CITIZENSHIP AND STATELESSNESS IN THE MEMBER STATES OF THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY 2020 number of spouses acquiring nationality through marriage in the five years from 2015 was 940; the number acquiring nationality based on long residence totalled 31.297 Lesotho stated that a total of 57 people had acquired citizenship based on marriage from 2015 to 2019, while 277 people had naturalised based on long residence over the same period (and four people acquired Lesotho citizenship in 2019 as they were at the risk of being stateless).298 In the DRC, only 230 applications for naturalisation have been formally accepted since 1984, of which only 22 were granted.299 In Angola, a total of 937 people acquired nationality between 2012 and April 2020, among whom 536 were based on marriage, 399 on residence, and two granted by parliament for services to the country.300 According to information supplied for a previous report, 195 people acquired Tanzanian citizenship through ordinary naturalisation in 2014, and 463 in 2015; 87 were reported to have naturalised in 2019-20.301 It has also been reported that 118 people acquired the citizenship of Seychelles from 2012 to May 2017.302 The difficulty in naturalising is partly a matter of law but even more a matter of practice. Although the conditions established by law may appear relatively straightforward to fulfil, procedural requirements and high fees can make access difficult. Even if explicit fees are relatively low, the barriers to naturalisation may be high, given the multiple documents, many of them from another country, that need to be assembled for an application. One of the most difficult conditions to fulfil can be proof of the person’s other nationality: a requirement inherited from the days when it was expected that the person would have to renounce that nationality, but often still in place even where dual nationality is allowed. Many of those who would most want to seek to naturalise in African states are those who are not recognised as having obtained nationality of the state of birth, but have no documents recognising another nationality, or evidence of the facts that would enable them to claim it. Even for a person whose original nationality is uncontested, an application for naturalisation may depend on the possession of a valid passport from that other country, and a valid residence permit – which may be out of reach for many, considering that passport and visa fees are typically the equivalent of several hundred dollars. The Tanzanian naturalisation procedure is especially elaborate, involving multiple stages of approval and a total official cost of US$5,000, including an initial non-refundable fee of US$1,500 (although a lower fee totalling approximately US$870 applies to those who would have qualified to register for citizenship at independence, and their descendants born in Tanzania).303 The minister makes the final decision, and may disregard or overrule recommendations made by lower levels of government, or simply not respond. Children of the person naturalising are not automatically included and must make a separate application 297 Ministry of Justice Mozambique, response to request for information from UNHCR, May 2020: acquisition based on marriage: 2015 – 135; 2016 – 137; 2017 – 202; 2018 – 260; 2019 – 206; acquisition by naturalisation: 2015 – 28; 2016 – 02; 2017 – 00; 2018 – 01 (figure for 2019 not given). 298 Ministry of Home Affairs Lesotho, response to request for information from UNHCR, May 2020: acquisition based on marriage: 2015 – 19; 2016 – 21; 2017 – 12; 2018 – 00; 2019- 05; acquisition based on long residence: 2015 – 81; 2016 – 95; 2017 – 67; 2018 – 02; 2019 – 32. 299 Information provided by the Ministry of Justice to the UNHCR Kinshasa office, May 2020. 300 Michael Offermann, “Statelessness and risks of statelessness in Angola and for Angolans”, forthcoming report for UNHCR, draft June 2020. 301 Manby, “Citizenship and Statelessness in the East African Community”, 35. “TCRA registered 37,297,930 SIM cards through biometric registration”, The Guardian (Dar es Salaam), 24 April 2020. 302 “Dreaming of citizenship in Seychelles? Here’s how to do it”, Seychelles News Agency, 24 August 2017. 303 Interviews, Immigration Services Department, Dar es Salaam, 16 July 2016; most recent fees established by the Tanzania Citizenship (Amendments) Regulations G.N. 427 of 13 October 2017; instructions available on the Immigration Department website at http://www.immigration.go.tz/. UNHCR / December, 2020 75