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Briefing

Fiji Has Enacted New Spouse-Registration and Naturalization Rules

Briefing summary

  • Parliament passed linked amendments on 28 May 2026; the citizenship Act records presidential assent on 2 June.
  • The Ministry says naturalization is on hold pending the Citizenship (Amendment) Regulations 2026.
  • That operational hold does not establish commencement of the amended residence tests.
  • The spouse-registration route would use a three-in-five-year residence test and, from 2030, require that time to be held under permanent residence.
  • Ordinary naturalization would move to eight years of lawful presence during the previous ten years.
  • From 2035, naturalization would require permanent residence and count only qualifying time under that permit.

Fiji's 2026 amendments establish a staged connection between citizenship and a revised permanent-residence framework. Parliament enacted the Immigration (Amendment) Act 2026 and the Citizenship of Fiji (Amendment) Act 2026, but both use ministerial commencement clauses. Enactment therefore does not mean every new eligibility rule applies today.

Naturalization is currently on hold

The Ministry of Immigration’s FAQ says the naturalization category is on hold pending finalization of the Citizenship (Amendment) Regulations 2026. It gives no reopening date. Applicants should confirm reopening, the applicable rules and current instructions before paying for a new filing.

The FAQ does not establish that the eight-in-ten-year test has commenced or explain how existing naturalization cases are being handled. It also does not say that spouse registration is suspended.

Spouse registration

Once the citizenship amendment commences, an adult applying for citizenship registration through marriage would need to meet the existing statutory conditions plus a defined residence test.

For an application made after commencement but before 1 January 2030, the applicant would need lawful presence in Fiji for a total of three of the five years immediately before applying.

For an application made from 1 January 2030, the applicant would need a permanent-residence permit and would need to have accumulated three of the preceding five years while holding that permit. Time present under a different status would not satisfy that later version of the test merely because the person was lawfully in Fiji.

The amendment also adds an express good-character refusal power when a certificate of registration is considered.

Naturalization

After commencement and before 1 January 2035, ordinary citizenship by naturalization would require:

From 1 January 2035, the applicant would additionally need a valid permanent-residence permit. The calculation would exclude periods when the applicant did not hold that permit and would count only consecutive periods of qualifying permanent residence.

The Act also clarifies that time under visitor, study, research, training, special-purpose and specified coextensive permits does not count toward the citizenship residence calculation.

Pending applications receive protection

The citizenship amendment says a naturalization application that remains unfinished when the amendment commences is to be processed under the former law. That transition matters for an application validly pending at commencement; it does not override the present hold or establish that a new filing will be accepted.

The protection is written for pending naturalization applications. It should not be assumed to protect a future application merely because the person began accumulating residence under the former rules.

What remains unknown

The Ministry’s hold notice does not identify a commencement instrument or a reopening date. The applicable Gazette notices, final regulations and operational instructions still need to be checked before treating the amended tests as operative.

The Acts can commence on a date or dates selected by the Minister. Different provisions could therefore begin at different times. Regulations and immigration guidance will also matter for the new permanent-residence permits and for the evidence used to prove qualifying residence.

Do not rely on the former five-year test as permission to submit a new naturalization application during the hold. Preserve a detailed record of permits, entries, exits and the status held during each period, because the amended tests distinguish lawful presence from presence under permanent residence.

What Citizeo is watching

The next checkpoints are:

  1. commencement notices for Acts 8 and 10 of 2026;
  2. regulations defining the revised permanent-residence framework;
  3. a confirmed naturalization reopening date, updated forms and Fiji Immigration guidance;
  4. confirmation of how split or overlapping permit periods are counted; and
  5. operational instructions for applications already pending at commencement.

Sources