The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has just adopted the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine“ On Citizenship of Ukraine “on Simplified Acquisition of Citizenship of Ukraine by Certain Categories of Persons” (Bill №5630).

The draft introduces a number of important amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Citizenship of Ukraine”, in particular to Article 9 on the citizenship of Ukraine.

When the Law enters into force (after it will be signed by the President of Ukraine), stateless persons will have the opportunity to be granted Ukrainian citizenship three years after being officially recognized as a stateless person through the Stateless Determination Procedure.

The current Law of Ukraine “On Citizenship of Ukraine” does not provide for a separate procedure for naturalization of the officially recognized stateless persons, and the general approach to citizenship of Ukraine is possible only if the person continuously resided in Ukraine for the last 5 years. In addition, due to the peculiarities of the legal status of the stateless persons, which are recognized in Ukraine under the new procedure, there are no rules that would clearly define what exactly should be included in these five years.

The new law clearly states that for stateless persons, the period of continuous legal residence on the territory of Ukraine must be three years from the date of recognition.

The CF “Right to Protection” (R2P) will soon provide more information on key changes to the legislation on Ukrainian citizenship and its possible positive impact on documentation procedures.

• Watch the video about the first person, who was officially recognized as stateless in Ukraine and received her first identity document (in Ukrainian).
• More details on the Stateless Determination Procedure (SDP) in Ukraine.
• On the recent changes in the procedure for obtaining a passport of a citizen of Ukraine: will the procedure for identifying a person become easier? (in Ukrainian)