Electronic naturalization system to be introduced in Armenia

ArmInfo. An electronic citizenship granting system will be introduced in Armenia. The RA  National Assembly Committee on State and Legal Affairs issued a  positive opinion on the amendments to the laws "On Citizenship" and  "On State Duty" submitted by the RA government at its session on  November 28. 

Presenting the documents, RA Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs  Armen Ghazaryan noted that the program plans to create a single  electronic environment where all citizenship-related cases will be  fully presented. Currently, this process is carried out on paper,  which is associated with costs and time. The electronic platform will  present all data related to both the granting and termination of  citizenship. All requests to other structures involved in the process  of granting or terminating citizenship will be made through the new  platform. We are talking about the State Revenue Committee, the  Ministry of Defense, the Police, the National Security Service and  others, which will operate on a single electronic platform.

As the Deputy Minister emphasized, an important component of the new  program will be the issue of preserving the database. The fact is,  Kazaryan continued, that maintaining paperwork requires additional  efforts, and against this background, preserving data in electronic  form is much more effective. The package preserves the right of  foreign citizens who have applied for citizenship to a one-time visit  to the authorized body to submit an application and identify the  applicants. In all other cases, transactions will be carried out  electronically. 

The corresponding amendments are also being introduced to the Law "On  State Duty". Currently, a state duty of 1 thousand drams is paid for  obtaining Armenian citizenship, and upon termination of citizenship,  the state duty rate is 25 thousand drams. Both rates of state duties  have not changed since 1997. Taking into account inflationary  pressures and technical changes, it is now proposed to increase the  rates of state duties to 50 thousand drams and 150 thousand drams,  respectively. Refugees are exempt from paying state duties when  receiving citizenship.

Kazaryan also reported that, as a rule, the issue of granting  citizenship is studied within 90 days, and the termination of  citizenship - 180 days. He also cited statistics, according to which  7,800 people received Armenian citizenship in 2020, 2,500 in 2021,  and over 25,000 in 2022. At the same time, citizenship was terminated  for 4,904 people in 2021, 4,510 in 2022, 3,654 in 2023, and 3,107 in  the first 9 months of 2024.  Kazaryan emphasized that in March, it is  planned to select a company through a tender that will implement the  biometric passport system. After concluding an agreement with the  winner of the competition, the company will have a maximum of one  year to fully implement the system.