Voted in first reading: People requesting Moldovan citizenship must know Romanian language, Constitution

People requesting Moldovan citizenship must demonstrate knowledge of the Romanian language and the provisions of our country's Constitution. These requirements are included in a draft law on Moldovan citizenship, which was adopted in the first reading by 54 deputies.

According to the legislative initiative, Moldovan citizenship can be acquired by birth, recognition, adoption, guardianship, reacquisition and naturalization. The project unifies the procedures of obtaining citizenship, ensuring equality for all applicants and eliminating discrimination or favoritism based on the category of persons. Another provision concerns the clear delineation of categories of citizenship applicants based on their age.

The application for obtaining citizenship must be made personally by the applicant, and the possibility to submit citizenship applications through intermediaries, via proxy, will be excluded to reduce the risk of corruption and external influences.

Furthermore, the project proposes measures against fraud and corruption by adopting strict standards for document acceptance and rigorous verification to prevent fraud in the citizenship granting process and protect national security. In recent years, around 100 attempts to acquire Moldovan citizenship through fraud, based on unknown or forged documents, have been identified and countered. Therefore, government institutions will have the responsibility to more rigorously verify the documents submitted by the applicant, as well as other information necessary to determine their eligibility for citizenship. The international travel history will be checked to ensure they were not banned from entering or staying in other countries, as well as their financial background, health condition, family history, and applicant's integrity.

The project also contains provisions to eliminate uncertainty about categories of foreigners entitled to apply for Moldovan citizenship through naturalization, as well as in calculating the period of legal residence and/or domicile on the country's territory by citizenship applicants.

The document, developed by a group of PAS deputies, is set to be examined by Parliament in the second reading.