B) Existing good practices No protection mechanism can be complete without offering a pathway to a durable solution, which actually resolves the person’s statelessness. Again, states have diverging traditions and policies when it comes to the naturalisation of foreigners. Therefore, when identifying good practices, the main benchmark is whether there is any preferential treatment for stateless persons as compared to the general rules applied to those with a foreign nationality (rather than the comparison of absolute numbers and conditions). In this respect, the regulation of Slovakia deserves special credit as good practice, since it allows stateless persons to apply for naturalisation after 3 years of continuous lawful stay in the country. This constitutes preferential treatment not only compared to foreigners in general (8 years of permanent residence permit), but also to refugees (4 years). Among those countries which have statelessness determination procedures in place, Italy is another positive example, where stateless persons (similarly to refugees) can apply for naturalisation after 5 years of residence, which is half the waiting time according to the general rule (10 years). In Hungary, stateless persons can be naturalised after 5 years of having a registered domicile in the country, while the general rule is 8 years.106 C) Factors to consider when designing a national system  Are there preferential conditions (for example shorter waiting time, reduced costs, exemption from examinations, language requirements, etc.) in place for the naturalisation of certain categories of nonnationals (for example refugees, family members or nationals, those born in the country, based on ethnic/ cultural affiliation, etc.)?  If yes, these preferential conditions should apply to stateless persons as well. If there are different preferential categories, stateless persons should be integrated into the most preferential one.  Is renouncing one’s previous nationality a general condition for naturalisation in the country?  If yes, the law should explicitly exempt stateless persons from this obligation, otherwise this would constitute an insurmountable obstacle preventing any stateless person’s naturalisation.  Is presenting one’s birth certificate (or another relevant civil registry document) a general condition for naturalisation in the country?  If yes, the law should explicitly exempt stateless persons from this obligation, otherwise this would constitute a practical obstacle hindering many stateless persons’ naturalisation. time” prescribed by law before lawfully staying non-nationals can lodge an application for naturalisation cannot exceed ten years (Article 6 (3)). 106 Note that many countries in the world which do not have a statelessness-specific determination and protection mechanism offer preferential conditions for stateless persons when it comes to naturalisation. This may include shorter waiting times or exemption from administrative requirements (such as proving the loss of previous nationality). This document approaches the question of facilitated naturalisation as a part of a more complex protection mechanism, and not as a stand-alone issue of reducing statelessness. Therefore good practices have only been selected from the countries covered by this paper, but this should not, by any means, reduce the importance of other positive models with regard to this particular issue. 40