K1 Citizenship/Permanent Resident Question for I-129F Form

[WolfeGirl 1]

My fiance currently lives in New Zealand and has lived there for almost his whole life - He has a permanent residenct/returning resident visa for New Zealand.  He was born in Fiji and is still considered a citizen of Fiji due to being born there.

His Fiji passport expired during COVID and we are about to get his new passport any day now through Fiji and will make sure his permanent resident visa is transferred over correctly.

 

We are currently working with Boundless on getting our form together and they put on Part 2, question 9, that his country of citizenship or nationality as New Zealand.  When I questioned if it should be entered as New Zealand or Fiji, they clarified "Since [beneficiary name] is already a permanent resident in New Zealand, he is considered a citizen in New Zealand."

 

Is this statement true?  He will be going through the New Zealand Embassy/Consulate since he lives and has residency there (he hasn't been to Fiji since he was a small child). But in the next part of the process with the DS-160 and the passport that his K-1 visa will eventually be placed into will be a Fiji citizenship passport with the New Zealand PR visa linked to it.

 

Thanks for clarifying, I really don't want this one thing to be the reason why this bounces back unnecessarily.  Everything else with our packet is good to go out.

[OldUser 6,647]

6 minutes ago, WolfeGirl said:

My fiance currently lives in New Zealand and has lived there for almost his whole life - He has a permanent residenct/returning resident visa for New Zealand.  He was born in Fiji and is still considered a citizen of Fiji due to being born there.

His Fiji passport expired during COVID and we are about to get his new passport any day now through Fiji and will make sure his permanent resident visa is transferred over correctly.

 

We are currently working with Boundless on getting our form together and they put on Part 2, question 9, that his country of citizenship or nationality as New Zealand.  When I questioned if it should be entered as New Zealand or Fiji, they clarified "Since [beneficiary name] is already a permanent resident in New Zealand, he is considered a citizen in New Zealand."

 

Is this statement true? 

Absolutely not. They are wrong. I wouldn't use boundless.com or notarios. They can screw up your fiance's immigration and not be accountable for it. Either hire a real immigration lawyer OR study forms yourself and do it propertly.

I see major red flags based on what you're describing.

 

[MalloryCat 189]

I'm not sure that is accurate..

if he has been in New Zealand for more than 5 years he can apply for NZ citizenship.

But being a permanent resident and being a citizen are different

"Citizenship in New Zealand is superficially similar to permanent residency. Citizens and permanent residents enjoy certain rights and protections, including the right to reside permanently in New Zealand. However, citizenship recognises a particular relationship between the citizen and the state, which does not apply in the same way to permanent residents. The grant of citizenship can be seen as giving three main benefits:

• a greater sense of national identity;
• a greater degree of "security of tenure" for being in New Zealand (and, indirectly, Australia), because it removes the need to hold a residency visa; and
• the right to travel internationally on a New Zealand passport"

https://oag.parliament.nz/2013/citizenship/part3.htm

 

his citizenship should 100% be put as Fiji.

 

Edited August 29 by MalloryCat

[OldUser 6,647]

10 minutes ago, WolfeGirl said:

Everything else with our packet is good to go out.

Triple check everything before sending it. Do not rely on answers by boundless who spend 2-5 minutes per form.

[WolfeGirl 1]

Luckily, I'm quite meticilous at checking everything 5 times over!  I'm going to tell them to switch it to Fiji.  All the paperwork and passport it will be going through is Fiji documents.  When renewing his passport, he did have to get confirmation from NZ immigration on his status and it lists him as a permanent resident.