Talk:Estonian nationality law

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[edit] Choice of Estonian Citizenship

Persons (without one parent being an Estonian citizen) who came to Estonia subsequent to the occupation by the Soviet Union are not Estonian citizens even if born in Estonia, but need to apply for naturalisation.

Although it is correct that such a person could choose to become a Russian citizen, the only other option was to become an Estonian citizen, but this choice was only open to people meeting ALL of the following requirements a) Must be 18 or obtained parental or guardian consent to become an Estonian citizen b) he or she must have resided in Estonia on a permanent basis for at least 2 years prior to and one year after the date of application c) he or she must know the Estonian language. In addition ANY of the following were NOT eligible to apply for Estonian citizenship a) foreign military personnel on active service b) persons who had been employed in the security and intelligence organisations of the USSR c) persons who had been convicted of serious criminal offences d) persons lacking a legal steady income.

Thus anyone choosing to become an Estonian citizen, but who was either not eligible or was unable to meet all the above requirents, was unable to obtain any form of citizenship and became 'stateless'.

It is therefore incorrect to state that a person becomes 'stateless' by simply not 'choosing' some citizenship; they became stateless because they were not eligible or were unable to obtain citizenship for a variety of reasons that include the above. Source for the above information is the UN Report of the secretary-general 'Situation of Human Rights in Estonia and Latvia' A/48/511 issued 26 October 1993. (sections 29, 30, 31, 34) Ray3055 (talk) 22:10, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

There is an element of choice involved. Many young "stateless" people who have a perfectly good Estonian language skills choose not to obtain Estonian citizenship to avoid conscription into the Army, which is an obligation on all young male citizens in the country. Martintg (talk) 23:04, 23 January 2008 (UTC)