The new citizenship law in North Macedonia
The current law also stipulates that citizenship is acquired by origin, birth in the Republic of North Macedonia, naturalization, and international agreements.
Naturalization is a way of acquiring citizenship for a foreigner is allowed by submitting an application for citizenship in person by the applicant and by fulfilling all the conditions listed in the law, but in a procedure that is not limited by the legal deadline in which it must end. that is, until when the body that decides on the request should make a decision, which leads to decades of cases of resolving this issue.
Due to the current use of this unregulated issue, ie the legal gap, due to security and inadmissibility of time in deciding with this draft law, this decision is provided in favor of the applicants and with a specific deadline of six months from the date of the request.
The legal regulation of these provisions will create a realistic picture of citizenship in the Republic of North Macedonia, which will directly affect the census for 2021, which according to the proposers of the law, will result from inaccurate statistics of the population, households, and apartments in the country.
The provisions of the law Law are also harmonized with the Law on Misdemeanors (“Official Gazette of the Republic of North Macedonia” no. 96/19), in terms of misdemeanor provisions, ie fines and intervention is made in relation to the name of the state, and with the purpose of implementation of the Constitutional Amendments XXXIII – XXXVI and the Constitutional Law on Implementation of the Constitutional Amendments (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia” No. 6/19).
Citizenship in North Macedonia
Find out more about the process and the basis for acquiring the citizenship in North Macedonia
Overall, the main purpose of the draft law is to regulate certain issues that in the implementation of the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Macedonia have been imposed as real, for which the state should find a legal solution that will show the real situation with citizenship and which in the upcoming census.
The new law on citizenship now stipulates that:
- Citizenship of the Republic of North Macedonia by naturalization can be acquired by a foreigner who has personally submitted a request for admission to Citizenship of the Republic of North Macedonia provided that he/she until the submission of the request (legally and continuously) reside on the territory of the Republic of North Macedonia for at least 7 years. The previous law stipulated that the foreigner must reside for at least 8 years.
- The Agency of national security is now obligated to determine within a deadline of 6 (six) months if the applicant’s admission to citizenship of the Republic of North Macedonia endangers the national security or defense of the Republic of North Macedonia
- The applicant who applies as an emigrant from the Republic of North Macedonia, as well as his/her descendants up to the first line can acquire citizenship of the Republic of North Macedonia by naturalization although he/she does not have knowledge of the Macedonian language to the level that he/she can communicate with the environment. Speaking the language used to be a condition in order for the applicant who is an emigrant to acquire citizenship.
- In article 8 paragraph 2, the words “except in the mother country” are now deleted, allowing the applicant who applies as an emigrant to have more flexibility in the process of determining the basis.
- Now, a juvenile whose citizenship of the Republic of North Macedonia has been lost by renunciation, can re-acquire citizenship if he/she has legally and continuously resided in the Republic of North Macedonia for at least one year (use to be three years) by the age of 25 years, and has submitted a request for readmission to citizenship of the Republic of North Macedonia.
The above text is for information purpose only. It’s content cannot be cosnidered a legal advise. Please consult a lawyer for more specific legal information.