The primary law governing nationality of New Zealand is the Citizenship Act 1977, which came into force on 1 January 1978. The act applies to the entire Realm of New Zealand, which comprises New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau, and the Ross Dependency.
Anyone born within the Realm before 2006 automatically received citizenship at birth regardless of the nationalities of their parents. Individuals born in the Realm from 2006 receive New Zealand citizenship at birth if at least one of their parents is a New Zealand citizen. They are also entitled to citizenship if a parent is a permanent resident of New Zealand or Australia, or an Australian citizen. Foreign nationals may become New Zealand citizens by grant after meeting a minimum residence requirement, usually five years.
New Zealand was previously a colony of the British Empire and local residents were British subjects. Over time, the colony was granted more autonomy and gradually became an independent sovereign state. New Zealand established its own citizenship in 1948 and ended preferences previously given to citizens of other Commonwealth countries in 1977. Although New Zealand citizens are no longer British, they remain Commonwealth citizens under British law. When residing in the United Kingdom, New Zealanders are eligible to vote in UK elections and stand for public office there.
Terminology The distinction between the meaning of the terms citizenship and nationality is not always clear in the English language and differs by country. Generally, nationality refers to a person's legal belonging to a sovereign state and is the common term used in international treaties when referring to members of a country, while citizenship usually means the set of rights and duties a person has in that nation. This distinction is more clearly defined in many non-English-speaking jurisdictions than in the Anglosphere. In the New Zealand context, there is little distinction between the two terms and they are used interchangeably; New Zealand nationals have been referred to as citizens in domestic nationality legislation since 1948.
History Colonial-era policy
New Zealand became a part of the British Empire in 1840 after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. Accordingly, British nationality law applied to the colony. Anyone born in New Zealand was a British subject, including indigenous Māori, who were extended all rights as British subjects under the terms of the treaty.
Any person born in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, or anywhere else within Crown dominions was a natural-born British subject. Foreign nationals had limited property rights and could not own land. French and German immigrants successfully lobbied the government for the ability to naturalise in 1844. Individuals intending to become British subjects needed to request that their names be included in annual naturalisation ordinances or acts passed by the governor or General Assembly that regularly granted foreigners subject status.
British nationality law during this time was uncodified and did not have a standard set of regulations, relying instead on past precedent and common law. Until the mid-19th century, it was unclear whether rules for naturalisation in the United Kingdom were applicable elsewhere in the British Empire. Each colony had wide discretion in developing its own procedures and requirements for naturalisation up to that point. In 1847, the Imperial Parliament formalised a distinction between subjects who naturalised in the UK and those who did so in other territories. Individuals who naturalised in the UK were deemed to have received the status by imperial naturalisation, which was valid throughout the Empire. Those naturalising in colonies were said to have gone through local naturalisation and were given subject status valid only within the relevant territory; a subject who locally naturalised in New Zealand was a British subject there, but not in England or New South Wales. When travelling outside the Empire, British subjects who were locally naturalised in a colony were still entitled to imperial protection.
Naturalisation continued to be processed through annual personalised legislation until 1866, when the process was streamlined. Individuals living in or intending to reside in New Zealand who met a good character requirement and were able to pay a £1 fee could apply for naturalisation with the Colonial Secretary's Office. There was no minimum residence requirement, and applicants needed only the governor's approval. British subjects who had already been naturalised in the United Kingdom or other parts of the Empire (except for its colonies in Asia) could apply to be naturalised again in New Zealand without swearing an oath of allegiance if they had previously taken one, since they already owed allegiance to the Sovereign. Foreign women who married British subjects were considered to have automatically naturalised under the new regulations. New Zealand was the first self-governing nation to grant the right to vote to women; British subject women participated in their first elections in 1893.
Māori conflicts and integration
Rising tensions over land sale disputes and settler incursions into Māori land led to a series of armed conflicts and mass land confiscations in the 1860s. The colonial government also pursued legislative efforts to assimilate Māori into its legal systems. Ambiguous wording in the Treaty of Waitangi raised uncertainty as to whether Māori were granted subjecthood or merely the rights of that status; the Native Rights Act 1865 was enacted to affirm their British subject status and clarify the colonial judiciary's legal authority over them. Franchise qualification depended on individual landownership, but Māori land was customarily held in communal title rather than by freehold title under a single person's ownership. Māori electorates in the General Assembly were created in 1867 as a temporary measure while Māori land was gradually converted into titles recognisable in colonial law, and this special representation was made permanent in 1876. Male subjects of partial Māori descent were assigned to an electorate based on their ancestry; those who were more than half-Māori were assigned to the Māori electoral roll, and those with more non-Māori lineage went on the general roll. Men who were exactly half-Māori could vote in either electorate, or in both.
Discriminatory policies against Chinese migrants
Chinese immigration to New Zealand began in the 1860s during the West Coast gold rush. Under the Public Health Act 1876, China, Hong Kong, Mauritius, and the islands of modern Indonesia were declared to be "infected places". Ships originating from, stopping at, or carrying persons or cargo from them were subject to strict quarantine on arrival in New Zealand. Growing anti-Chinese sentiment along with the rise of colonial nationalism led to a concerted movement within the legislature to restrict Chinese immigration. At least 20 bills to curb Chinese migration were introduced in the House of Representatives from 1879 to 1920. The first of these to pass was the Chinese Immigrants Act 1881, which limited the number of Chinese migrants who could land in New Zealand to one per ten tons of cargo and imposed a £10 head tax on every Chinese person who entered the colony. These restrictions were tightened to one migrant per 100 tons in 1888, then to one per 200 tons in 1896. The head tax was increased to £100 in 1896, and would not be abolished until 1944. Chinese residents were prohibited from naturalising as British subjects from 1908 to 1952.
Territorial acquisitions The Cook Islands, Tokelau, and Niue became British protectorates in 1888, 1889, and 1901 respectively. Island residents became British subjects when the United Kingdom acquired these territories. The United Kingdom then ceded administrative control over the Cook Islands and Niue to New Zealand in 1901, and over Tokelau in 1925. The transfers of the islands did not alter the national status of these islanders, and they continued to be British subjects under New Zealand administration.
Western Samoa was a German territory from 1900 until the First World War. After the war, it became a League of Nations mandate under New Zealand control. Following the recommendation of the Permanent Mandates Commission, Western Samoans did not automatically become British subjects when New Zealand assumed mandatory authority in 1920 but were treated as British protected persons. Although Parliament amended nationality law in 1923 and 1928 to allow facilitated naturalisation for Western Samoans seeking to become British subjects, few took this option. Only 50 Samoans naturalised between 1928 and 1948, while 82 individuals of European descent had completed the process in the territory in the same period. All other Samoans who did not naturalise had an unresolved status until after Western Samoan independence.
Imperial common code The Imperial Parliament brought regulations for British subject status into codified statute law for the first time with passage of the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914. British subject status was standardised as a common nationality across the Empire. Dominions that adopted this act as part of local legislation were authorised to grant subject status to aliens by imperial naturalisation. New Zealand adopted most of this law (Parts I and III) in 1923, except for its provisions on imperial naturalisation (Part II), which it later enacted in 1928.
The 1914 regulations codified the doctrine of coverture into imperial nationality law, under which a woman's consent to marry a foreigner was assumed to imply intent to denaturalise; British women who married foreign men automatically lost their British nationality. There were two exceptions to this: a woman whose husband lost his British subject status was able to retain British nationality by declaration, and a British-born widow or divorcée who had lost her British nationality through marriage could reacquire that status without meeting residence requirements after her marriage ended.
A woman whose foreign husband later naturalised as a British subject was automatically granted his new nationality, regaining her British status. New Zealand women who married Chinese men were severely affected by the coverture regulations, because of the naturalisation prohibition on all Chinese during this period. Any woman in such a marriage had no path to British nationality until her marriage ended.
By the end of the First World War, the Dominions had exercised increasing autonomy in managing their own affairs and each had developed a distinct national identity. Britain formally recognised Dominion autonomy at the 1926 Imperial Conference, jointly issuing the Balfour Declaration with all the Dominion heads of government. The Declaration stated that the United Kingdom and Dominions were autonomous and equal to each other within the British Commonwealth of Nations. Full legislative independence was granted to the Dominions with passage of the Statute of Westminster 1931.
Women's rights groups throughout the Empire pressured the imperial government during this time to amend nationality regulations that tied a married woman's status to that of her husband. Because the British government could no longer enforce legislative supremacy over the Dominions after 1931 and wanted to maintain a strong constitutional link to them through the common nationality code, it was unwilling to make major changes without unanimous Dominion agreement on this issue, which it did not have. Imperial legal uniformity was nevertheless eroded during the 1930s; New Zealand and Australia amended their laws in 1935 and 1936 to allow women denaturalised by marriage to retain their rights as British subjects, and Ireland changed its regulations in 1935 so that a woman's nationality was unaffected by marriage.