Obtaining citizenship of Ukraine

Issues concerning the acquisition of the citizenship of Ukraine are regulated by the Constitution of Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine “On Citizenship of Ukraine”, the Decree of the President of Ukraine dated March 27, 2001, No. 215 “Issues of the implementation of the Law of Ukraine” On Citizenship of Ukraine “, as amended by Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 588 of 27.06. 2006, according to which approved the procedure for submission of documents and execution of previously approved decisions.

According to Art. 6 of the Law of Ukraine “On Citizenship of Ukraine” for obtaining citizenship of Ukraine are the following grounds:

• by birth;
• by territorial origin;
• as a result of becoming a citizen;
• as a result of the restoration of citizenship;
• as a result of adoption;
• as a result of the installation of child care or care, the placement of a child in a family-type or family-type orphanage, as well as the transfer of a child to a family of patron educator;
• due to the establishment of a person who is recognized as incapacitated by the court, a guardianship;
• in connection with the residence of one or two parents of a child in the citizenship of Ukraine;
• as a result of the recognition of paternity or maternity or the establishment of the fact of paternity or maternity.

For the citizenship of Ukraine, in addition to the grounds listed in Art. 6 of the Law of Ukraine “On Citizenship of Ukraine” a foreign citizen also requires the following conditions:

• to recognize and adhere to the Constitution and Laws of Ukraine;
• To obtain the citizenship of Ukraine, you must first obtain a permit for immigration to Ukraine;
• a foreign citizen must renounce his citizenship, thus submitting a declaration of absence of foreign citizenship;
• residence in the territory of Ukraine must be at least 5 years old (in this case there is an exception if the foreign citizen is married to a citizen of Ukraine not less than 2 years old);
• availability of knowledge of the state language;
• A very important condition is the existence of a source of permanent income / earnings, which does not contradict the legislation of Ukraine.

It should also be remembered that obtaining citizenship of Ukraine for foreign persons is not possible in the following cases:

• committing a crime against humanity or genocide;
• the person is convicted of committing a crime against imprisonment;
• a person has committed a serious or particularly serious crime in other countries.

To date, Ukraine has two options for obtaining citizenship of Ukraine, either through a general procedure or by way of an expedited procedure.

The general procedure for obtaining the citizenship of Ukraine
Under the general procedure for obtaining the citizenship of Ukraine takes place up to 1 year. Possible acceleration, but only in certain situations. For example: the reason for the accelerated acquisition of Ukrainian citizenship is the existence of a Ukrainian residence permit.

An accelerated procedure for obtaining the citizenship of Ukraine
The accelerated procedure for obtaining the citizenship of Ukraine takes up to 1 month. The reason for such a procedure is the presence of direct relatives (siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, etc.) of Ukrainian citizens or the applicant was previously a citizen of Ukraine.

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