Bureaucracy, delays and double standards prevent a citizen from Kosovo from obtaining Albanian citizenship

Fixed at all denounced on Monday evening the bureaucracy and the delays of Albanian institutions in granting citizenship to Kosovo Albanians.

A young woman from Kosovo, who has been in Albania for many years, has completed 5 years of high school, has been working for 9 years with a regular contract, is married to an Albanian citizen and has a 3-year-old child.

But, for several years, he has been wandering around the doors of the police, the interior ministry and the presidency to get his passport. During this time, they have returned the documents several times; once the employees lost 1 certificate, the second time the documents expired due to procrastination, once because they required an Albanian language exam and in the end the rental contract, made before a notary and notarized by another, turned out to be irregular according to the ministry.

The lease contract has been accepted on previous occasions by all institutions, including the police, the ministry, and the presidency, and has been renewed three times in 5 years.

In the editorial office of the show Fiks Fare, Mr. Klaudjo Jonuzaj complained, who says that he is married to an Albanian from Kosovo, who has been requesting an Albanian passport for many years. "Sihana has been living in the territory of the Republic of Albania since 2010, where she initially studied for 5 years and has been working since 2015, with a regular contract. She has even received a residence permit. For several years, we have been married, where we have celebrated and all the documents. After marriage, we also have a child," claims Klaudjo.

But, despite working regularly, being married to an Albanian citizen and having a child with this citizen, Sihana has been struggling for many years to obtain citizenship, an Albanian passport. "Every time we apply, they give us a lack of documents. Once, a letter from immigration is missing. We send the letter and they answer that the letter is not found and that they have lost it. After we get the migration certificate and submit it for the second time, the file is returned to us again because the deadline for all the documents had passed. Certificates of spouses, Albanian and Kosovar, judicial status, certificates of residence permits, rental contract. These have a 6-month validity period," continues Klaudjo.

Read too Chaos in the granting of Albanian citizenship, institutions drag out applications beyond deadlines - the process has been blocked for months

He adds that, so far, they have filled out the paperwork 4 times. "The last time for the rental contract, after we made the contract at the notary with 1 owner, when the ownership certificate has 3 co-owners. We have taken this contract several times to the police, the Ministry of Interior and the Presidency. They have never returned it to us. With this contract we have all the documents, civil status, residence permits, the child's registration in kindergarten. Everyone has accepted it," he says.

He further adds that, in the first application, an exam in the language and history of Albania was also a criterion, even for Kosovo Albanians. "We asked where to take this exam, no one gave us an answer," Klaudjo claims, adding that so far there has only been bureaucracy.

After the complaint, the young man goes to Police Station No. 2 in Tirana and asks the employee who deals with citizenship. She tells him that this is how the procedures are and that they have done it but the Ministry of Interior and the Police Directorate have returned it. "They make up all kinds of documents. Now they return it for the smallest thing," she tells him, while asking him to fill out the documents from scratch now that they expire in a few weeks. Klaudjo also goes to the Tirana Police Directorate, looking for officer Yzeir Zeqiri, but he tells him that "the file is at Police Station No. 2, fill it out."

Fiks Fare journalists contact police officer Yzeir Zeqiri, who works at the Tirana Police Department and deals with citizenship. He admits that his documents have been returned several times, while adding that there are now problems with the rental contract. Fiksi informs them that Klaudjo and Sihana have always applied with this contract, while he says that now he has to do something else and bring it. We ask him if he brings the new one, the old documents will expire. He tells us that he will look at them and get back to us.

The officer calls the journalists again a few minutes later and says that "just bring the rental contract, as the other documents are dated mid-December." But, as soon as they go from Police Station No. 2, to the Police Directorate at the Ministry of Interior and then to the Presidency, the documents will expire again.

This problem has been awaiting a solution for years from Albanian institutions, which do not have a precise practice of the documents they require, use double standards based on the opinion of each employee dealing with the procedure, and delay applications without being held accountable, trying to harass applicants for years.

The complainants only ask that the matter be taken seriously and that the procedure be followed with a standard, correctness and speed. /Telegraph/