Renunciation of New Zealand Citizenship
A person can only renounce his/her New Zealand citizenship if he/she fulfills all of the following criteria:
- He/she is 18 years old or over
- He/she is of full capacity
- He/she has the citizenship of at least one other foreign country at the time of applying for renunciation of New Zealand citizenship
The Minister of Internal Affairs may refuse to register the renunciation of New Zealand citizenship of a person if he/she is living in New Zealand or if a state of war exists between New Zealand and another country. The general practice is that if a New Zealand citizen is in New Zealand at the time of applying to renounce his/her citizenship, the Minister of Internal Affairs will only register the renunciation if the person would continue to reside in New Zealand lawfully following the renunciation (e.g. if he/she is also an Australian citizen or has a residence permit) or if the person will leave New Zealand permanently following the registration of the renunciation.
A person may become caught in a ‘catch-22’ situation: if he/she wants to become a citizen of his/her new country, but cannot until he/she has renounced his/her existing citizenship, he/she is unable to renounce their New Zealand citizenship and the Minister of Internal Affairs will not register the renunciation of his/her New Zealand citizenship, because the law specifies that a person must already have the citizenship of at least one other country at the time of applying for renunciation of New Zealand citizenship. Therefore, for example, an individual who only has New Zealand citizenship will never be able to apply for Singaporean citizenship because once her Singaporean citizenship application has been approved, she must first renounce her existing nationality before she can attend a Singaporean citizenship ceremony and officially obtain Singaporean nationality.
A register of people who have renounced or have been deprived of New Zealand citizenship is kept by the Citizenship Office and any person is allowed to view it.
Read more about this topic: New Zealand Nationality Law
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