Immigration
Immigration Ordinance, and the Teitiota climate displacement ruling
Entry under the Immigration Ordinance with permits from the Immigration Division. Kiribati is best known internationally as the origin of Teitiota, the leading decision on whether climate harm can ground protection.
Key rules
- Deadline — Work and residence permits are granted for limited renewable periods
- Deadline — Naturalisation requires a period of lawful residence and is discretionary
Governing law
- Immigration Ordinance (Cap. 41) (s. 8)
- Citizenship OrdinanceCap. 14A
- Kiribati Passport Act 2015
- Constitution 1979, ch. III
In practice
Inward immigration is modest and permit-based, and non-citizens cannot acquire customary land regardless of status. The internationally significant question runs outward. In Teitiota v New Zealand the UN Human Rights Committee held in 2020 that removing a Kiribati national did not on those facts breach the right to life, but accepted in principle that climate-change effects may expose individuals to a risk engaging non-refoulement obligations before a country becomes wholly uninhabitable. That reasoning is now the reference point for climate-displacement claims worldwide. Kiribati's own policy response is migration with dignity: building skills and labour-mobility pathways so that movement, if it comes, is voluntary and lawful rather than forced.