The Prague Post Online: News: Officials to streamline dual citizenship laws

December 5th, 2008

Endowment Fund Business Listings ONLINE Reservations Classifieds

Gift Subscriptions

Prague Property

Officials to streamline dual citizenship laws

While eligibility rules toughen, two passports are more commonplace

By Markéta Hulpachová
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
February 20th, 2008 issue

Little by little, local policymakers are taking steps toward legalizing a formerly frowned-upon institution.

Since 1993, emigrants and foreign nationals have been forced to choose between passports due to a law that requires applicants for Czech citizenship to cede the citizenship of any other country. While certain individuals are exempt from this law, the government has traditionally favored a single-citizenship system.

But, as new amendments and precedent-setting court decisions continue to poke holes in the legislation, the government is moving toward the draft of a bill that could change the rules for all who apply for Czech citizenship.

The issue was most recently discussed by the Government Legislative Council (LRV), which met Feb. 8 to lay the foundations for a new constitutional law on citizenship.

While adding stricter eligibility requirements (such as language and cultural knowledge tests) to the application process, the new law would make it possible for Czechs living abroad and local immigrants to hold a Czech passport while retaining citizenship in another country.

“We are urging the regime to be strict, but not exclusive, so it should not be complicated for compatriots to obtain [dual citizenship],” Deputy Prime Minister and LRV Chairman Cyril Svoboda told The Prague Post after the Feb. 8 meeting.

If passed, the law — which is scheduled to come into effect as of 2010 — will be a progressive step in local immigration policy.

“Through this law, the state would be abandoning the principles of a single-state citizenship, which follows the liberal tendencies of … a whole range of European states,” said Libor Kučera, a legal adviser at the Center for Integration, a civic organization providing aid to immigrants.

Revolving door

Historically, the Czech Republic has followed a rigid, single-citizenship doctrine. Countries that were common destinations for Czech emigrants have had bilateral citizenship agreements to that effect in place since the days of the First Republic (1918–38). One such agreement was ratified with the United States in 1928, when the two nations signed a naturalization convention that made their citizenships mutually exclusive (an emigrant had to give up his Czech citizenship before becoming a U.S. citizen, and vice versa). Although the United States has not honored this agreement since 1952, when it was overturned by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the situation for Czech emigrants effectively remained the same.

“Under the communist regime, the Czechoslovak state automatically punished those who fled the country by taking away their citizenship,” Kučera said.

For these emigrants, the loss of citizenship brought additional obstacles in the years following the 1989 fall of the communist regime, when the state began returning the properties seized by the communist government to their original owners. But, because of a 1991 law stipulating that the confiscated property could only be returned to Czech citizens, those who were deprived of their citizenship were not eligible for the restitution, according to Czechoffice.org, an international organization promoting the rights of Czech emigrants.

After eight years of battling local courts and filing complaints with the United Nations, those who unwillingly lost their citizenship between 1948 and 1990 were finally rehabilitated through a 1999 law enabling the return of state citizenship to those who were deprived of it during communism. One high-profile example is presidential candidate Jan Švejnar, whose dual Czech-American citizenship recently became the subject of much public debate.

That law — which has a preamble citing Parliament’s efforts to “mollify the consequences of some of the wrongs committed” and awareness of “compatriot Czechs who contribute to the maintenance and cultivation of the national heritage” — does not require eligible applicants to give up their foreign citizenship, effectively allowing them to be the citizens of multiple countries.

Since then, the government has continued to relax its policy. The most recent breakthrough came in December, when a Supreme Administrative Court (NSS) ruling made it possible for emigrants who obtain foreign citizenship by marrying a citizen of the country they live in to retain their Czech passport. In the ruling, the judge took into account “new trends in globalization and integration that generally lead to a new outlook on dual citizenship,” according to a court statement.

New territory

The new legislation currently under discussion would allow still more compatriots to regain their Czech citizenship without having to give up their citizenship in another country.

According to Kučera, “this type of legislation has already proven successful in countries such as Beligium, France, Portugal, Ireland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.”

The bigger issue, Svoboda said, is responding to the new migration trends evoked by the relaxation of European borders and the Czech Republic’s accession into the Schengen zone.

“These new realities compel us to urge the implementation of new restrictions,” he said.

As a result, the citizenship application process will be more rigorous, and will newly require applicants to demonstrate knowledge of the Czech language and civic environment.

While it will be possible for those with “close ties to the national heritage” to bypass some of these requirements (such as an at least three-year permanent residency on Czech territory) the law will also crack down on those who obtain citizenship here through illegal means and patch up existing holes in the system.

“Right now, it is still technically possible for a compatriot to obtain citizenship in another country and still keep their Czech passport by not notifying local authorities,” Kučera said. “The new legislation would address this problem.”

Markéta Hulpachová can be reached at mhulpachova@praguepost.com

Be the first to add a comment!

Most e-mailed articles
Glass company declared bankrupt State pushes fish as healthy, tasty choice 10 Questions

Related articles
Deprivation dining

Most visited in Business Listings

The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.