In September this year, Bea and I will be celebrating our 5th year of officially becoming New Zealand citizens (or Kiwis). I’d like to share an article MrGooding and I wrote for PINOYexpats (e-zine) in September 2005. I still feel the same way the day I took the Oath of Allegiance to New Zealand.
MrGooding wrote:
To me getting New Zealand citizenship for Christine and Bea was the final stage in them both feeling truly at home in New Zealand, and for Bea it was especially relevant after completing the adoption process which took close to 2 years.
Citizenship would hopefully give Christine and Bea a sense of belonging in this country without taking anything away from their Filipino upbringing and heritage. It would also give them the freedom of waived-visa travel not generally provided to those on a Philippine passport.
Receiving the NZ citizenship was the final step in us becoming complete as a family and a sense of permanency. Christine and Bea will always be Filipinas and I would never want to take that away from them (after all I fell in love with Christine as a Filipina), but having them both get residency and now citizenship feels like I have the best of both worlds.
It hasn’t really been a difficult process, just a matter of waiting as everything fell into place.
One day when we were driving to the Department of Internal Affairs to sign something for Bea’s citizenship application, Bea asked us where we were going and why.
I said it was to sign some papers so that she could become a real Kiwi. Bea (8 years old) looked at us and then said in a serious voice
“Will that mean I have to have plastic surgery?”
I replied, “Why would you need that!”
Bea then said
“To change my nose, so I can be a real Kiwi!!”
The poor kid had been given a hard time by other kids because she has a ‘nose.’ that is not as pointy like NZ Europeans. We explained that there are many different types of people in NZ who are all Kiwis and you don’t have to have blue eyes and a sharp nose to be eligible ☺
The Citizenship ceremony here in Rangiora was very low key and informal (just the way I like it). The local Mayor was very approachable and even did several re-takes for recipients so their family could get good photos.
As a symbol of becoming a citizen, each person was able to take home a NZ native tree from a selection in the corner of the room. Christine was up first, so we got first choice!
I told her not to pick a cabbage tree (a common native) as I preferred the other types, but of course she had no idea what a cabbage tree looked like (if it had been a handbag or pair of shoes there would be no problem 
). So I did the honours and picked the best specimen from those on offer ☺
MrsGooding wrote:
I didn’t realise how much I loved and valued my Filipino citizenship till the day I was granted my New Zealand citizenship. Let me tell you why.
My husband, Simon and I agreed earlier on that it was best for both Bea and myself to apply for NZ citizenship to allow us ease of travel overseas. In short, it was only a matter of convenience. It wasn’t a big deal at all.
We went through the motions of applying for citizenship in a very matter of fact way. As soon as we were eligible (3 years from the date of our arrival), we gathered the required documents and lodged with the Department of Internal Affairs.
Went through the interviews and I didn’t even bat an eyelash when I finally received a letter advising me of the date of our citizenship ceremony eight months later.
Bea received her NZ citizenship certificate a month earlier than mine as she didn’t have to attend the ceremony because she was under 14 years old. It was a happy day for us when we got her certificate in the mail but still; it was no biggie.
Nothing that would get my heart rate up!
The day of my Citizenship Ceremony came. It was an ordinary weekday and we had to take the afternoon off from work to attend it.
We didn’t invite any of my close friends or even my sister-in-law. Like I said, it wasn’t a big deal. I thought I’d just mumble a few words, grab my certificate and leave.
When we arrived at the local city council chambers of our district, I was surprised to see that a number of the recipients had more than 2 people with them to witness this event and they seemed so giddy with excitement.
Really weird I thought to myself. After all, it was just a piece of paper telling me I am now a New Zealand citizen.
The appointed hour finally arrived and we were all ushered inside the Council Chambers. I thought it was going to be formal and that we’d be expected to sing NZ’s national anthem but to my pleasant surprise, the ceremony was very informal with the Mayor cracking jokes before swearing us in and handing the certificates out.
I was up first.
As I swore my allegiance to the Queen of England, I couldn’t help but get misty-eyed especially when our Mayor read a standard letter from the Minister of Internal Affairs.
The letter welcomed us to the NZ fold and the native tree given to each of us to plant in our garden was a symbol of our taking roots in New Zealand. We were reminded that receiving NZ citizenship did not mean that we were expected to forget our roots and the land of our birth.
It meant so much to me knowing that New Zealand welcomed me with such open arms, I could not ask for a better country to adopt me as its own.
It was on that day too that I realised how much I loved the Philippines.
It was a bittersweet moment for me.
While I pledged my allegiance to New Zealand, the Philippines would always be my first love.
After all, the Philippines witnessed my birth to adulthood and quietly accepted whatever I threw at it as I ranted about everything I hated about the country – the Philippine politics, the graft and corruption permeating in our government, the high crime rate.
I could go on and on.
But as the saying goes “First love never dies” and on this occasion, I think the saying is true.
Author’s Note:
This was a post originally written by MrG and I for PINOYExpats in September 2005 entitled THE JOURNEY TOWARDS TRUE KIWISHIP
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