Acquiring Moldovan citizenship in 2021

How to obtain Moldovan citizenship

Issues of obtaining citizenship in Moldova are regulated by the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Moldova No. 1024-XIV of June 2, 2000, the Constitution of the state and international treaties.

Those wishing to obtain the status of a citizen of the Republic of Moldova must meet the criteria established by law:

the applicant’s age is 18 years or older, that is, the applicant has reached the age of majority;
knowledge of the Moldovan language at a conversational level, which ensures integration into Moldovan society;
familiarity with the basics of the constitutional law of the state and the lack of information about the applicant’s violations of the laws of the country and its constitution;
deprivation or renunciation of citizenship of any other states;
official place of work or own business, that is, a confirmed legal source of income;
confirmation by the applicant of the availability of sufficient funds to maintain a normal standard of living in the country (monthly income should not be lower than the minimum subsistence level established in the Republic of Moldova);
no overdue debts;
absence of criminal records (you need to present a certificate of this from your country and from Moldova) and criminal connections, that is, the presence of a reputation as a decent citizen.

ATTENTION! The condition of refusal or loss of citizenship of another state is removed if the fulfillment of this condition is impossible or there are no grounds to require it.

In addition, each applicant must:

undergo a medical examination;
pay the state fee;
prepare and submit an autobiography.

Features of the restoration of Moldovan citizenship

According to Article 16 of the Law on Citizenship of Moldova, those people who previously had citizenship of the republic, but for one reason or another lost it, can receive Moldovan citizenship back. At the same time, the person will not have to renounce his current citizenship.

Restoration is carried out through the Department of Population Registration and Documentation. If you permanently reside abroad legally, then you can apply for reinstatement at the Embassy of the Republic of Moldova, but it will be faster to process everything on the territory of Moldova.

To do this, you need to prepare the following documents:

An autobiography, in which it is important to indicate in what years you lived in Moldova, what your current marital status is, where you live, what you work for.
Also in the autobiography you need to provide information about your closest relatives - husband or wife, children, parents.
A mandatory item in your autobiography is the reason why you lost your Moldovan citizenship.
Certificate of family composition, issued at the place of current residence.
A copy of the decision to revoke citizenship, if any, or a certificate of loss of citizenship (as appropriate).
A copy of the document used to confirm identity.
If necessary, a passport of a citizen of another country, residence permit documents.
Four photographs in a format of 4.5 by 4.5 centimeters.
Receipt for payment of state duty and payment for services provided - for 180 and 140 lei, respectively.
A certificate stating that you have no criminal record is issued in the country where you have current citizenship.
Certificate of good conduct from Moldova.

If necessary, representatives of Moldova may request other documents - it is important to be ready to provide them so that the application is considered in a short time . An important fact is that documents must be prepared in Romanian/Moldovan, the state language of the Republic of Moldova.

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Design methods

To obtain the title of citizen of the Republic of Moldova there are the following grounds:

right of birth;
adoption;
recognition of roots;
naturalization;
repatriation (or restoration of citizenship).

The procedure for obtaining a passport using the above routes is similar, but your status must be documented.

REFERENCE! In all cases, the applicant must meet the established criteria for applicants for citizen status prescribed by law.

By birth

According to the right of birth, citizenship by the Moldovan state is issued if the child:

born from parents, one of whom is a citizen of the country;
born on Moldovan soil from stateless persons or from parents with refugee status;
lost relatives and was recognized as an orphan by the state authorities of Moldova;
was born outside of Moldova, but his parents are its citizens.

Such children, upon reaching adulthood, receive a passport, as well as citizenship, automatically by submitting an appropriate application.

REFERENCE! If at the time of submitting the application it is documented that the above conditions have not been met, then the request will not be satisfied.

Naturalization

The method of obtaining Moldovan citizenship through naturalization is the longest and most difficult. Persons living in the country for at least 10 years can apply for a positive decision along this route.

The ten-year period can be shortened by the following factors:

continuous legal residence for three years with parents, children or adoptive parents who have Moldovan citizenship;
being legally married to a resident of Moldova for more than 3 years;
from 5 years of legal residence in the teenager’s country until he reaches adulthood (18 years old);
legal permanent residence for a period of 8 years or more in the country of a stateless person or with refugee status.

Marriage and family restoration

Through legal registration of marriage with a Moldovan, you can also obtain citizenship of this country. To do this, you need to legally live in the state for three years in the status of the official spouse of a Moldovan citizen. After the three-year period, a request can be submitted to the relevant authorities.

For adopted children

The adoption procedure can also speed up obtaining a Moldovan passport. The person submitting the application can be either an adopted child or a guardian. Such a person must meet one of the following criteria:

Adoption by a couple in which one of the partners has a Moldovan passport. At the same time, what citizenship the ward will receive is decided by the adoptive parents themselves. If they do not reach a compromise, then the issue is resolved through the courts.
Adoption by a married couple, where everyone is a bearer of Moldovan citizenship.
Guardianship of a minor who is already a citizen of the Republic of Moldova. In this situation, the adoptive parent can even legally emigrate to the adopted child’s homeland.

In accordance with the established procedure, an application can be submitted 5 years after the adoption procedure, and for minors - after they reach 18 years of age.

REFERENCE! If one of the above conditions is met, the applicant must have lived legally in that country for at least three years before applying for a passport.

According to the roots

Obtaining Moldovan citizenship by recognition of roots, or through repatriation, is available to the following categories of people:

born in the territory of this country;
direct relatives and heirs of those born in Moldova;
until June 28, 1940, residents (and their children) in the following territories: MASSR;
Hertz County;
Bessarabia;
Bukovina;

deported from the country since July 1940, and their descendants.

REFERENCE! When deciding to obtain new citizenship by one spouse and a minor child, the permission of the other parent is also required.

Recovery

Persons who previously had Moldovan citizenship, but for some objective reason lost it, can apply for its return. To do this, the applicant provides with the application a complete package of documents and an autobiography, in which it is necessary to indicate in detail the reasons for the loss of citizenship. The described reasons must be documented.

ATTENTION! The right to restoration of Moldovan citizenship is not inherited.

In addition, the applicant must provide evidence that he was not an active participant in any war or international crimes.

Persons who have committed serious crimes against Moldova do not have the right to restoration of citizenship.

Refusal to obtain Moldovan citizenship

Some amendments have been made to the Regulations on the issuance of a passport for a citizen of Moldova, which indicate in which cases the acquisition of Moldovan citizenship may be denied. An application for acquiring Moldovan citizenship may be refused to a citizen who has given false information, as well as if the citizen has submitted forged documents, or has provided an incomplete package of documents required to obtain Moldovan citizenship.

If the denial of Moldovan citizenship was unfounded, then this decision can be appealed, as indicated by the Law “On the Administrative Court”.

Based on this article, we can conclude that obtaining Moldovan citizenship is a rather difficult process. For a positive decision on the issuance of citizenship, it is necessary to meet all the requirements put forward by the given country.

If all requirements are met in accordance with the legislation of Moldova, then obtaining citizenship can take up to three months under the simplified system, and up to one year under the system associated with the naturalization of a citizen.

Required documents for Moldovan citizenship

To obtain a Moldovan passport, you need to submit a specialized application to the Moldovan embassy in your country. A package of documents must be attached to the application according to the basis on which the foreigner wishes to obtain Moldovan citizenship.

The standard package of documents that the applicant must collect includes the following documents:

passport of your country;
passport for foreign travel;
autobiography;
birth certificates of the applicant and his children, if necessary;
document on marriage or divorce;
a certificate confirming no criminal record;
certificate of absence of bank debts;
a document confirming the absence of debts to the tax authorities;
2 photographs of 3.5 x 4.5 format;
a receipt confirming payment of the state fee.

Depending on the circumstances for each specific case, documents with confirmation may also be required:

income;
family composition;
registration of place of residence;
death of a spouse;
change of first or last name.

Each such certificate must be provided in 5 copies.

ATTENTION! Copies of the documents provided must be notarized. It is also mandatory to submit translations of documents into Moldovan.

Assistance in obtaining citizenship

Every person who has the right to restore citizenship and a passport of the Republic of Moldova can collect documents and submit an application independently. But in this case, many difficulties await him. It is necessary to familiarize yourself with the legislation of the Republic, collect and correctly execute all the necessary documents, fill out an application in the Moldovan language without errors. Any defect can not only delay the procedure for issuing citizenship, but also lead to refusal.

The company Documente.md offers assistance in preparing documents and submitting an application for restoration of citizenship of the Republic of Moldova . We accompany our clients throughout the entire process, from drawing up and submitting an application to officially obtaining citizenship.

At your service is a staff of highly qualified specialists who will not only suggest the necessary actions, but also help with the collection, translation, and notarization of all necessary papers . We will help you draw up a package of documents in such a way that the representation of the Republic of Moldova has a minimum chance of additional questions and, especially, refusal. With our help, you can restore citizenship quickly and easily.

Terms and cost of registration

The standard procedure for obtaining Moldovan citizenship can take a year.

ATTENTION! When submitting an application through the migration service on the territory of the Republic of Moldova, the consideration will take less time.

If the application is processed according to a simplified procedure, the processing time will be on average 15-30 days.

The stage of application processing can be found at the Moldovan consulate.

Depending on the circumstances of a specific request, the amount of state duty for this service can vary between 100-300 lei.

ATTENTION! Processing the request is free for preferential categories of applicants: veterans, disabled people and minor children.

The period for obtaining a biometric passport usually does not exceed 5 months.

Who can get rejected

The state of Moldova does not satisfy all applications for obtaining the status of a citizen of the country. This request may be denied for the following reasons:

lack of required documents in the submitted package;
providing false information;
the applicant has problems with the law;
provision of documents that are no longer valid;
insufficient level of solvency;
problems with the law of Moldova or your native state.

Dual citizenship Russia – Moldova

By double in this case we mean that a person has passports of two countries at the same time. And if, according to the legislation of Moldova, residents are allowed to have dual citizenship, then Russians must renounce Russian citizenship in order to transfer to Moldovan citizenship.

Moreover, Russia allows dual citizenship to the following categories of the population:

children from the Republic of Moldova who were adopted by citizens of the Russian Federation (assigned automatically);
spouses, one of whom is Russian and the other is Moldovan.

REFERENCE! For residents of one of the countries who are not included in this list, but wish to obtain dual citizenship, this possibility also exists. You need to submit an application for this to the Ministry of Internal Affairs 60 days after obtaining a passport from another country.

Thus, it is clear that Moldovan citizenship can be obtained in several ways, but for this you need to meet a number of conditions and provide a full package of required documents to the country’s embassy. In unfavorable circumstances and violation of the requirements set for candidates, the request may be refused. And despite the fact that in the Russian Federation dual citizenship is not permitted by law, there is a legitimate opportunity to obtain it with Moldova.