UPDATED 7.50pm Questions are being asked over how US billionaire and Donald Trump supporter Peter Thiel has managed to get New Zealand citizenship.

It has since been revealed that Mr Thiel has been a New Zealand citizen since 2011.

Labour MP Iain Lees-Galloway is after answers from the Minister of Internal Affairs Peter Dunne, saying Mr Thiel doesn't appear to meet the criteria usually expected of citizenship applicants.

He said citizenship applicants normally have to spend 70 percent of their time in New Zealand over a five-year period before they lodge their application.

"It seems very unlikely that a person of Thiel's wealth and prominence would be able to reside in New Zealand, for the period of time people applying for citizenship normally have to, without being noticed."

Mr Lees-Galloway said they have no evidence that the criteria hasn't been applied but it does seem "incredibly unlikely".

"That's why I've lodged the written Parliamentary questions that I have lodged."

Meanwhile Minister of Internal Affairs Peter Dunne's declined to be interviewed about the matter, but his office says Mr Thiel's citizenship was decided on before Mr Dunne became the Minister

The Government's saying little about the citizenship with Minister Dunne declining to be interviewed.

But his office said Mr Thiel's citizenship was decided on before Mr Dunne became Minister.

A spokesman for Mr Dunne said the first time Mr Dunne became aware of Mr Thiel was when media queries were lodged yesterday about his citizenship.

 

The Herald understands, due to the Parliamentary break, Mr Lees-Galloway's questions will be required to be answered by February 15.

According to the Department of Internal Affairs website, citizenship requires people to have lived in New Zealand for most of the past five years, or have been born in New Zealand, or have New Zealand parents.

Filings to the Companies Office, requiring directors to provide their residential address, have Mr Thiel only list United States addresses. Mr Thiel is widely reported to have been born in Frankfurt, Germany, to German parents who emigrated to the United States when he was an infant.

An alternate path to the above requires the Minister of Immigration to personally sign off and agree that granting the individual citizenship "would be in the public interest because of exceptional circumstances of a humanitarian or other nature".

Mr Thiel's ties to New Zealand are mainly financial, having invested around $50 million over the last decade in accountancy software company Xero and the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund.

The Ministry of Immigration, which handles residency applications - usually a precursor for citizenship - declined to provide any information about the Thiel case.

"Immigration New Zealand said that for privacy reasons it could make no comment," a spokeswoman said.

Questions sent yesterday to representative of Thiel were answered by Jeremiah Hall of Torch Communications. "I'll be back in touch if we have any comment," he said.

No further correspondence has been forthcoming.