ΕλληνικάCitizenship procedures for those who have a residence permit or a blue certificate with an extension
On October 23, 2020, a Circular of the Ministry of Interior was published, regarding the naturalization and second generation citizenship procedures for those whose residence permits or blue certificates have been extended due to COVID-19. The possibility of submitting and issuing a decision for the above categories was frozen, creating a big issue in the last 4 months, which is corrected with this Circular. As an organization, we identified the problem from the first moment as well as the need to solve it immediately, with a press release that was published on July 3, 2020. Below, you can see what applies according to the new Circular.
For applications for naturalization and second generation citizenship:
An application can submit those who:
- Have a residence permit that has been extended (applied to those extensions of residence permits with an expiration date from 1/12/2019 to 30/6/2020 and from 20/7/2020 to 31/12/2020)
- Have a residence permit application certificate (blue certificate), which is still valid or an application certificate that has been extended.
Attention: In case you are a holder of a residence permit or a blue certificate that expired between 01/07/2020 to 19/7/2020, for reasons of equal and fair treatment the same applies as in the second case, because it is assumed that you already have a «blue certificate»!
For the issuance of naturalization and second generation citizenship decisions:
If you have previously applied and now you are awaiting your decision and your residence permit has expired, your citizenship decision now can be issued, even with a valid blue certificate, since you provide it to the service.
For Αlbanian passports:
The same Circular also gives instructions for the expiration of Albanian passports in the citizenship procedures. If you have an Albanian passport which has been extended till 31/12/2020, it will be accepted during the submission of the citizenship application and the issuance of the decision. However, from 01/01/2021, you must have a valid passport to submit the citizenship application but also in order your citizenship decision to be issued.
“Support was provided by HumanRights360 / Foundation Open Society Institute / Open Society Foundations”
