The Tongan government has changed its laws on dual citizenship, allowing Tongans living abroad to become citizens of their new home country, without losing their citizenship of Tonga. The move will allow tens of thousands of people living in the United States, New Zealand and Australia – who’ve had to surrender their Tongan citizenship – to apply to have it reinstated. But, in the second of our two-part story on this issue, it seems many Tongans abroad won’t have an easy time in getting their citizenship back.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Talent: Gloria Guttenbeil; attorney for the Crown Law Office in Tonga; Melino Maka, Chairman of the New Zealand Tongan Advisory Council; Va’inga Tone, Secretary for Foreign Affairs in Tonga.
CONNORS: Tongans who have had to give-up their citizenship after changing their nationality in another country can now apply to have it reinstated.
Foreigners married to Tongans will also be able to obtain dual citizenship, provided they lodge a written declaration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
An attorney for the Crown Law Office in Tonga, Gloria Guttenbeil, takes us through the steps required to apply.
GUTTENBEIL: The procedure simply is the applicant has to lodge an application with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with this application form, they have to submit two passport-size photographs, birth certificate of the applicant, certificate of foreign citizenship or proof of foreign citizenship and a medical report from a registered doctor in the foreign country that they are resident in and a police record from the same country.
After the information is reviewed, the ministry will conduct an interview of the applicant and if the application is granted, the applicant will take the oath of allegiance and be issued with a certificate of readmission to Tonga nationality.
CONNORS: Will Tongan people overseas be able to lodge their applications from overseas and then come over and go through the interview process and the like?
GUTTENBEIL: I don’t see any problem with that. I think it would be preferable if people are sent their applications from overseas and be lodged in the office in Tonga and just come to Tonga in time for the interview.
CONNORS: This is one of the problems related to the application process. There are Tongan consulates in the United States and the United Kingdom, so applicants in those countries can lodge their application without leaving the country.
But for Tongans elsewhere in the world including the comparatively large communities in New Zealand and Australia, it will be necessary to travel to Tonga to complete the process.
The Chairman of the New Zealand Tongan Advisory Council, Melino Maka, says the process is not widely known yet amongst his 50-thousand constituents.
MAKA: Going through the information and understanding what that means is not a simple process for the Tongan to go through. I think it’s need like for us here we want to work with the Tongan Government to have a education program that we can actually deliver through it local newspaper and also radio station that we have Tongan programs.
CONNORS: He says if it were easier for all Tongans living abroad to acquire dual citizenship, this would benefit the government.
MAKA: Make us thinking to go and reinvest in Tonga, but we also need to go through that process first, because it’s a new thing and then we looking forward to it.
CONNORS: The Secretary for Foreign Affairs in Tonga, Va’inga Tone, says more regional consulates have been an aim of the government for decades.
TONE: The United States has benefited with the presence of our consulate general in San Francisco, not to mention our permanent mission in the United Nations. But for Australia and New Zealand government and certainly the ministries is looking at some diplomatic representation in Canberra and Wellington and also Auckland, because the contribution of Tongans of course are in Auckland. And in the event that offices will be established that will greatly assist dealing with the applications for dual nationality.
CONNORS: Is there any time line in particular for the New Zealand consular office? I understand that there was a promise for a New Zealand consular office made last year?
TONE: Eh, yes we conducted two or three studies to New Zealand and Australia, with the very intention of establishing missions. But in terms of time line, we’re working on it.
CONNORS: In the meantime, the Tongan government is working fast to make application forms available online.
Crown Law attorney Gloria Guttenbeil.
GUTTENBEIL: Forms will be available on the internet on the web site where we publish all our laws. We’re currently working on uploading them onto the net and may be by the end of the week, they should be on the internet.
