acquisition of citizenship of another State has been produced, Migri issues a certificate stating that the requirement to be released from Finnish citizenship has been met. In conclusion, in particular considering Section 5 of the Finnish Constitution and Section 4 of the Nationality Act, the national legal provisions on loss, renunciation and deprivation can be considered to provide for sufficient measures for prevention of statelessness and are in compliance with Finland’s international treaty obligations. 4.3.4 Reduction of statelessness 4.3.4.1 NATURALIZATION Conditions for naturalization are laid down in Section 13 of the Nationality Act. Most of these are the same for stateless persons as for any other foreigners, but are briefly described here in order to provide a complete picture of how stateless persons can be naturalized in Finland. Section 6 of the Nationality Act lays down a precondition for naturalization; the identity of the applicant must have been reliably established. Clarification about the identity can be provided with relevant documents but also by other means of credible information. The Government Bill specifically states that establishing the person’s identity cannot only depend on documents that the person presents, as there are persons, e.g. refugees, from whom it is not reasonable to expect that they have documents that would prove their identity. No particular reference is made in the Government Bill to stateless persons. The first condition for granting of Finnish citizenship on application is that the applicant has reached the age of 18 years or has married before that. Secondly, the applicant must have been permanently resident and domiciled in Finland (period of residence) either for the last five years without interruption (continuous period of residence) or for seven years after reaching the age of 15 years, with the last two years without interruption (accumulated period of residence). For stateless persons, only four years of continuous residence or six years of accumulated residence is required. This only applies to persons who are involuntarily stateless. The positive exception is in line with the Article 32 of the 1954 Convention. The fact that the exception is only available for involuntarily stateless persons can also be considered as being in line with international standards on possible different consequences and rights for voluntarily and involuntarily stateless persons.178 Thirdly, the applicant must not have committed any punishable act nor have had restraining order issued against her or him (integrity requirement). The fourth condition is that the applicant should not have materially failed to provide maintenance or to meet her or his pecuniary obligations under public law and the fifth one that she or he can provide a reliable account of her or his livelihood. Finally, the applicant must have satisfactory oral and written skills in the Finnish or Swedish language, or instead of oral skills similar skills in the Finnish or Finland-Swedish sign language. A shorter period of residence requirement, four years of continuous residence or six years of accumulated residence, is provided for persons who fulfil the language skills requirement. An exception from the language skills requirement can be made if the person has a permanent and full-time job in Finland conducting of which is unreasonably difficult without Finnish nationality, if the person is 65 years or older and has a refugee status or has been granted subsidiary protection or humanitarian protection, if the person cannot fulfil the language skills requirement because of her or his health situation or sensory or speech defect or if there are other important reasons. Furthermore, an exception from the language skills requirement can be made for an illiterate person or a person of over 65 years of age if the person has basic oral Finnish or Swedish language skills or has regularly participated in Finnish or Swedish language education. According to Section 13 (3), no one may be naturalized regardless of meeting the requirements for naturalization, if there are well-founded reasons for suspecting that the naturalization will jeopardize the 178 52 UNHCR, Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons, para 51 and 162. MAPPING STATELESSNESS IN FINL AND