Zealand amended its law to grant equal nationality rights in that same year. New Zealand enacted the British Nationality and New Zealand Citizenship Act 1948 to create its own citizenship, which came into force at the same time as the British Nationality Act 1948 throughout the Empire. All British subjects who were born, naturalised, or resident for at least 12 months in New Zealand automatically acquired New Zealand citizenship on 1 January 1949. British subjects born to a father who himself was born or naturalised in New Zealand and British subject women who were married to someone qualifying as a New Zealand citizen also automatically acquired citizenship on that date. Cook Islanders, Niueans, Tokelauans, and British subjects born in Western Samoa became New Zealand citizens automatically as well. The 1948 Act redefined the term British subject as any citizen of New Zealand or another Commonwealth country. Commonwealth citizen is defined in this Act to have the same meaning. British subject/Commonwealth citizen status co-existed with the citizenships of each Commonwealth country. All Commonwealth and Irish citizens were eligible to become New Zealand citizens by registration, rather than naturalisation, after residing in New Zealand for at least three years. Commonwealth and Irish women who were married to New Zealand citizens were eligible to acquire citizenship by registration with no further requirements. Foreign wives and minor children of male New Zealand citizens were allowed to register as citizens at the discretion of the Minister of Internal Affairs. All other foreign nationals could acquire citizenship by naturalisation after at least five years of residence. All British subjects under the reformed system initially held an automatic right to settle in the United Kingdom. Non-white immigration into the UK was systemically discouraged, but strong economic conditions in Britain following the Second World War attracted an unprecedented wave of colonial migration. In response, the British Parliament imposed immigration controls on any subjects originating from outside the British Islands with the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962. This restriction was somewhat relaxed in 1971 for patrials, subjects whose parents or grandparents were born in the United Kingdom, which gave effective preferential treatment to white Commonwealth citizens. As a sign of New Zealand's changing relationship with Britain, New Zealand passports were no longer labelled with the phrase "British passport" beginning in 1964 and stopped listing national status as "British subject and New Zealand citizen" in 1974. Voting rights were extended to