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Update from November 2023:
On 1 November 2023, an amendment to the Citizenship Law entered into force which provides that a child born on the territory who meets the conditions to be recognised as stateless will be granted Moldovan nationality. This legislative amendment prevents cases of statelessness among children born on the territory of the Republic of Moldova, improving how Moldova is assessed in the existence of this safeguard. Previously, a stateless child’s ability to acquire nationality was dependent on the status of their parents (as shown below).
The information below was last updated in February 2023. A full update to this page will be available in early 2025.
Law, policy, and practice on the protection of stateless people and prevention and reduction of statelessness is generally positive in Moldova. The country’s record on treaty accession is good and it has established a dedicated Statelessness Determination Procedure (SDP) in law. The SDP is accessible, with a mandatory interview, an option to initiate the procedure ex officio, and some rights are granted to applicants. People recognised as stateless in Moldova are granted rights in line with nationals, but do not have any political rights (for example, they cannot vote in any elections). Although there is an accelerated route to naturalisation, reduced from ten years, a stateless person must still wait eight years before being eligible to apply for naturalisation.
Moldovan law provides for detention to be used only as a last resort and a country of removal must be set prior to detention for removal. There are partial safeguards in nationality law to prevent statelessness and the Moldovan legal framework provides for universal birth registration. However, access to birth registration and a birth certificate is hindered in practice by the requirement that parents must be documented to register a birth, with some communities at higher risk of remaining unregistered, including Roma. Provisions for deprivation of nationality are broadly in line with international standards.
Oleg Palii, Law Center of Advocates
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