The Ministry of the Interior and Administration is working on changes in citizenship regulations. The deputy head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration Maciej Duszczyk often pointed out that a broad discussion is needed in this matter. According to preliminary assumptions, a person applying for citizenship would have to solve a check test consisting of about 40 questions and know Polish at least at level B2.
President Karol Nawrocki has their own proposal regarding changes in citizenship regulations, who wants to extend the time necessary to obtain Polish citizenship to 10 years.
The head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration Marcin Kierwiński, when asked on Friday at RMF FM, about the presidential proposal, assessed that “this is not a good direction.” – I think that what we are working on, that the issues of the test for citizenship, checking whether a given foreigner uses Polish, whether it is assimilated or already 100 percent. He binds his future with Poland, it is a better way than what the president proposes – said Kierwiński.
He added that the ministry would talk to the president's office in this matter.
Kierwiński also pointed out that talking about extending the time needed to grant citizenship from three to 10 years is a repetition of false information. – We are not three years old. This is untrue information, in fact the process of granting citizenship in Poland, so typical, i.e. eight years (…) and then, in really 99 percent. Cases can be obtained citizenship – he noted.
He emphasized that the three -year formula only applies to people who apply for political asylum. “There have been less than 100 such cases over the past few years,” he noted.
He estimated that an accurate procedure was needed to check the degree of assimilation, knowledge of Polish for every person who wants to obtain Polish citizenship. “There should certainly not be such a situation that a person who does not speak Polish receives Polish citizenship,” he said.
Kierwiński announced that the exact assumptions of the Act in this matter would be presented in the coming weeks.
On Thursday, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna wrote that work is underway in the Ministry of Interior and Administration on a draft new act on citizenship. As we read, “Among the solutions prepared, there is, among others, the concept of a civic test.” “It is important not only the time spent in the state or activities undertaken in its territory, but also knowledge about the society, history and values of a given country,” says the deputy head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration, Mswia Maciej Duszczyk. As indicated, such a test for citizenship would be conducted “twice a year by an institution with government certificates”.
