Dear Department of Internal Affairs,

After reading the "Presence in NZ requirements" for citizenship by grant on the Department of Internal Affairs official website, we found it is hard to understand what the term "each 12-month period" in one of the presence requirements "having been in New Zealand for at least 240 days in each 12-month period in the last 5 years" means exactly for citizenship by grant.

Every citation we have mentioned or we will mention comes from the webpage from the Department of Internal Affairs official website at " https://www.govt.nz/browse/passports-cit... ".

We have noticed there are two "Example scenarios" on the webpage, and we are aware that the "Example 2" may be relevant to our question, but we found the "Example 2" still can not explain what the term "each 12-month period" means exactly for citizenship by grant.

In our understanding, the term "each 12-month period" can be interpreted as either one of the two interpretations below:

Interpretation 1:
Within the 5-year period counted backwards from the day someone applies for citizenship by grant, there are approximately 1460 (a lot more than five) 12-month periods, because literally any possible consecutive 365 or 366 days can be considered a "12-month period" in that 5-year period. Therefore, the term "each 12-month period" means any possible consecutive 365 or 366 days within that five-year period counted backwards from the day someone applies for citizenship by grant.

Interpretation 2:
Without any gap between any two 12-month (365 or 366 days) periods next to each other in that 5-year period, and without any incomplete 12-month (365 or 366 days) period at the start or the end of that 5-year period, there are only five "12-month periods" in that five-year period without any gap in between. Therefore, the term "each 12-month period" can only means each one of the five consecutive and complete 12 months (365 or 366 days) periods filling that 5-year period counted backwards from the day someone applies for citizenship by grant without any gap in between.

Here, we have finished the description for the two possible interpretations for the term "each 12-month period" in one of the presence requirements "having been in New Zealand for at least 240 days in each 12-month period in the last 5 years" for citizenship by grant.

The two interpretations mentioned above make the question more specific and well-defined. The question is: which one of the two interpretations mentioned above is correct?

If you have any other information that may be beneficial for understanding what the term "each 12-month period" means in the presence requirement of "having been in New Zealand for at least 240 days in each 12-month period in the last 5 years" for citizenship by grant, you can make it as an addition to the answer of this request.

Yours faithfully,
X. Zhu & L. Huang,
16 March, 2022 in Auckland

Dear Department of Internal Affairs,

Have you received the request "What the term "each 12-month period" in the presence requirement "having been in New Zealand for at least 240 days in each 12-month period in the last 5 years" means exactly for citizenship by grant"?

Normally people can receive a receipt confirmation on the next day.

Yours faithfully,
X. Zhu & L. Huang

Hi Department of Internal Affairs,

I notice one of your staff has made a response to the request “ https://fyi.org.nz/request/18894-what-th... “ after that old request had been withdrawn.

The wording of this new request is different from the wording of that withdrawn old request, so please make sure you review this new request and make a response appropriately.

I appreciate your time and patience and hope you can provide the most precise answer strictly regarding my question, since this will be very important for us and many people who have the same doubt, so hopefully no confusion would remain.

Yours faithfully
X. Zhu & L. Huang
17 March, 2022 in Auckland