Labour is questioning why there's a wall of silence from the Government, around the grounds on which US Tech billionaire Peter Thiel was granted New Zealand citizenship five years ago

The founder of Pay-Pal has bought at least three multi-million dollar properties in New Zealand.

Labour's Immigration spokesman Iain Lees Galloway told Mike Hosking the Government has finally admitted Mr Thiel was given an exemption, while Nathan Guy was the Minister.

He said that allowed Mr Thiel to circumvent the normal process for gaining citizenship.

"They are normally expected to live in New Zealand - to make a commitment to New Zealand, Mr Thiel hasn't been required to make that commitment."

Lees Galloway said "the question still remains, why on earth was he given special treatment? And was it because of his wealth?"

According to the Department of Internal Affairs website, citizenship requires people to have lived in New Zealand for most of the past five years, or have been born in New Zealand, or have New Zealand parents.

Filings to the Companies Office, requiring directors to provide their residential address, have Mr Thiel only list United States addresses. Mr Thiel is widely reported to have been born in Frankfurt, Germany, to German parents who emigrated to the United States when he was an infant.

An alternate path to the above requires the Minister of Immigration to personally sign off and agree that granting the individual citizenship "would be in the public interest because of exceptional circumstances of a humanitarian or other nature".

Mr Thiel's ties to New Zealand are mainly financial, having invested around $50 million over the last decade in accountancy software company Xero and the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund.