(Source: http://kemerovonews.ru/page/810)

The State Duma will consider a government bill on simplified conferment of citizenship to compatriots on March 21.

This was told to the reporters by the first vice-speaker of the State Duma Ivan Melnikov (CPRF). Besides, according to him, on this day the parliamentarians will discuss alternative bills on simplifying procedures for granting citizenship of the Russian Federation by fractions of the Communist Party of the RF, the Liberal Democratic Party and the “The Fair Russia” (“Spravedlivaya Rossiya”).

Earlier, the government introduced a bill for simplification of obtaining Russian citizenship for foreigners - Russian speakers - to the State Duma. The document both simplifies the procedure for obtaining citizenship by compatriots - native Russian speakers – and reduces the time of consideration of applications for conferment of the citizenship of the Russian Federation from six to three months.

This also applies to the members of the state program for assisting the voluntary migration of compatriots living abroad to the Russian Federation. According to the bill, in order to get Russian citizenship the applicants should have relatives in the direct ascending line previously residing in the Russian Federation, the former Russian Empire or the USSR.

One of the conditions for conferment of the citizenship is moving to Russia for permanent residence and renunciation of the citizenship of a foreign state. As it is noted in the explanatory documents, the bill applies to “foreign citizens and persons without citizenship recognized as native Russian speakers”, i.e. those who “speak Russian fluently and regularly use it in family and domestic, social, cultural and other spheres”.

Recognition of native Russian speakers will be based on interviews conducted by special commissions that will be formed by the Federal Migration Service. It should be noted that if a commission does not recognized the applicant for citizenship as a native Russian speaker, he or she can re-apply in a year after the previous decision.