeting timeliness targets, citizenship by grant processing has been within target timeframes for the past six months consecutively, says Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden.

“The Department of Internal Affairs aims to get 90% of applications processed within 75 days of being received. April 2022 was a low point, with just 0.6% of applications meeting that target. Four years later, 94.6% of applications met that goal, the highest result since July 2019,” says Ms van Velden.

“This is the longest period of consistent on time processing we’ve seen in many years. A focus on efficiency and taking practical steps to improve processing have gotten us to this point.

“As processing time is improving, we saw a 12% increase in the number of citizenship applications received in 2025 compared to 2019. The 2025 year also saw the Department process the most applications it has done in recorded history.

“When I became Minister of Internal Affairs, there was a backlog of unprocessed citizenship applications. I directed the citizenship office to work on the oldest applications first, and I am pleased applicants are consistently getting their outcomes within target timeframes.

“It is a privilege to grant citizenship to people who have contributed to our country, and made the choice to build their lives here. We are lucky that people from all over the world bring their skills here and want to become New Zealanders.”

“Thank you to the staff in the citizenship office for your continued hard work, and a huge congratulations to all those who have received their citizenship by grant.”

You can apply for citizenship either online or via the post. For the checklist of everything you need please refer to:Apply for NZ citizenship | New Zealand Government.

© Scoop Media