Slovak Citizenship for a Spouse

Pursuant to the provision of § 7 par. 2 letter a) of the Citizenship Act, the citizenship of the Slovak Republic may be granted to an applicant who:

General conditions for granting Slovak citizenship to a spouse of a citizen of the Slovak Republic are elaborated in this article.

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Since the Citizenship Act lays down several conditions for the granting of Slovak citizenship and their fulfillment is relatively thoroughly verified, not all applications are successful. 

For the acquisition of Slovak citizenship, the fulfillment of the condition of the applicant living in a common household with a Slovak spouse on the territory of the Slovak Republic is often problematic. It is clear already from the grammatical interpretation of the provision of § 7 par. 2 letter a) of the Citizenship Act that the condition is not met by an applicant who stays abroad with their spouse. However, it may not be entirely clear from the wording of the Act whether the applicant must also stay on the territory of the Slovak Republic during the period from the submission of the application for the granting of citizenship until the final conclusion of the proceedings. A clear answer to the outlined problem is provided by the judicial practice of the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic, which, for example, in its Judgment of 26.10.2016, file no. 2Sžo/107/2014, states:

Read also: Permanent residence for a spouse for 5 years 

From the above, it follows that the applicant for the granting of Slovak citizenship should stay on the territory of the Slovak Republic together in a common household with their Slovak spouse for at least five years before submitting the application and also from the submission of the application until the decision on the application.

The command of the Slovak language, both in speech and writing, is also a problematic condition. Command of the Slovak language is verified upon submission of the application – during the filling out of the applicant’s questionnaire, which is submitted together with the application. Subsequently, the command of the Slovak language is verified by a three-member commission appointed by the head of the district office in the regional seat (or by the ambassador or consul, if the application is submitted to a diplomatic mission or consular office). The examination before the commission usually takes place within two weeks of submitting the application. The verification of the knowledge of the Slovak language consists of three parts. First, an interview takes place, during which the applicant is asked general questions about their person, their family members or other close persons, about their relationship to the Slovak Republic, and also general questions concerning the history, geography, and socio-political development of the SR. The second part of the verification of Slovak language knowledge consists of reading aloud a randomly selected press article in the Slovak language that contains at least 500 words. The last part is writing the content of the read article, for which the applicant has a time limit of 30 minutes.

Examination of foreigners in Bratislava and 12 other cities is provided by Medical control s.r.o.

Tel.: 0948 350 123