The Citizenship Commission proposed to reject 778 applications for re-acquisition of Romanian citizenship submitted by citizens of Russia between January 1, 2022 and May 12, 2023. During the same period, only 7% of the total number of applications submitted by Russian citizens in the period 2016-2021 were approved, the National Directorate for Citizenship claims in response to a report by HotNews.ro.

After the publication of the article “Russian plants of citizens of Romania or how Kim from distant Bashkiria “finds” you some grandparents in Bessarabia for 7,500 euros”, in which I showed how Romanian citizenship began to trade in the Russian Federation, the National Office for Citizenship (ANC) states that “there is a general impression that the competent institutions in Romania will passively facilitate the attempts of networks of intermediaries and foreign nationals to defraud the process of restoring Romanian citizenship”.

The process of restoring Romanian citizenship is provided for in Article 11 of the Law on Romanian Citizenship and applies to persons or their descendants who were born in territories that were part of Romania before 1940.

In the mentioned article, the correspondent of HotNews.ro spoke anonymously with the head of the Russian company, who in exchange for a certain amount of money promised him to obtain Romanian citizenship, even if he does not have these Romanian roots.

To our specific questions, the ANC answered that from the beginning of the war (February 24, 2022) to May 8, 2023, they received 5,306 applications based on Article 11 of the Law on Romanian Citizenship, and from January 1, 2022 to May 8, 2023, they received 137 Russians. also took the oath of loyalty at the headquarters of the ANC (the institution also informed us that the oath of loyalty can be taken at the headquarters of diplomatic missions abroad, but this information can only be requested from the Ministry of Foreign Policy).

In a document sent to the ANC after the publication of the article, the institution notes: “Statements (not made by the manager of the Russian company Mirsee) regarding the oath of allegiance before the president of the Citizenship Commission have no connection with reality. .”

Also, the ANC states that “The body is not only in no way involved in the activities of intermediaries and foreign citizens who are trying to fraudulently produce the necessary documents for obtaining Romanian citizenship, but in fact is the main vector of inter-institutional efforts to combat this phenomenon.

Using some of the tools created and optimized through our efforts, namely the Memorandum with the Public Services Agency of the Republic of Moldova, checks through the National Bureau of Interpol and cooperation with the National Archives Agency of the Republic of Moldova, materialized in almost 500 cases of fraud. detected and materialized attempts to reject citizenship applications and refer them to criminal investigation bodies during 2022 and 2023.

The Citizenship Commission proposed to reject at least 778 applications for the return of Romanian citizenship submitted by citizens of Russia between 01.01.2022 and 05.12.2023. In the same period, only 7% of the total number of applications for re-acquisition of Romanian citizenship submitted by Russian citizens in the period 2016-2021 were approved.

All other pending requests are undergoing rigorous review for compliance with legal requirements, including the authenticity of documents issued by foreign authorities and submitted by petitioners in their respective files,” the document sent to the ANC also reads. .

The entire ANC document can be read here.

How does the Public Service Agency of Moldova answer HotNews.ro’s questions

For its part, the Public Services Agency of Moldova responded to HotNews.ro’s questions about the security measures taken to prevent fraud:

– How does your institution prevent the situation when someone fictitiously receives Romanian origin, although he never had it?

– Is there cooperation in this sense with the Ministry of Justice (National Authority for Citizenship) of Romania to prevent fraud situations? What is this cooperation?

“During the consideration of the application for the provision of civil status acts, the data of the applicant and the recipient of the service are checked against the information resources of the Derzhkomposlug, registers of civil status acts, which are stored in the archive funds of the State Civil Status Service. Office of Public Services, as well as with civil status documents submitted by the applicant, in the case of documents issued abroad.

In case of detection of signs of inauthenticity of the act of civil status in accordance with the provisions of Art. 262 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Moldova, no. 122 of March 14, 2003, it is necessary to notify the competent legal authority about the establishment of the fact of probable commission of the crime provided for in Art. 361 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Moldova.

In the event of discrepancies in the data (surname, first name, date and place of birth) between the content of the civil status acts drawn up in the name of the person and the content of the civil status acts drawn up in his name. descendants on the ascending or descending line, the current legislation regulates the procedure for making changes, corrections and/or filling in civil status documents.

An application to amend the civil status act is submitted by the applicant or a person authorized to do so on the basis of a power of attorney to the civil status service at the place of residence or to the civil status service. which contains the document to be changed.

On November 10, 2022, the State Services Agency signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the National Directorate for Citizenship of Romania. On the official page of the Public Services Agency, you can find more information on this topic: https://www.asp.gov.md/ro/agentia/noutati/2022-11-11),” says the response of the ASP.