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Certain issues related to obtaining the RA citizenship are regulated by the draft law on Making Amendment and Addendum to the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Armenia authored by the deputy of the NA Civil Contract Faction Rustam Bakoyan.

According to the author of the draft, with the current law, among others, a person who does not have the citizenship of the Republic of Armenia can get the RA citizenship who, before submitting the application for the citizenship of the Republic of Armenia, was in a legally registered marriage with a citizen of the Republic of Armenia during the last two years and during those two years lived in the territory of the Republic of Armenia for at least 365 days with the presence of legal grounds, who has a child who is an RA citizen, or whose parents or one of them previously had the RA citizenship or was born in the Republic of Armenia, and who applied for the RA citizenship within 3 years after turning 18.

Rustam Bakoyan proposed to provide an opportunity to apply for the RA citizenship to a person without the RA citizenship who has turned 18 and whose parent has the RA citizenship.

It is also proposed to remove the time limit for submitting an application for the RA citizenship by a person who has turned 18 and doesn’t have an RA citizenship to obtain the RA citizenship on the grounds set by Article 13.2.2 of the law, because, according to the author, a problem arises when the person who has turned 18 does not apply for citizenship within 3 years.

The author informed that the provision regarding ‘being born in Armenia’ is outside the current law, because the circumstance of being born in the given country cannot be a basis for obtaining citizenship.

It was also mentioned that the Government presented proposals that were adopted, as a result of which the draft was revised.

According to Rustam Bakoyan, the issue was debated with the concerned organizations.

The co-rapporteur, the member of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs Alkhas Ghazaryan emphasized the adoption of the draft and called on her colleagues to vote for it.

The Head of the Migration and Citizenship Service of the RA Ministry of Internal Affairs Armen Ghazaryan presented the endorsement of the Government. He also suggested fixing the technical bug.

As a result of debate, the Committee members endorsed the legislative initiative. It was debated at the regular sitting of the NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs on September 28.