KEY POINTS:
A toddler who missed out on New Zealand citizenship while her parents waited to get their passports in the mail is to have her case reconsidered.
An Internal Affairs spokeswoman yesterday told the Weekend Herald that the minister, Richard Worth, had called for a full report into 21-month-old Rafaela Lat and her parents Cary and Ruby.
He was likely to make a decision in the next few weeks.
Rafaela was granted a visitor's visa - and not citizenship - when she was born at Auckland City Hospital because of a delay by Immigration New Zealand in stamping her Filipino parents' passports with their already approved residencies.
Children born in New Zealand after January 1, 1949, used to become citizens automatically, but the law changed in 2006, and now at least one of the parents has to be either a New Zealand citizen or resident for children born here to acquire New Zealand citizenship.
The status as permanent residents of New Zealand for Cary and Ruby Lat had been approved on February 26, 2007, and they submitted their passports to immigration to be stamped the next day.
But Rafaela was born on March 12, two weeks before the passports were stamped and returned to them on March 29.
Mrs Lat, of Glenfield, said she was thrilled at the news that her daughter's case will be before the minister.
"It is something that we have been praying so hard for, and I am so glad that her case is being looked at," Mrs Lat said.
"I know being a New Zealand citizen is a privilege, but I think it is something Rafaela truly deserves."
Rafaela's father, Cary Lat, an accountant, said he felt the news signalled "a good start to the new year".
