Permanent residents of the Cook Islands, Niue, and Tokelau meet this requirement as well. Applicants must demonstrate proficiency in the English language and be physically present in the country for at least 1,350 days during that five-year period and at least 240 days in each of those five years. Under exceptional circumstances, the physical presence requirement may be reduced to 450 days in a 20-month period. Candidates who are overseas on Crown service or accompanying New Zealand citizen spouses overseas on Crown service are treated as if they are present in New Zealand during that period of service. Successful applicants aged 14 and older are required to take an oath or affirmation of citizenship in which they pledge loyalty to the New Zealand monarch; these are usually administered by local councils at citizenship ceremonies that take place three to five months after approval. There is no effective differentiation or hierarchy between the different types of citizenship that can be obtained in New Zealand. The only major disadvantage applies to citizens by descent, who cannot pass citizenship to their children born abroad. These individuals may apply to become citizens by grant after fulfilling the five-year residence and physical presence requirement. Otherwise, they may apply for their children born overseas to receive citizenship by grant, at the discretion of the Minister of Internal Affairs. An average of 28,000 people per year were granted citizenship through the 2010s. As of the 2018 census, about 1.27 million New Zealand citizens usually resident in the country were born overseas. Samoan citizens who enter New Zealand after 14 September 1982 and have indefinite permission to remain in the country are entitled to become New Zealand citizens by grant without a minimum residence requirement. Samoans who were already living in New Zealand on that date automatically became New Zealand citizens by grant. Children born in Samoa to Tokelauan mothers seeking medical attention there are treated as if they are born in Tokelau and are New Zealand citizens at birth. New Zealand citizenship can be relinquished by making a declaration of renunciation, provided that the declarant already possesses another nationality. Renunciation may be denied if the applicant currently lives in New Zealand or the country is at war with another country. Citizenship may be involuntarily deprived from individuals who fraudulently acquired it, or from those who possess another nationality and willfully acted against the national interest. References Citations