The Government is refusing to say whether it is revoking the citizenship of a man who used his brother's passport to become a New Zealander.
Bangladesh-born Jahangir Alam, who pretended to be his brother for 20 years, was handed the longest prison term in New Zealand history for passport fraud in August.
He was jailed for four years and his wife, Taj Parvin Shilpi, was sentenced to home detention. They pleaded not guilty to 40 charges of immigration and passport fraud but a jury found them guilty.
Internal Affairs (DIA) said it would not discuss the couple's citizenship to protect their privacy.
It said it last cancelled a person's New Zealand citizenship six years ago. DIA figures show in the previous six years (2013-19), 13 people had their citizenship revoked.
"The Department does not discuss individual citizenship matters due to privacy considerations and is unable to comment on current investigations," said a DIA spokesperson. "The last deprivation of citizenship case was in 2019."
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The Auckland District Court heard Alam entered a marriage of convenience with a New Zealand woman to get residence after using his younger brother's passport to come here in 2000.
Authorities still do not know his true identity. He faced charges of using a document with intent to defraud, making false representations and using a false or forged travel document.
The judge said the offending was "complex, premeditated and longstanding" while his wife was "fully aware" of the fraud as they were cousins who had lived in the same village growing up.
Internal Affairs has had a chequered past with citizenship cancellations, saying in 2015 it had changed a form to make clear that would-be citizens had to declare if they had committed fraud in their application.
That followed the case of 27 people over a number of years who were found to have committed fraud when they successfully claimed asylum. Immigration New Zealand stripped them of their refugee status, but they were then allowed to remain citizens by Internal Affairs.
Those who lose citizenship become residents, which gives them an opportunity to appeal against deportation.
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