Legal changes for the passport can be obtained by foreigners who do not know Albanian

The Albanian government has approved a draft law that is already being considered in the parliamentary committees for some changes in the citizenship law, which opens the way for the children of foreigners to immediately receive Albanian citizenship if they are born in Albania.

Specifically, the first legal definition that gives the right to children born in Albania to foreign parents to receive Albanian citizenship is made in Article 7.

In this article, a paragraph has been added which states that if the parents have regular residence in our country, the child they give birth to can receive Albanian citizenship.

This is a known practice in countries in Canada and America, while in Europe, in countries like Germany, citizenship is obtained from the children of immigrants only after the parents have previously obtained a German passport.

While another provision is that of article eight, where any immigrant who comes to work in Albania and has a child with Albanian citizenship, he can also receive citizenship even if he does not speak the Albanian language.

The legal changes also open the way for children of Albanian parents abroad who want to play with the red and black national team and who until now could not get an Albanian passport before turning 18, to get the document even earlier.

"The Albanian Football Federation is the organization that has most identified this problem and has requested the change of the policy in question, given that from practice in several decades of work, it estimates that the establishment of the criterion "to have reached the age of 18", brings a great limitation in the direction of research, the discovery of new talents (not with Albanian citizenship) for their contribution to the Albanian national teams. In the sport of football, and not only in this discipline, talents are discovered and trained from an early age, therefore this criterion has a restrictive and discriminatory nature", says the Government's report.

Legal changes

Article 7
Acquisition of citizenship by birth in the territory of the Republic of Albania

Një fëmijë i lindur ose i gjetur brenda territorit të Republikës së Shqipërisë dhe që mund të mbetet pa shtetësi fiton shtetësinë shqiptare

Në rast se prindërit e fëmijës bëhen të njohur ligjërisht përpara se fëmija të ketë mbushur moshën 14 (katërmbëdhjetë) vjeç dhe janë shtetas të huaj, ata mund të kërkojnë heqjen e shtetësisë shqiptare të fëmijës, me kusht që fëmija të mos mbetet pa shtetësi si pasojë e këtij veprimi.

Shtohet pika 3

Një fëmijë i lindur brenda territorit të Republikës së Shqipërisë, nga prindër me shtetësi tjetër, të cilët qëndrojnë në mënyrë të ligjshme në territorin e Republikës së Shqipërisë, mund të marrë shtetësi shqiptare me pëlqimin e të dy prindërve.

Neni 8

the foreigner, whose minor child has Albanian citizenship, may submit a request to acquire citizenship by naturalization, even if he does not meet the condition defined in letter "c" and "e" of point 1 of this article, if he has resided legally and continuously in the territory of the Republic of Albania for at least three years.

The letter of

e) possesses knowledge of the Albanian language, spoken and written, certified by the relevant educational institution, as well as basic knowledge of the history of the Republic of Albania, according to the rules determined by higher education institutions;