The legislation of Ukraine provides 2 ways of obtaining Ukrainian citizenship: by acquiring and admission. The acquiring of Ukrainian citizenship is a simplified procedure compared with the admission, contains a smaller list of requirements and requires less time.
In general, the grounds for obtaining Ukrainian citizenship are:
- Birth;
- Territorial origin;
- Admission to the citizenship;
- Renewal citizenship;
- Adoption;
- Establishment of custody or guardianship of a child;
- Establishment of custody of a person recognized by the court as legally incapable;
- Having a Ukrainian citizenship by one or both parents of a child;
- Establishment of paternity or motherhood.
Obtaining Ukrainian citizenship is also possible on other grounds provided by international agreements of Ukraine.
Foreigners who do not have legal grounds for obtaining Ukrainian citizenship by territorial origin or by the “blood principle” (by the fact of birth), on the ground of their application, may be admitted to Ukrainian citizenship. As already noted, the admission to the citizenship occurs only in case of abidance by a number of conditions.
So, the general conditions for admission to Ukrainian citizenship are:
- knowledge and compliance with the Constitution and laws of Ukraine;
- knowledge of the Ukrainian language or its understanding in an amount sufficient for communication;
- continuous residence in Ukraine for 5 years;
- obtaining immigration permit in Ukraine;
- the availability of legal livelihoods;
- termination or renunciation of foreign citizenship.
Foreigners who are married to a Ukrainian citizen may obtain Ukrainian citizenship through simplified procedure, because instead of the abovementioned five years, they only need two years of continuous residence in Ukraine. Namely, after obtaining immigration permit, they may immediately apply for Ukrainian citizenship. However, it should be noted that just those foreigners who have been married to Ukrainian citizens for more than two years can apply for an immigration permit, and the process of obtaining an immigration permit lasts about one year.
Temporary certificate of Ukrainian citizen
The procedure of admission to Ukrainian citizenship is very difficult and lengthy. It lasts about 1 year (sometimes even more), and during this period you will have to face various bureaucratic and legal formalities.
This is due to the fact that the number of fictitious marriages in Ukraine is increasing every year, a big part of which is made specifically with foreigners, because for them this is the only way to obtain Ukrainian citizenship. Because of this fact the State Migration Service very carefully checks every document submitted by a foreigner. The reason for returning documents in order to eliminate deficiencies may be even a small orthography error, an extra apostrophe or point. Therefore, while preparing all documents, you should be especially careful.
After successful passing of documents through all authorities (in particular, district and regional departments (sectors) of the State Migration Service, the State Migration Service of Ukraine and the Presidential Citizenship Commission of Ukraine), the decision on admission to Ukrainian citizenship is made by the President of Ukraine, as a result of which an appropriate decree is issued. After this, a temporary certificate of a Ukrainian citizen is issued to a foreigner.
A foreigner will be able to obtain a passport of Ukrainian citizen only after official documentary confirmation of the termination of his previous foreign citizenship.
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