At around 5:15pm today the Department of Internal Affairs released some of the information they hold on Peter Thiel’s application for New Zealand citizenship, emailed on mass to those who had made requests under the Official Information Act.
Peter Thiel has never lived in New Zealand and doesn’t plan to live in New Zealand. He’s a controversial figure. We looked past that because of a few New Zealand business investments, public speaking engagements, and a donation to the Canterbury earthquake relief fund.
Neil Strauss wrote a book in 2009 called Emergency about disaster preparedness. In one part he investigates the trend of the super rich applying for secondary citizenship in another country. They wanted to be prepared when “the shit hits the fan” by having a Plan B country to retreat to if there was some sort of disaster. Strauss said New Zealand would be a great country to have citizenship in but that our requirements are so strict. He settled for Saint Kitts and Nevis.
When you’re Peter Thiel and are worth US$2.7 billion, I guess you don’t need to settle.
Thiel has his Plan B, New Zealand, but don’t expect to see him around unless the world is falling apart.
Highlights and the full documents are embedded below:
DIA releases the following in mass response to OIA requests re: the citizenship of Mr Peter Thiel https://t.co/jOpI1ESf6K #nzpol
— Matt Taylor (@MattTaylor) February 1, 2017
Thiel attended a private citizenship ceremony at the New Zealand Consulate in Santa Monica in August 2011 #rtp #nzpol
— Matt Taylor (@MattTaylor) February 1, 2017
Number of days Thiel was present in New Zealand as a permanent resident is redacted but the black box is pretty small #rtp #nzpol
— Matt Taylor (@MattTaylor) February 1, 2017
(Normal requirement of days in NZ is 1350 days #rtp #nzpol)
— Matt Taylor (@MattTaylor) February 1, 2017
Rod Drury and Sam Morgan wrote testimonials in support of Thiel's citizenship application #rtp #nzpol
— Matt Taylor (@MattTaylor) February 1, 2017
DIA /recommended/ the Minister grant Thiel citizenship under the exceptional circumstances provision #rtp #nzpol
— Matt Taylor (@MattTaylor) February 1, 2017
I would guess it is a single digit number of days in the 20 months prior to his application @reckonsemoji #nzpol #rtp pic.twitter.com/66CMCtEaNL
— Matt Taylor (@MattTaylor) February 1, 2017
Thiel's Parnell house is actually a house for his staff #rtp #nzpol pic.twitter.com/2S3ZrvHAGN
— Matt Taylor (@MattTaylor) February 1, 2017
“[NZ] is a stable country with one of the highest ratings in the world for honesty and a non-corrupt culture” Thiel to Minister #nzpol #rtp
— Matt Taylor (@MattTaylor) February 1, 2017
DIA’s PDF document released 1 February 2017
Image credit: Heisenberg Media CC-BY-2.0