No refusal of citizenship to forcibly displaced Nagorno-Karabakh  Armenians - Migration Service 

ArmInfo. As of September 10, 2024, 4,473 internally displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh who  received temporary protection applied to the Migration and Citizenship Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Armenia for RA citizenship.

As the head of the department Armen Ghazaryan told the state  information agency Armenpress, after the adoption of the relevant  decision of the RA government on October 26 last year, 4,473 Artsakh  residents applied for RA citizenship, and during the specified period  there were no refusals of applications for RA citizenship.

In particular, 433 people applied for RA citizenship by December 31,  2023, 991 in the first quarter of this year, 1,187 in the second  quarter, and 1,781 from July 1 to September 10.

The main problems recorded during the acceptance of applications for  obtaining RA citizenship are related to the absence of a birth  certificate, marriage certificate or other documents, or the presence  of inaccuracies in personal data in the documents. The  above-mentioned problems are resolved through the Civil Registry  Agency of the Ministry and applications from Artsakh residents are  accepted with new or corrected documents.

Touching upon the issue of the procedure for obtaining RA citizenship  by persons who, in addition to the NK passport, have citizenship of  another state, the Head of the Service explained that according to  the relevant decision of the RA Government dated October 26, 2023  (No. 1864-N), they were not granted temporary protection, therefore  they can obtain RA citizenship on a general basis and in the manner  prescribed by Article 13 of the Law on .

Armenian citizenship can be granted without any requirements to  persons who have rendered exceptional services to the Republic of  Armenia. A person applying for citizenship of the Republic of Armenia  must personally submit an application for admission to citizenship to  the authorized body of the Government of the Republic of Armenia.

On September 3, Armen Ghazaryan stated in the National Assembly that  as of August 30, 2024, more than 4,300 internally displaced persons  from Nagorno-Karabakh applied to the Migration and Citizenship  Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Armenia for RA  citizenship, and slightly more than 2,900 of them received it.  According to him, a simplified procedure for granting citizenship is  in effect for Artsakh residents - the process takes an average of  about 2 months, instead of the established 90 working days. In  addition, if in the general procedure applications for RA citizenship  are accepted exclusively at the head office of the Service, then  internally displaced persons from Artsakh are given the opportunity  to apply for citizenship also at all territorial offices of the  department. It should be noted that a mandatory condition for  participation in the government's program for providing internally  displaced persons with housing is the possession of RA citizenship.