Over 40 thousand Romanian citizens were approved in 2023, of which 75% for people from the ex-Soviet space

In 2023, Romania approved three times more citizenships for people from the former USSR, based on Article 11 on the reacquisition of Romanian citizenship, than for all other categories of foreigners combined.

The National Citizenship Authority (ANC) sent, at the request of HotNews.ro, more data on the number of Romanian citizens granted in 2023, so that we can now have a complete picture of the situation.

Our request came in the context in which a bill to amend the Citizenship Law is in public debate on the website of the Ministry of Justice, and also after HotNews.ro revealed how the reacquisition of citizenship by people from the ex-Soviet space, under Article 11, it is often done on the basis of false documents.

Article 11 of the law represents, in theory, a reparation for people who were born on the territories lost by Romania in 1940 (Bessarabia, northern Bucovina, Bugeac) or their descendants, up to the third degree. Beneficiaries of this provision do not have to know the Romanian language and can keep their domicile abroad.

This has for years been a way for people from Ukraine, Russia, and other ex-Soviet countries to get their hands on an EU state passport.

From the data sent by the ANC it appears that, in total, in 2023, by order of the president of the institution, 40,740 applications for Romanian citizenship were approved. Of these, the majority, 30,331, were under Article 11.

The difference, just over 10,000, is represented by the applications that were approved for people in the other situations provided for by law: foreigners who have lived in Romania for at least eight years (or five in the situation where they are married to Romanians), people whom the communist authorities they withdrew their Romanian citizenship and asked to regain it (for example, they fled the country before ’89), etc.

In a previous address sent to HotNews.ro, the ANC stated that in 2023 it rejected no less than 3,431 files that fell under Article 11, i.e. submitted by people from the ex-Soviet space. This is “the highest number of cases rejected in a single year since the establishment of the Authority in 2010.”

In the document sent to HotNews.ro, the ANC also showed that in 2023, 387 requests to renounce Romanian citizenship were also approved.

Regarding the Eurostat data, which say that in 2022, Romania granted 13,400 citizens, being, in absolute numbers, a long way from Italy, Spain or Germany, the ANC states that it is strictly about people who have taken the oath of allegiance towards Romania at the ANC headquarters or at one of Romania’s diplomatic missions abroad.

The oath of allegiance is the last step in the citizenship process, after the application is approved by order of the ANC president.

A draft law intends to change the conditions for granting Romanian citizenship

Because many of the applications for the reacquisition of Romanian citizenship submitted by Russian, Ukrainian or other ex-Soviet states have proven to be based on false documents regarding the Romanian descent of the applicants, the Ministry of Justice, at the proposal of the ANC, wants to change the law.

Among the changes proposed and under public debate are:

• Introducing the condition of knowing the Romanian language.
• The possibility of extending the deadline for resolving citizenship applications, so that the Commission has time to take steps to establish the authenticity of some documents (currently, the deadline is five months).
• Guaranteeing the identity of an applicant by introducing biometrics in the process of acquiring citizenship upon request (there have been situations when people other than those who applied for citizenship appeared at the oath-taking).
• The imposition of a mandatory evidentiary standard for official documents issued by the authorities of other states, so that the proof of the fulfillment of the legal conditions will be made with civil status documents or extracts from civil status registers, apostilles, issued no more than two years before the registration of the request, so that they include additional safety features.

As HotNews.ro reported, the introduction of the requirement to know the Romanian language, at a minimum level of B1, generated debates and strong opposition.

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