And probably the excessive length of procedures is the biggest problem in these procedures. In fact, even when the supplement of application was not requested, the procedures for determining citizenship lasted for at least four months, and usually about six months. If the supplement was requested, it prolonged the procedures at least for additional two or three months, and often more. The procedures of acquiring citizenship by naturalisation lasted even longer, usually more than a year, and in especially difficult cases even two or three years. And we remind that the legal time limit for completing all administrative procedures is a maximum of two months19. Sometimes the procedures take a long time because the parties have difficulties or cannot, in a short period of time, collect all the supporting evidence they are requested to submit through notices on supplementing the requests. Particularly frequent are the situations where it is necessary to perform corrections in civil registry records (usually in the civil registry books in which the applicant’s parents are registered), but these procedures and obtaining documents after performing corrections may also last for several months. As regards the necessary evidence and deciding on the justifiability of the application, there are no new trends or examples that would deviate from the current practice. It is worth noting that in the procedures for naturalisation on the basis of Article 16 of the Law on Citizenship (persons who were born in Serbia and resided in Serbia for at least two consecutive years before the application), the submitted evidence of residence included verified statements of applicants and witnesses, membership cards of Roma associations and statements of Roma coordinators, receipts of social welfare centres and agreements on the use of containers, the evidence of the birth of children or that the applicant previously conducted other procedures, etc. - all in all a very diverse range of documents, which have proved to be sufficient to prove residence (along with the field checks carried out by the Ministry of Interior). Otherwise, the acquisition of citizenship by naturalisation under Article 16 is a very common basis for acquiring citizenship for the people who have previously conducted procedures for determining the date and place of birth. In fact, one of the frequent reasons for initiating the procedure for determining the date and place of birth is that the parties do not have documents of parents and therefore cannot conduct an administrative procedure of subsequent birth registration. And since they do not possess their certificates of citizenship, consequently they do not possess any evidence for acquiring citizenship by descent, and the fact of their citizenship cannot be entered into birth registry books after the execution of court decision. Therefore, their only option for acquiring citizenship is by naturalisation, and almost always on the basis of Article 16 of the Law on Citizenship. REGISTRATION INTO BIRTH REGISTRY BOOKS BASED ON THE DOCUMENT ISSUED BY A FOREIGN AUTHORITY: In this year, the number of Praxis’ beneficiaries born abroad has significantly increased, and the facts of their birth and citizenship were not registered in the civil registry books of the Republic of Serbia. The reason for that is probably the increased number of returnees upon readmission20. As already mentioned, the registration of the fact of birth of the Serbian citizens born abroad is based on the so-called international birth certificate issued in the country of birth. In addition to having that evidence, the person 19 Article 208, paragraph 1 of the Law on General Administrative Procedure According to the Reports for 2015 and 2016 of the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration of the Republic of Serbia – Readmission Office at the airport "Nikola Tesla", in the first 9 months of 2016 the number of registered returnees upon readmission agreements was 3,041, while in the same period of 2015, there were 1,752 returnees, which is a 74 percent increase in 2016. Available at: http://www.kirs.gov.rs/docs/read/Izvestaj_2015.pdf and http://www.kirs.gov.rs/docs/read/Izvestaj_2016.pdf (accessed on 28 November 2016) 20 14