New Zealand citizenship ceremonies are held regularly in Christchurch, the venue to be confirmed about a month before the ceremony date.
The citizenship ceremony is when people pledge their allegiance to New Zealand and receive their Certificate of Citizenship from the Mayor of Christchurch.
Until they receive their certificates personally, they are unable to call themselves New Zealand citizens, even though they have received approval from the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA)(external link) as to their suitability.
The DIA assesses a person's suitability for citizenship and invites new citizens to the ceremonies. The DIA then gives the Council the names of those persons approved so that we can arrange the ceremony, which is officiated by the Mayor. Each ceremony runs for approximately one and a half hours and is followed by light refreshments.
While these ceremonies are organised by the Council, the Council is not responsible for allocating candidates to ceremony dates. This is the decision of the DIA.
(external link)
Ceremonies are by invitation only. Invitations are sent to new citizens by the DIA and queries should be made to the DIA Citizenship Ceremonies Office by email to citizenshipceremonies@dia.govt.nz.