Also recognized as Kyrgyz citizens by that law were persons who had been citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic on 18 February 1994, the day when the law entered into force. According to the law On External Migration, persons arriving in the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic after 18 February 1994 have to register at their place of residence and obtain a residence permit. If they wish to obtain Kyrgyz citizenship, they have to renounce their current citizenship and submit an application as described, above. The new law On Citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic adopted on 21 May 2007 has been considered to be major progress, as it has the potential to solve many issues related to statelessness. One of the main innovations of this law is its recognition of former USSR citizens as citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic, if they have been permanently residing on the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic for five years and have not applied for citizenship of any other state. This provision allows a considerable number of persons with Soviet passports who arrived after 18 February 1994 to define their civil affiliation to the Kyrgyz Republic. Also, unlike its predecessor, the new citizenship law does not establish a deadline within which the old passport has to be exchanged for a new one. The authorities’ current procedures and practices, however, do not yet fully reflect the new law and do not yet fully abide by its specific norms. Presidential Decree #473 Regulation on Procedures to Consider Issues of Kyrgyz Republic Citizenship of 25 October 2007 authorizes Conflict Commissions in provincial DPVCs to consider granting citizenship to a specified category of persons (see above). According to Article 5 of the Law On Citizenship, however, the same category of persons has already been recognized as Kyrgyz citizens. Establishing procedures to provide them with national passports, and not to “consider granting them citizenship”, would thus be the logical next step. In addition, the survey has shown that, although the local passport units are authorized to determine whether or not an applicant is Kyrgyz citizen, some of them seem unwilling to incur such responsibility and restrict themselves to collecting applications and documents and forwarding them to regional Conflict Commissions for consideration. Another remarkable improvement in the 2007 Citizenship Law is the cancellation of all requirements for aliens to renounce their current citizenship before acquiring Kyrgyz citizenship. Renouncing one’s citizenship is especially difficult for applicants from Uzbekistan. They have to wait for several years, and pay a fee of US$ 112 to submit an application for cancellation of Uzbek citizenship and another US$ 5 to receive a confirmation that the procedure has been completed after publication of the relevant decree by the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Hence, in order to renounce their Uzbek citizenship, a family of four persons has to pay a consular fee of US$ 468. This amount is beyond the means of most Uzbek migrants. On the other hand, Uzbek citizens who left Uzbekistan to reside permanently in another country and who for five years did not register with Uzbek consular offices lose their citizenship (Article 21 of the Law On Citizenship of the Republic of Uzbekistan dated July 28th, 1992). If they approach a Consulate or passport unit only after five years, the latter shall initiate procedures to terminate their citizenship. These circumstances combine to put many of them at risk of statelessness. The Situation of Stateless Persons in the Kyrgyz Republic: Findings of Surveys Commissioned by the UNHCR 13