Dual Citizenship Law Popular Among Maltese Diaspora

MaltaMedia

18 August 2000

This article is reproduced by kind permission of www.maltamedia.com

Eight hundred and twenty-five persons have acquired Maltese citizenship while holding the citizenship of another country under the new dual-citizenship law passed last February. Many of these are Maltese emigrants living in Australia. There are also over 700 cases still being processed. Home Affairs Minister gave these figures at the launch of a booklet about this dual-citizenship law that has stirred a lot of interest among Maltese ex-pats. The Minister said that the law makes it easier for these ex-pats to re-gain their Maltese citizenship and their children to obtain it. Some 101 of the citizenships granted belong to offspring of Maltese ex-pats that were born between 1964 and 1989.

The rule changes can be summarised as follows:

Before:

Maltese citizens aged 18 who held a foreign citizenship were allowed twelve months to choose between Maltese and foreign citizenship. Those who chose foreign citizenship had to give up their Maltese nationality

A person automatically ceased to be a citizen of Malta once he/she acquired a foreign citizenship.

People living abroad for an aggregate period of six years could acquire dual citizenship, only if they were born in Malta.

People who were born abroad of a Maltese mother and a foreign father between 1964 and 1989 were not eligible for Maltese citizenship.

A foreigner who married a Maltese citizen could apply for Maltese citizenship on the morrow of the wedding.

Now:

Persons who before had to choose between a Maltese and a foreign citizenship can now hold both. This also applies to people with more than once citizenship.

Those who opted to give up their Maltese citizenship to acquire a foreign one, can now reapply for Maltese citizenship.

People who were born abroad of a Maltese mother and a foreign father between 1964 and 1989 can, for the first time, apply for Maltese citizenship.

A 'former' Maltese citizen by birth or descent, who has lived abroad for an aggregate period of six years and acquired the citizenship of the country or one of those countries where he has resided, is deemed not to have lost Maltese citizenship.

The former wife/husband of a citizen of Malta can apply for Maltese citizenship only if he/she has been married to and living with his/her Maltese spouse for at least five years. After five years he/she can acquire the Maltese citizenship without losing the foreign one.

.

Recommended

Write a comment