New Zealand

Rights & Responsibilites
Acquisition of New Zealand citizenship
Registration and Naturalisation as an New Zealand citizen
Oath of alligiance
historical provisions 1949-1977
Loss of New Zealand citizenship

New Zealand Nationality Law

New Zealand citizenship was created on 1 January 1949, by the British Nationality and New Zealand Citizenship Act 1948. Prior to this date New Zealanders were British subjects and New Zealand had the same nationality legislation as the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries (see also British nationality law).

The 1948 legislation was replaced by the Citizenship Act 1977, which came into force on 1 January 1978. This was substantially amended in 2005 by the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2005, in force from 21 April 2005.