Same-sex marriage and the granting of Slovak citizenship

Loss of Slovak Citizenship

According to the provisions of Section 9(16) of Act No. 40/1993 on the State Citizenship of the Slovak Republic (hereinafter referred to as the “Citizenship Act”): “A citizen of the Slovak Republic loses the state citizenship of the Slovak Republic on the day they voluntarily acquire foreign state citizenship based on an explicit expression of will, such as an application, declaration, or other act directed towards the acquisition of foreign state citizenship,” while according to paragraph 17 of the said provision: “Loss of state citizenship under paragraph 16 shall not occur if a citizen of the Slovak Republic acquired foreign state citizenship in connection with entering into a marriage with a citizen of a foreign state, provided that the foreign citizenship of the spouse was acquired during the existence of the shared marriage.”

According to Article 41(1) of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic: “Marriage is a unique bond between a man and a woman.” Similarly, according to Article 1 and Section 1 of Act No. 36/2005 Coll. on the Family and on amendments to certain acts (hereinafter referred to as the “Family Act”): “Marriage is a bond between a man and a woman…”

Re-acquisition of Citizenship

Should the loss of Slovak citizenship occur, its re-acquisition is possible. The adoption of the Regulation of the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic of January 9, 2015, on the granting of state citizenship of the Slovak Republic for special reasons allowed former citizens of the Slovak Republic to be granted Slovak citizenship in the interest of the Slovak Republic, and thus without the need to fulfill the condition of continuous permanent residence in the territory of the Slovak Republic for at least eight years immediately preceding the submission of the application for Slovak citizenship.

After notifying the loss of Slovak citizenship, a former Slovak citizen may submit an application for the granting of Slovak citizenship at the district office in the seat of the region, a diplomatic mission, or a consular office of the SR. The application is submitted in person on the “Application for Granting of State Citizenship of the Slovak Republic” form along with the “Questionnaire for the Applicant for Granting of State Citizenship of the Slovak Republic” form and other documents required by law.

The district office where the application was submitted will send the application for further proceedings to the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic, Public Administration Section; subsequently, the application is presented to the Minister of Interior. When deciding on the application, the Minister also takes into account the facts that were the reason for the loss of Slovak citizenship and the method and conditions of acquiring foreign citizenship, especially the existence of a permitted, recorded, or registered residence in the foreign state at the time of acquiring foreign citizenship.

There is no legal entitlement to the granting of Slovak citizenship; however, in practice, it is generally granted to former Slovak citizens.

In connection with the re-acquisition of Slovak citizenship, we point out that retaining Slovak citizenship and simultaneously holding foreign citizenship is only possible if the legislation of the foreign state whose citizenship is to be retained along with Slovak citizenship allows it, and thus that the acquisition of Slovak citizenship will not result in the loss of the citizenship of the foreign state.

State Citizenship of Children

According to Section 5(1) of the Citizenship Act, a child acquires Slovak citizenship by birth if at least one of its parents is a citizen of the Slovak Republic. In such a case, it is necessary to apply for the issuance of a Slovak birth certificate. A Slovak birth certificate is issued to the child based on the child’s registration in the special registry (osobitná matrika). However, it is not possible to record two persons of the same sex as parents in the special registry of the SR. According to telephone information from the special registry, in such cases, it is possible to record only one parent—the Slovak citizen—but only on the condition that they prove they are the biological parent of the child.

A minor child may also acquire Slovak citizenship through adoption. According to Section 6 of the Citizenship Act: “if a child who is not a citizen of the Slovak Republic was adopted according to a special regulation by an adopter or adopters, of whom at least one is a citizen of the Slovak Republic, they acquire Slovak citizenship by adoption.” In such a case, it would also be necessary to issue a Slovak birth certificate based on the child’s registration in the special registry.

Adoption is regulated by the Family Act. According to the provision of Section 100(1) of the Family Act: “A minor child may be adopted by spouses or one of the spouses who lives in marriage with one of the child’s parents, or a surviving spouse of a parent or adopter of the minor child. A minor child may exceptionally be adopted by a single person if the prerequisites are met that the adoption will be in the interest of the child.” The acquisition of citizenship by children would come into consideration based on a court decision on adoption by a parent—a Slovak citizen—as a single person.

The acquisition of Slovak citizenship by granting also comes into consideration. According to Section 7(2)(c) of the Citizenship Act, Slovak citizenship may be granted to an applicant who is not a Slovak citizen and who has had a continuous permanent residence in the territory of the Slovak Republic for at least three years before reaching 18 years of age.

If the exception under Section 9(17) of the Citizenship Act also applied to the acquisition of state citizenship in connection with entering into a marriage with a citizen of a foreign state that the Slovak legal order would not recognize, it would be possible for such a citizen to hold Slovak citizenship and another state’s citizenship simultaneously, provided the legal order of that other state does not exclude it.

If the exception does not apply to such cases, the acquisition of the foreign state’s citizenship resulted in the loss of Slovak citizenship by law, thereby creating an obligation for the former citizen to notify the loss of Slovak citizenship. However, the law allows for an application for the re-granting of Slovak citizenship.

In this case, minor children may acquire Slovak citizenship based on adoption by a Slovak citizen as a single person in the sense of the Family Act or by granting (subject to fulfilling the conditions for granting Slovak citizenship, including at least three years of continuous permanent residence in the SR before reaching the age of 18).

In this context, we also contacted the Ministry of Interior of the SR, which provided us with the following statement: “A request for information regarding the loss and acquisition of citizenship of the Slovak Republic was delivered to the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic, Citizenship Department. The current legal regulation applies, where according to Section 9(16) of Act No. 40/1993 on the State Citizenship of the Slovak Republic: ‘A citizen of the Slovak Republic loses state citizenship of the Slovak Republic on the day they voluntarily acquire foreign state citizenship based on an explicit expression of will…’; while according to paragraph 17 of said provision, ‘Loss… shall not occur if… acquired in connection with entering into marriage…’ According to Section 1 of Act No. 36/2005 Coll. on the Family… marriage is a bond between a man and a woman… Our legal order does not regulate and does not recognize as a marital bond a union of persons of the same sex. Therefore, in this specific case, it is not even possible to apply paragraph 17 of the provision on the loss of state citizenship. Thus, in the case of entering into a marriage by persons of the same sex, the loss of Slovak citizenship of the Slovak citizen occurred, and it is their duty to notify this fact (loss of citizenship) to the relevant district office according to the place of last residence in the SR. Regarding your inquiry, we state that the legal order of the SR does not recognize the possibility that the parents of a child are persons of the same sex, as parents are exclusively a mother and a father, i.e., a woman and a man. In this case, only the one who proves biological fatherhood can be recognized as the father of the child. From the perspective of determining Slovak citizenship for a child by birth, it is decisive in this case whether the person with Slovak citizenship is the actual biological father of the child, which must be documented by an expert opinion valid in the territory of the SR with appropriate certifications or a decision of a Slovak court on the determination of paternity. Without these documents, it is not possible to determine the acquisition of Slovak citizenship by birth for the child in this case. A Slovak citizen may apply for the granting of Slovak citizenship for children as their legal representative (they must prove they are entitled to act for the children in legal relations). However, the children must first have a permitted residence in the SR at the Foreign Police, and since they do not live in the territory of the SR, the application will be handled via an exception by the Minister of Interior.”