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Citizenship ceremonies

New Zealand citizenship ceremonies are held in Kāpiti several times a year.

Ceremonies are carried out by the Mayor and start at 7pm in the Council Chambers, which are located in the Civic Building (unless otherwise informed). Candidates and guests need to be seated by 6.50pm as once the ceremony starts, the doors to the Civic Building are locked for security reasons and no one else will be able to enter. Please make sure you're on time if you're coming along.

Citizenship ceremonies are open to recipients and invited guests only. A light supper follows the ceremony.

Dress Code: Smart/Casual. We also encourage recipients to wear their National Dress. No jeans, shorts, tee shirts or jandles please. If you are unsure of what to wear please contact the office of the mayor for clarification, phone 04 296 4700.

Interim changes to citizenship ceremonies (COVID-19)

We have received the following information from Te Tari Whenua – Internal Affairs.

Current situation and advice

  • Ordinarily taking the oath at a citizenship ceremony is the final stage in a person’s journey to becoming a citizen. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Minister of Internal Affairs, acting on advice from the Department has agreed to temporarily waive the requirement for new citizens to attend citizenship ceremonies, where it is in the interests of public health.  
  • Most ceremonies that have been scheduled in the near future have already been cancelled by Councils.
  • The Secretary of Internal Affairs has, after considering Ministry of Health guidance, and the potential impact on the Department’s future capability of the COVID-19 virus determined that is not in the public interest for ceremonies be scheduled at this time.
  • The Department will not be scheduling new ceremonies, or adding applicants to existing ceremonies.  
  • We recommend you cancel future ceremonies until further notice. We are in contact with a few councils regarding small upcoming ceremonies where councils already have the citizenship certificates, which may go ahead, depending on any change to Ministry of Health advice. 

 What next

  • The Department will now issue citizenship certificates to all applicants who have been approved for a grant of citizenship and are affected by the cancellation of citizenship ceremonies, or who are unable to attend a ceremony due to public health measures in place to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. These will be sent by courier.
  • While the suspension means new citizens aren’t taking an oath publicly, they sign a statutory declaration as part of the application process that they understand the responsibilities of citizenship. 
  • Even though the Department will not be scheduling ceremonies until further notice, we will still provide you contact details for new citizens in your region, so you can arrange to welcome them in an different way.  
  • We will provide additional information about this next week, along with information about communication we will be having with new citizens.
  • We are currently planning the content of this communication, which will provide them with links to the Governor-General’s and Minister of Internal Affairs’ addresses that are normally screened at the ceremony, and other information.
  • Payments will be made as usual ceremonies that you have had to cancel in the last week and we will confirm further details about payments for other cancelled ceremonies in due course.

If you have any questions please get in contact with our Ceremonies team at CitizenshipCeremonies@dia.govt.nz.  

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2020 Citizenship Ceremonies

Location: Unless stated otherwise, all ceremonies are held at Council Chambers, ground floor of the Civic Building, 175 Rimu Road, Paraparaumu.

       Wednesday 29 January (Raukawa Marae, Ōtaki) (one off)

       Wednesday 20 May

       Wednesday 22 July

       Wednesday 9 September

       Wednesday 4 November

NB: The above are proposed dates for ceremonies which may be cancelled.

 For all citizenship enquiries, please contact the Department of Internal Affairs:

Phone: 0800 22 51 51
Website: Department of Internal Affairs

Please don't contact the Council with queries concerning scheduling of applicants into ceremonies.

Successful applicants will receive notification from the Department of Internal Affairs regarding their scheduled ceremony 3 to 4 weeks before the ceremony.

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