BECOMING a Slovak citizen will take longer if a bill proposed by the Interior Ministry becomes law. The bill proposes extending the period an applicant must wait for a decision on citizenship from the current 60 days to one year.
The extension is justified by the many checks that must be made before citizenship can be granted, not all of which are formalities.
The bill will also limit the right of people with the status of Foreign Slovaks to become citizens. They will now have to be resident in Slovakia for two years before they can apply for citizenship.
The ministry claims that more and more people who do not reside in Slovakia at all are applying for citizenship and that Slovakia's entry into the EU is changing the reasons why people apply for citizenship.
A representative of the ministry told the TASR news agency that the bill, the first amendment to citizenship law since 1993, was not about making the law stricter but about making it more precise.
