New Zealand citizenship: the route for Germans to the other side of the world

New Zealand does not make life easy for immigrants, but its rules are clear and the same for everyone. They are set out in the Citizenship Act 1977, they apply to the engineer from Munich exactly as they do to the doctor from Hamburg, and whoever meets them ends up holding a passport that opens two countries: New Zealand and Australia. How New Zealand compares with other destinations is covered in the article on naturalisation abroad. For New Zealand itself, one thing holds: the route has two stages, and the first one decides everything.

How do you get New Zealand citizenship?

For Germans there are essentially three routes to a New Zealand passport. Two of them are open to only a few people; the third is the normal case.

The special cases under section 9(1)(c) are not a loophole. The authority itself states that this bar is very hard to clear: the circumstances must be exceptional, and granting citizenship must bring a real benefit to New Zealand, not just to you. If you want to become a New Zealander, plan on regular naturalisation.

If you have a New Zealand parent, take a close look at your family history before you even think about visas. How this works in principle is explained in the article on citizenship by descent.

Can you buy New Zealand citizenship?

No. This is the question Germans ask most often, and the answer is unambiguous: New Zealand does not sell citizenship. There is no programme like the ones in the Caribbean, where you receive a naturalisation certificate a few months after paying a fixed contribution.

What New Zealand does sell is residence. The Active Investor Plus Visa is a Resident Visa, in other words an indefinite right to live in New Zealand, which lets you live, work and study there. It comes in two categories:

The short minimum stay makes the visa attractive to investors. For the passport, though, it does nothing for you. Naturalisation requires 1,350 days of presence in five years and at least 240 days in each individual year, however you became a resident. If you hold an Active Investor Plus Visa and spend only a few weeks a year in Queenstown, you have a right of residence, but no route to the passport.

If you want both, a second passport and New Zealand, you therefore pursue both routes at the same time: a passport through investment for today and New Zealand for tomorrow. Why that is no contradiction is explained under CBI and naturalisation. What a bought passport can and cannot do for you is covered in the article on buying citizenship.

The first step: a Resident Visa for New Zealand

Naturalisation does not start at the Department of Internal Affairs but at Immigration New Zealand. Only days on which you held an indefinite right to live in New Zealand count. Years on a work visa or as a student do not count towards the passport, however good they may have been.

The main routes to a Resident Visa for Germans:

For both skilled worker routes you must prove your English, for example with a recognised test whose result is no more than two years old when you apply. The government application fee for both visas starts at 6,450 NZD.

Getting a foot in the door with the Working Holiday Visa

If you are between 18 and 30, the Working Holiday Visa for Germans is the classic way in: up to twelve months in the country, with proof of at least 4,200 NZD for living costs. That year does not count towards naturalisation, but it is often the year in which you find the employer who later supports you for the Resident Visa. What to expect on the New Zealand job market is covered in the overview Working in New Zealand (in German).

Resident Visa or Permanent Resident Visa?

New Zealand has two tiers of permanent residence. The Resident Visa allows you to live in the country indefinitely. The Permanent Resident Visa carries no visa conditions at all, and you can travel in and out with it without limit. You can get it at the earliest after two years as a resident, once you show your commitment to New Zealand, for example by spending at least 184 days in the country in each of the last two years. For naturalisation, the Permanent Resident Visa is not strictly necessary: Immigration New Zealand itself states that for most people, citizenship becomes possible after five years as a resident. Everything about living and staying in New Zealand, from tax to visas, is in the country profile Moving to New Zealand (in German).

Naturalisation in New Zealand: the requirements at a glance

Section 8 of the Citizenship Act sets out the requirements. The Department of Internal Affairs sums them up in seven points in its Citizenship Guidance:

1. You have an indefinite right to live in New Zealand.
2. You have spent enough time in the country (more on this below).
3. You are of good character.
4. You understand the rights and responsibilities of a New Zealand citizen.
5. You have sufficient English.
6. You intend to keep living in New Zealand.
7. You understand what naturalisation means and can make this decision yourself.

Presence: 1,350 days in five years

This is the hurdle you have to plan most carefully. In the five years before you apply, you must have spent at least 1,350 days in New Zealand with an indefinite right to live there, and at least 240 days in each of those five years. The authority checks this directly with Immigration New Zealand using border records, so you do not need to collect any travel evidence.

The arithmetic behind it: five years have around 1,825 days. In total you can therefore spend a little over 470 days abroad, on average about 95 days a year. In any single year it must never exceed 125 days, because then you would fall short of the 240 days for that year. If you spend six weeks at home in Germany every year, you are well within the limits. If you work in Europe for half a year, that year is lost for the calculation.

How to count years of residence correctly, and the traps other countries set along the way, is explained under proving years of residence.

For exceptions, the law provides a shortcut: the Minister can grant citizenship if you spent at least 450 days in the country with an indefinite right to live there in the 20 months before your application and there are exceptional circumstances. According to the Guidance, these include absences for work, study or illness in the family, provided your life is clearly centred in New Zealand.

Good character

The authority checks with the police and the intelligence service. Among the things that count against you are convictions in New Zealand or abroad, traffic offences totalling 100 or more demerit points, and incidents of domestic violence. A conviction more than five years old that has nothing to do with violence or dishonesty does not automatically rule you out. You then give a statement, provide at least two referees, and the authority decides case by case.

English and the rights and responsibilities of a citizen

New Zealand requires that you can get by on your own in English in everyday life. To judge this, the authority looks at your visa, your country of origin, your education and your work. If you already proved your English for the Resident Visa, you will as a rule clear this step without further ado. Where there is doubt, the authority holds an interview, and if you do not pass the first time, you get a second chance after six months.

There is no written citizenship test. In your application you confirm that you understand the rights and responsibilities of a New Zealand citizen. How other countries handle language, tests and the oath is compared under language, test, oath of allegiance.

The intention to stay in New Zealand

You must declare that you intend to keep living in New Zealand after naturalisation. Alternatively, it is enough if you work abroad for the New Zealand government, for an international organisation of which New Zealand is a member, or for a company based in New Zealand.

Oath, ceremony and the day you become a New Zealander

Approval does not yet make you a New Zealander. Adults take the oath or an equivalent affirmation, as a rule at a public citizenship ceremony. The oath is sworn to the King of New Zealand, King Charles III, and to the laws of the country. If you do not wish to swear, you make an affirmation with the same content.

Timing matters here: you must take the oath within one year of the authority notifying you of the approval in writing. Miss that deadline and the approval lapses, and you have to apply again. An extension is only granted for specific reasons, for example a family emergency or if you want to take the oath together with a family member who is also being naturalised. So if you are planning a long trip shortly after approval, coordinate it with the date of the ceremony.

Children under 16 have their own rule. The Minister can grant them citizenship and take the adult requirements into account in doing so, but does not have to. Children under 14 are exempt from the oath. What else families should consider when it comes to a second passport is covered under Family.

Dual citizenship: New Zealand and Germany

New Zealand does not require you to hand in your existing passport when you naturalise. The requirements of the Citizenship Act contain no renunciation obligation, and the law explicitly assumes that New Zealanders may also hold the citizenship of another country: only someone who has another citizenship can renounce New Zealand citizenship at all.

On the German side, the position has been clear since 27 June 2024. Under the Nationality Modernisation Act (Gesetz zur Modernisierung des Staatsangehörigkeitsrechts), acquiring another citizenship on application no longer costs you your German citizenship, for every country in the world. The retention permit (Beibehaltungsgenehmigung) that used to be needed before naturalising abroad has been abolished. You become a New Zealander and remain a German. What this means in detail is explained in the article on dual citizenship for Germans.

There is one consequence you should know about: your passport does not decide where you pay tax. Where you are liable to tax depends above all on your residence and where you spend your time, not on your citizenship. How New Zealand taxes income and companies is shown in the country profile Taxes in New Zealand (in German); the principles are set out under Taxes.

What the New Zealand passport gives you: Australia included

The biggest difference between a right of residence and a passport is the difference between a permission and a right. A Resident Visa is a permission that comes with conditions and can be lost. Citizenship is a right that stays with you, even if you later spend years in Europe. Why this difference matters for every second passport is shown in our eight reasons for a second passport.

On top of that comes an advantage hardly any other passport offers: Australia. Under the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement, New Zealanders and Australians can travel, live and work in each other's country. And since 1 July 2023, New Zealanders who have lived in Australia for four years or more can apply directly for Australian citizenship. The New Zealand passport is therefore also a door to a second country for which you, as a German, would otherwise need a separate, long visa route of your own.

How strong a passport really is for travel, and how to measure it, is explained in the article on the passport ranking.

New Zealand and a second passport through investment: pursue both

Run the numbers honestly once. Time passes before you have an employer, a relationship or an investment that gets you a Resident Visa. Then come five years with at least 240 days in the country, then the application, the assessment and the ceremony. For most Germans, then, well over five years lie between the first flight to Auckland and the New Zealand passport.

During that time your life hangs on a visa. A passport through investment does not change that for New Zealand, but it does for everything else: within a few months you hold a second right in your hand, regardless of how the next few years in New Zealand turn out. Of all the programmes, Vanuatu is the closest to New Zealand; there the statutory minimum contribution under the Development Support Program starts at 130,000 USD for a single applicant. More on this under Vanuatu passport and on the programme page Vanuatu.

Which programmes exist and how they differ is shown in the comparison and the overview of costs. New Zealand remains the big goal. The passport through investment makes sure you are never left without a second right on the way there.

Frequently asked questions