| Amendment to the Citizenship Act |
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On July 17th 2010 an amendment to the Act No. 40/1993 Coll. on Citizenship of the Slovak Republic introducing new provisions concerning loss of citizenship came into effect.
The respective law was amended by Act No. 250/2010 Coll., pursuant to which a citizen of the Slovak Republic loses Slovak citizenship automatically the day he explicitly manifested his will to voluntarily acquire a foreign citizenship (i.e. application, declaration or other act leading to acquisition of a foreign citizenship). A citizen of the Slovak Republic who acquires a foreign citizenship in such way is obliged to notify of this fact the District Office in the region according to his permanent residence in Slovakia, without delay. If a citizen does not comply with this obligation, he/she might face a fine of up to 3 319 EUR. The amendment also allows some exceptions. A Slovak citizen does not lose his Slovak citizenship, if he/she acquires the foreign citizenship in connection with conclusion of marriage with a foreign citizen. This exception applies only if the foreign citizenship of the spouse was acquired during existence of the marriage. The second exception applies to a child who acquired a foreign citizenship at birth. A Slovak citizen does not lose the Slovak citizenship, if he/she acquired the foreign citizenship before the amendment came into the effect (before July 17th 2010). If a Slovak citizen submitted an application for foreign citizenship before July 17th 2010 but the citizenship will be granted after this date, the loss of Slovak citizenship takes effect the day of the foreign citizenship acquisition. |