How to get Ukrainian citizenship: list of requirements

What does the procedure for obtaining Ukrainian citizenship look like?

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Citizenship gives a person access to all rights in the country in which he lives. For a person without it, the road to public hospitals is closed, official employment and a number of social services are unavailable.

By by counting According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 35,000 stateless and undetermined people live in Ukraine (people who can prove their citizenship without the procedure for recognizing them as a stateless person).

However, the actual number may be much higher, as these data have not been updated for several years.

How to get Ukrainian citizenship and what to do with undocumented people – Sofya Kordonets, head of assistance to stateless persons of the charity foundation “Right to Protection”, told in comments for “UP. Life”.

According to her, the following principles apply when obtaining citizenship:

• the rule of blood – a child of a citizen of Ukraine receives Ukrainian citizenship automatically;
• a child can obtain the citizenship of our country if only one of the parents is Ukrainian;
• the child receives Ukrainian citizenship if the parents are stateless persons and legally reside in Ukraine.

“However, when the parents do not have any documents, their citizenship is not determined or confirmed, difficulties arise. Such a child is at great risk of being in an uncertain situation.” – explains Sofia Kordonets.

In Ukraine, there are a number of procedures that parents – foreigners or stateless persons – must go through in order for the child to become a citizen of Ukraine.

If a person cannot prove his citizenship, he must first obtain stateless status.

How to become a stateless person?

The procedure for obtaining the status of a stateless person in Ukraine began in 2021.

“Legislatively, it is quite simple and accessible. This procedure assumes that people without documents are very vulnerable. Therefore, they should provide the State Migration Service with the documents they have – without a specific list.

The only obligation is to provide a list of witnesses who can confirm the person and some facts from his life, and to agree to their interview.” – says Sofia Kordonets.

According to the expert, in practice, not everything is so simple. A person has to collect as many documents as possible in order not to receive a refusal. If she has a connection with another state, the migration service asks to bring a birth certificate and certificates from the consulate.

Documents from studies or work are also important if a person has worked officially. But the latter applies only to adults who had Soviet passports.

“Unfortunately, there are situations when the State Migration Service refuses to accept an application without these documents. Of course, this is unofficial, because officially there is no such basis. And lawyers are already working to ensure that a person is not refused due to the lack of certain documents.” – emphasizes the specialist.

How to get Ukrainian citizenship?

According to Sofia Kordonets, when a person is recognized as a stateless person, within 10 days, he must receive a temporary residence permit for a period of one year.

When this period expires, it is necessary to contact the migration service again and obtain another one-year residence permit.

A temporary residence permit entitles you to a legal stay on the territory of Ukraine. It also provides basic rights to:

• medical assistance;
• employment;
• Social Protection;
• education (except for free higher education).

After that, a person can get a permanent residence permit, which is already indefinite. After three years, you can apply to the migration service with it to obtain Ukrainian citizenship.

For this, it is necessary to pass exams on the knowledge of the Constitution of Ukraine, the Ukrainian language and history.

Only after obtaining the citizenship of Ukraine, a person will have access to all rights.

We will remind, the ombudsman explainedwhether a child born abroad receives Ukrainian citizenship.