Putin signs law allowing naturalized Russian citizens to hold dual citizenship
MOSCOW. April 24 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law facilitating the naturalization of certain categories of people.
The law, which was published in the official legal database, allows foreigners to receive Russian citizenship without giving up their current citizenship at the time of naturalization.
The law adjusts the existing legal provision under which a foreigner may apply for Russian citizenship after having lived in Russia for longer than five years from the moment they were granted a residency permit or permission to temporarily reside in Russia.
The law specifies categories of foreign citizens who will not have to meet this five-year permanent residency qualification and will not have to prove that they have a legal means of subsistence in order to apply for Russian citizenship.
In particular, this provision applies to "citizens of the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine."
It also applies to foreigners or people without citizenship, if they have at least one Russian parent living in Russia.
"Foreign citizens and people without citizenship permanently residing in Russia and recognized as native speakers of the Russian language" would also be entitled to the fast-track citizenship acquisition procedure.
The fast-track procedure would also be applicable to able-bodied people without citizenship aged 18 and older, if they earlier held Soviet citizenship, have lived and are living in a country that was formerly a part of the USSR, and did not acquire the citizenship of this country.
The same qualification applies to foreigners and people without citizenship temporarily or permanently residing in Russia, if they are married to a Russian citizen living in Russia and have common children in this marriage.
The law also stipulates that foreigners and people without citizenship permanently residing in Russia may be entitled to the fast-track procedure, if they have been married for at least three years to a Russian citizen residing in Russia (at the present time, the law does not take the fact of their residency in Russia into consideration).
The law also reduces from three years to one year the term of a person's working career in Russia, upon the expiration of which, they may be entitled to the fast-track citizenship acquisition procedure on the condition that they received a professional education at an accredited Russian educational or scientific organization after July 1, 2002.