Internal Affairs Minister Rick Barker has flagged an investigation into the possibility of immigration fraud in the case of the granting of residency and citizenship to Auckland man Yang Liu.
Mr Barker made the statement last night in response to questions from the media about the circumstances in which Mr Liu, also known as Bill Liu, was granted residency and citizenship.
In a Newstalk ZB interview last night, Ian Wishart of Investigate magazine said he had received leaked Department of Internal Affairs documents raising concerns about the true identity of Mr Liu.
The minister said Mr Liu was granted permanent residency in January 2002 in a decision made by an immigration officer.
Mr Liu's application for citizenship was made in May 2005 but was not approved until this August.
Retiring MP Dover Samuels said he supported the citizenship application of his "personal friend" Mr Liu.
The application was approved at ministerial level earlier this year.
Mr Samuels said Mr Liu's application was approved by Shane Jones, Associate Minister of Immigration.
Mr Barker said this was done by Mr Jones under delegated authority.
"All citizenship decisions are made by the minister of internal affairs, except where there may be an actual or perceived conflict of interest," Mr Barker said.
In Mr Liu's case, a decision was made by another minister and a general delegation to Mr Jones was in place.
There was an ongoing investigation into "the possibility of immigration fraud in this case", Mr Barker said.
He did not want to jeopardise this process and there would be no further comment from ministers, he said.
Mr Samuels said Mr Liu was a friend of his and had been in New Zealand for seven years.
There had been procrastination in giving Mr Liu citizenship, he said.
"He had a falling out with the Chinese Government.
''He's pro-democracy, some sort of supporter of Falun Gong, and he protested against this Chinese regime in New York.
''They're after him.
"His wife is a New Zealand citizen, his children are New Zealanders, he's never broken the law here, and I wrote a letter of support to the minister considering his application for citizenship."
Mr Samuels said his understanding was that the successful citizenship bid had "got up the nose" of Internal Affairs officials, prompting them to leak information to Investigate magazine.
