Uzbekistan eases order of acquisition of citizenship

AKIPRESS.COM - A new law on citizenship of Uzbekistan has entered into force on September 15, which significantly simplifies the procedures of obtaining a passport of Uzbekistan.
This law will allow hundreds of former citizens of Tajikistan, who fled during the civil war to Uzbekistan and settled there, to obtain Uzbek passport.
The law on citizenship was signed in March 2020 by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and all citizens born in Uzbekistan but staying abroad (having no citizenship of Uzbekistan) will have the right to acquire citizenship of Uzbekistan now. This group will be able to obtain passports without 5-year stay in Uzbekistan as required before.
Those who moved to Uzbekistan until 1 January 1995 and lived there but have not acquired citizenship yet will be immediately granted citizenship of Uzbekistan.
This group includes stateless persons who lived in Uzbekistan. All children of people who acquired citizenship of Uzbekistan will be granted Uzbek citizenship immediately.
Any person willing to acquire Uzbek citizenship should speak Uzbek language and refuse from another citizenship, since Uzbekistan prohibits dual nationality.
It was almost impossible to acquire Uzbek citizenship during Islam Karimov's tenure. From 1991 to 2007, only 482 stateless persons acquired Uzbek citizenship. Since that time and until 2016, nobody was granted Uzbek citizenship. With Mirziyoyev's coming to power, more than 10,000 acquired citizenship of Uzbekistan on the basis of the presidential order.
The exact number of stateless persons in Uzbekistan is unknown, but in its report for the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in 2010, Uzbekistan said around 87,000 stateless persons lived in the country.