Firming up home ties

by Manjula Fernando

The sudden surge in applicants seeking Sri Lankan dual citizenship seems to have stabilised with an apparent decline during the past months, Immigration and Emigration Department sources said.

The resumption of the dual citizenship service after 10 years has seen the office inundated with applications

Minister Samaraweera presents a dual passport

However, expatriates with older children were frantically trying to apply for dual citizenships before their children exceed the age limit to be qualified as dependents.

The dual citizenship fees were revised by the Government in the 2016 Budget which was presented in November last year. According to the revised fees, an applicant has to pay Rs.300,000 now, instead of the earlier Rs. 250,000. But the dependent and spouse fees remain the same at Rs.50,000 per person. The children will cease to qualify under the dependent category as they reach 21 years of age.

The resumption of the dual citizenship service by the Immigration and Emigration Department after nearly four years of suspension, saw the office inundated with applications. The service which was suspended in 2011 to review the procedure of granting dual citizenship resumed in March 2015, just three months after the present Government came to power.

Rush

"The then government was suspicious of ex-LTTE cadres trying to infiltrate the country," sources at the Foreign Ministry said as an explanation on the suspension that dragged on for years, leading to open criticism by the expatriates as well as independent observers. Even the editorial office of the Sunday Observer often had to answer phone calls from those inquiring when the service will be restored.

An independent observer said, "the election of a new government that is less suspicious of expatriates, in January 2015 and stability in the country post-war, would have contributed to the rush for dual citizenships."

Although the Immigration Department lacked such data, it is believed that there is also an ethnic dimension to the story. The observer said Tamils who rushed off during war time were returning to Sri Lanka to settle matters related to property and wealth that was left unattended.

According to sources at the Immigration Department, asylum seekers too will not be barred from obtaining Sri Lankan nationality, in spite of a policy maintained by the former government. "The decision not to entertain applications from asylum seekers has been shelved," he said.

The Department now functions under the Ministry of Internal Affairs under Minister S.B. Navinna. This too is a clear shift from the policy of the previous government, which placed it under the purview of the Defence Ministry.

As of last week the passport office, by which name the Immigration and Emigration Department is commonly known, had received a total of 21,794 applications from expatriates seeking dual citizenship during the past 12 months since its resumption. There was a 'mad rush' to gain Sri Lankan citizenship soon after. In comparison there had been only 31,700 applications during the 25 years from 1987 to 2011.

Deputy Controller, Legal of the Immigration and Emigration Department Lakshan De Zoysa said, however, the backlog of four years could be the reason for such a high number of applications at the desk and these figures should not be a yardstick to measure the real picture.

A total of 18,751 applications have been received by December 15 last year and 3,000 within the past three months of this year. "There is a decline," he affirmed adding that the decline may continue in the coming months. Most of these applications have been received through Sri Lanka's foreign missions.

Of the applications, 6,225 applicants have already been issued dual citizenship and another 4000 have been processed and are ready. Over 3,000 applications have been referred for payment. The next ceremony to award dual citizenship will be held at the BMICH on April 8, with the Internal Affairs Minister as Chief Guest.

The national ceremony to award the symbolic first batch of dual citizenships after resuming the service was held at Temple Trees, with President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as chief guests.

Deputy Controller Zoysa said, Sri Lankans in Australia have shown the biggest interest in obtaining dual nationality while there was a considerable number of applications from Lankans in UK, Canada, US and Italy.

According to the Citizenship Act, dual citizens enjoy the rights of ordinary Lankan citizens including franchise rights but they cannot be elected as Members of Parliament. This right was withheld by the recently introduced 19th Amendment to the Constitution.

Constitution

Anyone who obtains citizenship of another country will lose Sri Lankan citizenship automatically, according to the Constitution unless they have applied for dual citizenship in advance. In case of a renunciation of that country's citizenship they can apply for dual citizenship as and when they wish to regain Sri Lankan nationality. In both cases the fee is the same.

Sri Lanka reportedly has about three million expatriates scattered all over the world. It is estimated that the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora outnumbers the Sinhala population living abroad.

But the irony is that none of the state agencies seems to be maintaining official statistics on Sri Lankans who have left the country due to various reasons and embraced other nationalities.

When contacted, Immigration and Emigration Department sources said the Foreign Ministry should maintain such data, while a Foreign Ministry official at the Publicity Division said there was no need for Sri Lankans to inform the Foreign Ministry if they migrate to another country, hence they do not have any data available with them.

This could be a good point for the government to begin, if they wish to invite skilled and wealthy members of the Sri Lankan diaspora to help usher the war-battered country towards prosperity.