FINDINGS OF THE SURVEY Categories of stateless persons and persons in danger of becoming stateless The survey individually interviewed 4,290 stateless persons. During these interviews, another 1,278 stateless adults and 6,087 stateless children were identified among the families of interviewees. The survey thus identified 11,655 stateless persons or persons in danger of becoming stateless, who can be divided into the following five categories: Category 1: Persons who used to be citizens of another state, but have become stateless or are in danger of becoming stateless because of shortcomings in citizenship legislation and the practices of the authorities in countries of origin and the Kyrgyz Republic (1,871 individuals). Most individuals in this category are (former) Uzbek citizens, who settled permanently in the Kyrgyz Republic but did not register with the Consulate of the Uzbek Embassy in Bishkek. According to Uzbek law, as mentioned above, they lose their Uzbek citizenship after five years. Consequently, such persons only possess expired passports which are invalid and which the Uzbek authorities do not exchange or extend in the absence of consular registration. Thus, despite being fully integrated into local communities in the Kyrgyz Republic these persons might not have applied for Kyrgyz citizenship because of the difficulties and costs associated with renouncing their previous Uzbek citizenship (see previous page). The new Kyrgyz citizenship law eliminated these obstacles, but these persons still cannot obtain Kyrgyz citizenship, because the authorities still demand that applicants provide valid passports. The authorities do this despite the fact, as mentioned before, that neither the current citizenship Law nor the Regulation on Procedures to Consider Issues of Kyrgyz Republic Citizenship of 25 October 2007 requires a valid passport. Category 2: Former USSR citizens who arrived in the Kyrgyz Republic after the Law On Citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic of 12 December 1993 came into force and have not applied for any other citizenship (1,827 individuals). This category describes persons who used to be USSR citizens but were not covered by Article 1 of the old citizenship law. Some of them might have been living on Kyrgyz territory for a long time, but temporarily resided in another former USSR country when the law came into force. The current law eliminates the requirement of having resided in the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic at the moment when the first citizenship law came in force, i.e. on 18 February 1994, while retaining the requirement of having resided in the Kyrgyz Republic for at least five years. Thus, applications by persons who permanently resided in the Kyrgyz Republic for five years before applying to authorities should now be considered by Conflict Commissions in the DPVC and its local departments. The Situation of Stateless Persons in the Kyrgyz Republic: Findings of Surveys Commissioned by the UNHCR 15