Question:
Has it passed?
Five years to get citizenship via PR seems a bit steep, as it may blote the
NZ migrant population that is chomping at the bit to move to Australia
Answer:
NEW BILL TIGHTENS NZ CITIZENSHIP & PASSPORT REQUIREMENTS
For months, Parliament has been wrangling over the new Identity Bill.
The proposed legistlation is largely in response to post-911 terror threats,
reported abuses of the current citizenship laws, and a high-profile case
involving an alleged ring of Israeli Mossad operatives that were recently
accused of forgery and illegally obtaining New Zealand passports.
New Zealand has visa-free arrangements with 53 countries, making its
passports very popular with those with criminal intentions.
Under current citizenship law, a permanent resident of New Zealand (a holder
of a valid Permanent Residents Visa/Permit) may apply for citizenship after
three contiguous years of living in New Zealand.
Spouses of New Zealanders currently get a special break whereby they need
only to have lived in the country for two years prior to applying.
The new law would extend the waiting period for all applicants to five years
and eliminate the spousal concession.
Currently, New Zealand passports are valid for ten (10) years.
Under the new legislation, their validity would be cut in half -- to five
(5) years -- and a controversial new power would be provided whereby the
Interior Minister could cancel or refuse to issue a passport where national
security is threatened.
The relatively subjective nature of this latter power has many folks quite
upset.
In a recent session, MP (Member of Parliament) Keith Locke stated that he
and others would not support the bill because it undermined "precious
citizenship rights." He went on to say that, "The greatest threat to New
Zealanders in this bill is the power given to the minister to take away our
passport on national security grounds." And adding, "The present citizenship
and passport arrangements are not broke, so why do we need to fix them by
making them so much more restrictive?"
Many of his rival colleagues in Parliament just as vehemently disagree,
citing terrorism as the primary motivating factor for change. The bottom
line: most political analysts expect the majority of the provisions to be
passed into law.
A decision is expected sometime in the next few months with an effective
date near the start of next year.
These planned changes should serve as a wake-up call for those still on the
fence.
Remember, permanent residency is the first step toward citizenship for those
who seek it. You can't have the latter without first securing the former.
It's also important to remember that citizenship and residency are two
totally different matters handled by two totally different departments of
the government. You can learn more about New Zealand citizenship and
passport requirements in our supplemental report entitled, "Making New
Zealand your Second Home: New Zealand's IRRV, Citizenship and Passport"
(http://www.nukiwi.com/npcit29nz49sp.htm).
Whichever way it goes, it promises to be a lively show.
Chances are that this is one of the things if not *the* thing they are
trying to stop. NZ needs to increase its population and is actively doing
so through the immigration strategy currently in place but it needs to
ensure that once the migrants are in NZ, they actually stay. Yes, there may
well be those who are using NZ as a route into OZ and yes such a policy will
put a dent in some of those plans. Just for the record, I'm not one of
them, if I wanted to migrate to OZ, I'd have applied for OZ PR rather than
NZ PR.
It comes across as a smoke screen covering something else, possibly the
above. The Mossad agents didn't need to be in the country for 3 years to
get a passport, it won't matter a damn to them or others of similar ilk if
NZ ups the requirement to 5 years, 10 years or even 20 years.
It will be interesting to see if the passport fee is also halved when the
validity period is halved. If it isn't, it simply becomes another revenue
stream. Oh, cynical, oh yes.
It concerns me that members of parliament support such moves *apparently*
thinking that it will help reduce terrorism, potential or otherwise. It's
about as naive as employing the company who tenders the lowest bid to
implement security screening at airports.
The other significant change is that the Bill will stop people having
babies born in NZ purely to get citizenship.
From 1 January 2006, a child born in NZ will only be a citizen
automatically if at least one parent is an NZ citizen or permanent
resident (including Australian citizens).
As far as the '5 years to get PR' rule is concerned, they are planning
to exempt those with PR before 1 Jan 2005, provided such people apply
for citizenship no later than 2009.
It won't be because the cost of issuing a passport is not related to how
long the document is valid for.
Concerning the Bill's progress, I believe it's before a parliamentary
committee at the moment which is scheduled to report back by 30 November
2004. Whether this leaves enough time for the Bill to pass into law by
the end of 2004 is an open question.
Can you give an update on the bill, has it been passed or delayed ?
As far as I'm aware it didn't go through Parliament before Christmas, so
will get passed probably in February/March. The place to keep up to
date is:
http://www.citizenship.govt.nz
http://www.parliament.govt.nz
