Russian nationality law

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The Russian nationality law consists of the Constitution of Russian Federation (of 1993), the Federal act on citizenship of Russian Federation (of 2002, with the amendments of 2003, 2004, 2006) and the international treaties that cover citizenship questions to which Russian Federation is a party. In accordance with the supremacy clause of the Constitution international treaties of Russian Federation have precedence over domestic law.

1 Russian citizenship since 1990
2 References
3 External Links

[edit] Russian citizenship since 1990

[edit] Independence

Until 1990 RSFSR was a subject of the soviet federation. In 1990 there was declared state sovereignity of RSFSR, though USSR had not been abolished until the end of 1991. Declaration of state sovereignity introduced RSFSR citizenship in its art. 11. The citizenship act text became ready in summer of 1991, but was adopted by Supreme Council (the legislative body of RSFSR) only on November 28, 1991. On January 23, 1992 some changes with respect to USSR dissolution were applied to the text, the resulting text was signed by the President and finally came in force after publication on February 6, 1992.

[edit] Citizenship act of 1991

In accordance with art. 13 former USSR citizens among permanent residents (on the date of February 6, 1992) of RSFSR were recognized as RSFSR citizens. Those who expressed their will not to become RSFSR citizens until February 6, 1993 were not recognized as RSFSR citizens. The decree of Supreme Council N 5206/1-1 recognized

those who left RSFSR before February 6, 1992 for studying, work, treatment or personal reasons and returned after February 6, 1992
military personel of RSFSR abroad

as Russian citizens.

Former USSR citizens who were born on December 30, 1922 or later on Russian territory or to a USSR citizen who was a permanent resident of RSFSR on the moment of his child's birth were recognized as "RSFSR citizens in the past" (see Case of Smirnov).

Russian citizenship could be acquired:

by birth
by registration
by naturalization
by restoration of citizenship
by opt
by following parents' citizenship

[edit] Compatriots act of 1999

In 1999 in spite of the veto of the President Federal Assembly adopted the Act on the state policy on abroad compatriots^[1]. Art. 11 stated that all of former soviet citizens and their heirs should be recognized as Russian citizens unless they had declared intentions to be citizens of foreign states. However, this article was revoked in 2002 and the persons under this article are not generally recognized by executive or court authorities of Russia as citizens of Russian Federation unless they received any documents of Russian citizen before the article's revokation.

[edit] Citizenship act of 2002

In 2002 a new citizenship act (supported by President Putin) replaced the act of 1991.

Russian citizenship could be acquired:

by birth
by naturalization
by restoration of citizenship
by following parents' citizenship

Citizenship by birth rules generally follow jus sanguinis principle, though in two special cases a child can be recognized as a Russian citizen:

neither of his parents, who are permanent residents of Russia, is a Russian citizen, but the child is born in Russia and does not obtain any other citizenship
the child is found on the territory of Russia and his parents are unknown for more than 6 months

Naturalization was usually granted if the following requirements were met:

the person was a permanent resident of Russia for not less than 5 years
promised lawful behaviour
had a legal source of income
applied for termination of another citizenship (though the loss of citizenship was not required)
spoke Russian

In certain cases some or even all of the above requirements could be waived.

Restoration of citizenship was granted under the same rules as naturalization with the exception of the residence term which was 3 years instead of 5 years. Although not prohibited by law, executive agencies (Federal migration service and Russian consular departments abroad) usually do not grant Russian citizenship to former Russian citizens through procedures more convenient than citizenship restoration(i.e. if the whole residence term could be waived).

[edit] Constitutional Court cases

[edit] Case of Smirnov (1996)

Smirnov was born on RSFSR territory in 1950. In 1979 he got married and moved his permanent residence to Lithuanian SSR. He divorced in 1992 and returned to RSFSR on December 8, 1992. Afterwards he applied for Russian citizenship mark in his passport, but this was rejected by executive officers. His claim was also rejected by common jurisdiction courts including the Supreme Court of Russian Federation.

The position of the executive officers and the courts was that Smirnov, in accordance with art. 13 of the Citizenship Act, was a former citizen of Russian Federation, but not a citizen of Russian Federation since February 6, 1992, he could apply for Russian citizenship through registration.

However, Constitutional Court ruled that art. 18 of Citizenship Act was not in conformance with the Constitution as the registration procedure of art. 18 could be applied to Russian citizens by birth, the persons who:

were born on the territory of RSFSR
were citizens of USSR
did not renounce Russian citizenship
relocated to another soviet republic
were not citizens of other soviet republics
finally came back to Russia

There has been an opinion that this ruling determines that every former citizen of USSR who was born on the territory of RSFSR and never renounced Russian citizenship is a Russian citizen by birth even if he has a foreign citizenship as well. This opinion is based on the Court's interpretation of art. 6 of the Constitution given in the text of the decision: "such persons... can not lose Russian citizenship unless they explicitly expressed their will to give it up". A noticable advocate of this position is Anatoly Mostovoy, who published the book "Get your citizenship back!" (ISBN 5-93165-077-6).

[edit] Case of Daminova (2005)

[edit] Case of Fatullaeva (2007)

Until 2001-2002 former Soviet citizens could register their permanent residence on the territory of Russia in the same way as Russian citizens.

Federal act on Russian citizenship (2002) was ammended several times to allow former Soviet citizens who had had their permanent residence registered on July 1, 2002 to apply for Russian citizenship.

Fatullaeva had been living in Russia up to this date but never registered permanent residence.

She challenged the requirement of permanent residence registration at Constitutional Court. The Court rejected her claim for the following reasons:

such a requirement does not violate her constitutional rights and freedoms
the state is not oblidged to give its citizenship except as provided by its laws and Fatullaeva still would be able to obtain Russian citizenship after every requirement of law is satisfied

"On the legal status of foreigners in USSR" Act (1981) was in force until 2002. According to this act permanent residents of USSR were the persons who received permanent residence permit. Other foreigners were foreigners with a temporary residence in USSR. However, former Soviet citizens did not apply for residence permits, they registered their permanent residence in the same manner as Russian citizens in accordance with the Decree of Government N 290 of March 12, 1997. So, registration of permanent residence in fact was equivalent to obtaining residence permit in Russia.

[edit] International treaties on citizenship

[edit] Eurasian Economic Community treaties

Russian Federation has a treaty with Kazakhstan^[2] and a treaty with Kyrgyzstan^[3]. Also there's a multilateral treaty between Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Republic of Belarus^[4].

Citizens of the respective states that come to Russia for permanent residence have the right to obtain citizenship of Russia if they:

were citizens or RSFSR or
were born on the territory of RSFSR or
were living on the territory of RSFSR before December 21, 1991 or
have relatives who are citizens and permanent residents of Russian Federation

Until the end of 2003 those treaties had been ignored by Russian executive authorities^[5]. Presidential Decree N 1545^[6] provided some means for implementation of the treaties. However, the decree requires that applicant provide some evidence that the state of his citizenship allows him to reside in Russia. This does not conform to the treaties and makes obtaining of citizenship significantly harder (even impossible in some cases). Supreme Court of Russian Federation stated in its decision that one must prove in accordance with the treaties that he came to Russia for permanent residence, not for temporary residence, this can be proved in accordance with the Russian law, not the law of a foreign state. In accordance with the "Act on the status of foreign citizens in Russian Federation" obtaining of temporary or permanent residence permission in Russia does not require any permissions from foreign states. Technically, the Supreme Court did not declare any parts of Decree N 1545 void, it just used an interpretation different from the one used by Federal migration service.

[edit] Dual citizenship treaties

The following international treaties contain rules related to dual citizenship:

Treaty between Russian Federation and Republic of Tajikistan (1995)
Treaty between Russian Federation and Republic of Turkmenistan (1993), current status of which is disputable

Treaty on friendship, cooperation and mutual security between Russian Federation and Republic of Armenia^[7](signed December 29, 1991) grant right to acquire citizenship of both Russia and Armenia to the citizens of Russia and citizens of Armenia.

As Russian Federation is a successor of Soviet Union some soviet treaties on dual citizenship are still in force. For this reason Convention on the Nationality of Married Women is in force.

[edit] European convention on nationality

European Convention on Nationality is signed but not ratified by Russian Federation. It has a binding power to the extent of provisions of Vienna Convention on International Treaties. Domestic citizenship legislation is usually considered as conforming to European Convention.

[edit] References

[edit] External Links

Categories: Nationality law | Russian law