Rights to citizenship for spouses of citizens.

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erol
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Rights to citizenship for spouses of citizens.

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Post by erol »

I realise this issue is somewhat 'niche' but it is a niche I find myself in.

As far as I have understood properly, the recent changes to the law have pretty fundamentally changed the rights of people married to citizens here. Whilst many aspects of the consequences of this new law on various categories of people have been widely discussed here I do not recall this particular category being covered ?

My understanding is that prior to this law change, there was a legal route to full citizenship for non citizens who married a Cypriot citizen. I know of quite a few non citizens who gained full citizenship, no different from mine as a citizen by birth right, via marriage to a citizen. I even know of one person who's full citizenship was granted having married a citizen who themselves was originally a non citizen who gained their citizenship via marriage to a citizen.

Since the law change it appears there is no longer any route to such full citizenship via marriage to a citizen at all. Only to the limited 'white card' citizenship. What is more in addition to such limited citizenship not conferring any rights to vote and needing to be 'reconfirmed' every 2 years, it also seems to be dependant on continuation of the marriage over time, unlike the full citizenship that was previously granted via marriage to a citizen previously that seemed to remain valid even in the event of subsequent divorce.

I assume but do not know and remain somewhat concerned, that 'death of spouse' does not constitute a change of circumstances that would lead to removal of limited white card citizenship granted, that divorce from spouse does ?

Overall it seems to me that the law changes impact this category of people more egregiously than any other vs how things were before the change ?

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Re: Rights to citizenship for spouses of citizens.

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Post by Keithcaley »

That does seem to be a retrograde step!

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Re: Rights to citizenship for spouses of citizens.

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Post by EnjoyingTheSun »

I know that there is felt to be a problem in Europe with fake/arranged marriages purely to get citizenship but is it a problem here?

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erol
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Re: Rights to citizenship for spouses of citizens.

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Post by erol »

EnjoyingTheSun wrote:
Sun 13 Sep 2020 1:04 pm
I know that there is felt to be a problem in Europe with fake/arranged marriages purely to get citizenship but is it a problem here?
No idea. If that is the reason for the changes seems a bit misplaced to me ? Why not leave the rights conferred by marriage the same and just make the process of proving the marriage is genuine harder and more secure ? Unless all such applications for citizenship via marriage are fraudulent are you not just punishing innocent people for the actions of guilty people ?

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Re: Rights to citizenship for spouses of citizens.

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Post by waddo »

Erol, Prior to the new on line residency there used to be good access to all the Govt web sites that dealt with Visa's etc, including Permanent Residency and Citizenship. Since then the web sites seem to have vanished and I can no longer get at the information I used to be able to.

I can remember reading that the foreign born wife of a Cypriot born citizen could apply for and gain citizenship following a period of three years proven marriage (25/1993 Citizenship Law) I can also remember reading that this had changed the recent past and that should the husband die then the wife would no longer be a citizen - this due to the "sponsorship" part of the marriage.

I have searched in https://www.mahkemeler.net/cgi-bin/default.aspx but as it is all in Turkish it is hard work and still I can't find the "New Law. I will continue to search for you.
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erol
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Re: Rights to citizenship for spouses of citizens.

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Post by erol »

Thank you waddo for your efforts and input. Much appreciated.

I have been using this as my primary info source to date

https://www.infonorthcyprus.com/permanent-residency

It is from reading the details there that has led to me concluding there is no longer a route to full unconditional citizenship via marriage but only to permanent residency / white card that remains conditional on the marriage in to the future. Which in turn leads me to wonder / worry, does death of the spouse end the marriage ?

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Post by waddo »

https://www.legislationline.org/downloa ... 009_en.pdf

The above is from Mainland Turkey Laws and I don’t think that TRNC will change their law to go against it - but the search continues because I have seen it somewhere, just can’t remember where! There was mention of it in a Turkish paper ages ago but no useful information.
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Re: Rights to citizenship for spouses of citizens.

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Post by waddo »

Erol, It looks like all the web sites have been updated recently and the only one that gives any information still quotes law 25/1993 but there is no information available on what happens should the marriage fail for any reason! Best thing would be to phone them I feel as there is also no mention anywhere I can find about a new law being passed. Best of luck with this, sorry I can’t help further.
No matter how hard the past, you can always begin again.

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Re: Rights to citizenship for spouses of citizens.

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Post by Hector »

In the UK, you can write to your MP to get answers (usually anyway). Is there such a system in TRNC? Someone in government to contact who can be relied on to give accurate information?

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