How can citizens of the Russian Federation obtain 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.

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.

Covid passports for Moldovans. Will vaccinated Moldovan citizens be allowed into Europe?

In the European Union, there is active debate around “green passports” for vaccination against coronavirus: the format of these documents will determine who will be able to cross the borders of EU countries and under what conditions. NM tells how they are preparing for the introduction of Covid passports in Moldova, whether they plan to allow vaccinated Moldovan citizens into EU countries, and what questions there are so far regarding these certificates.

What about certificates now?

Now in Moldova, after receiving both doses of the drug, vaccination certificates are issued. However, local authorities cannot yet guarantee that they will be accepted in other countries. The Ministry of Health advises citizens to find out this themselves before traveling.

“There are still no international vaccination certificates. Now everything depends on the policy of a particular country regarding these documents. Before visiting a particular country, we recommend that citizens ask the border service whether our certificates are accepted there. They have safety features and all the necessary vaccination information can be found on them. There is even a QR code that allows you to read this data in electronic format,” said epidemiologist Alexey Cheban.

As Cheban clarified, not in all countries certificates are valid immediately after the second vaccination. “In some states, certificates are recognized only two weeks after the second vaccination,” the epidemiologist said.

Will our certificates be accepted in the European Union?

The head of the EU Delegation to Moldova, Peter Michalko, in an interview with NM, said that the vaccination certificate issued in Moldova will most likely be recognized in the EU countries. According to the diplomat, the EU is now developing a single document confirming that a person has completed the full course of vaccination against coronavirus. According to Mikhalko, it is very important that such documents are approved in EU partner countries, which include Moldova.

Answering questions from NM, Mihalko suggested that this summer vaccinated Moldovan citizens will be able to travel to the EU on the basis of a vaccination certificate issued in the republic.

What are the authorities planning?

At a press conference on May 19, experts from the Moldovan Ministry of Health said that they plan to adhere to international standards regarding vaccination certificates as soon as they are developed. When the European Union approves the format of a single “green passport”, Moldova “to the extent possible” will join this initiative and will do everything to have this document recognized.

What will “green passports” look like and work?

The EU has already decided on the content and functions of the European vaccination certificate, known as the “green passport”, and the European Commission has already held a debate on this topic. Previously, they decided the following:

The certificate (“green passport”) will be issued free of charge, and the information in it must be in two languages (the official language of the issuing country and English);
The document will contain a barcode and must be in both paper and electronic format;
The “green passport” will include information about vaccination against coronavirus, recently received negative results of PCR tests for infection, and whether the owner of the document has suffered from COVID-19.

Why is the “green passport” project criticized?

In Hungary, for example, they were reserved about the concept of a certificate. The head of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, Peter Szijjártó, expressed the hope that such documents will not become a tool of pressure on EU states. It should be noted that the European Parliament insists that coronavirus vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) can ensure travel within the EU. This does not apply to Russia's Sputnik V and China's Sinopharm vaccine, which are widely used in Hungary. The same vaccines are now used in Moldova.

However, the European Commission document clearly states that certificates “should not become a condition for freedom of movement” or “be interpreted as an obligation to get vaccinated.”

The document states that people who for some reason could not or did not want to get vaccinated should enjoy the same freedom of movement as vaccinated people, but “subject to mandatory tests or self-isolation.”

How long will such a certificate be valid?

There will be three types of pan-European certificates: about vaccination against coronavirus, about the fact that the certificate holder has already had it, or simply about a negative test for COVID-19. However, they have not yet specified how long each type of certificate will be valid.

For now, it is assumed that each country will individually determine the validity period. The preliminary document from the European Commission states only that certificates for those who have recovered from coronavirus will be limited to a maximum period of 180 days.

Let us remind you that by the morning of May 19, more than 253 thousand doses of coronavirus vaccines were used in Moldova. More than 34 thousand people have already received both doses. Today the following vaccines are available in the country: Swedish-British AstraZeneca, Chinese Sinopharm and SinoVac. The Russian Sputnik V vaccine remains only for those who have received the first shot and are waiting for the second.

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.

How can a Russian citizen obtain a Moldovan passport?

The Russian Federation is the only state with which the Moldovan authorities have an agreement on dual citizenship.

Only Russians who fall into at least one of the categories can receive it

presence of direct relatives with Moldovan citizenship;
if the people themselves or their relatives lived in the country before 1940;
and other categories that were specified in the “Methods of registration” paragraph.

If you have minor children whose citizenship you also want to change, you will need the consent of the second parent.

Since Moldova is on the list of Schengen countries, citizens of this republic can travel around these countries without obtaining a visa. All you need is a passport, which is now biometric.

Statement

The application is submitted to the passport office of Moldova. It should include:

the name of the organization to which it is addressed, namely: street, house number of the passport office, full name of the boss in whose name it is submitted;
Full name of the person applying for citizenship, his passport details, place of residence, telephone number;
a request for citizenship with a brief description of why the Moldavian Republic should issue a passport of its country (here it will be necessary to provide one or more of the reasons for registration that were listed above);
date and signature.

List of documents

Registration of Moldovan citizenship requires the following set of documents:

statement;
autobiography in Moldovan;
2 photos;
valid passport;
if there is a certificate of marriage, divorce, birth of children;
certificate of no criminal record;
characteristics from the place of work;
salary certificate;
receipt of payment of state duty.

Timing and cost

The more serious the basis for issuing citizenship, the less time it will take to obtain it. For example, the issuance of citizenship due to naturalization takes about a year. A birth passport is issued within 2 weeks after reaching a certain age.

The cost of producing a passport within 30 days is 800 lei (approximately 3,000 rubles)

The Moldavian passport is verified by series and number

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.

Obtaining a Moldovan foreign passport for citizens of the Russian Federation

The diplomatic mission is authorized to issue a Moldovan passport to a Russian citizen. You can also obtain the desired document through a consular office.

The registration procedure takes about three months. The presence of the applicant is required.

List of documents

You need to start preparing the package of papers by correctly filling out the application form. The applicant indicates in it all reliable information about himself: place of work, residence, personal data. You must include a photo in your application. It is important that there are no errors or corrections in it, otherwise the questionnaire will be declared invalid.

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.