• • • • • • • • • • • • • • documents regarding applications to acquire nationality or obtain proof of nationality, including receipts for applications submitted; certificates of naturalisation; certificates of renunciation of nationality; written responses by states to enquiries on the nationality of the applicant; marriage certificates of both the client and his/her parents; military service record/discharge certificate; school letters of attendance, certificates or diplomas; medical certificates/records (for example attestations issued from hospital on birth); vaccination booklets; identity and travel documents of parents, spouse and children; immigration documents, such as residence permits of country(ies) of habitual residence; employment documents; property deeds, tenancy agreements, house permits; school records, baptismal certificates; and record of sworn oral testimony of neighbours and community members. LHR uses an intake form to gather all information required to make a preliminary assessment of the client's potential claims to citizenship, including through birth in a country, parentage, marriage, or through immigration status that could lead to naturalisation (including through work permits or relatives permits to care for a citizen child). If the client has children, a second form is completed to assess the children's citizenship and birth registration needs. These initial intake forms are very detailed, but every piece of information is relevant in assessing the client's citizenship status and any possibilities for acquisition of citizenship. 4.2 Step Two: Analysis of the states to which the client has ties The second step in status determination will involve research. Having gathered all the information that the client has to offer as well as documentation, the legal practitioner must now examine the laws and circumstances of the nation(s) to which the client has relevant links. (1) Assessing citizenship and identifying a stateless person in practice • Does a state exist? When determining whether an individual is stateless under Article 1(1), it is most practical to look first at the matter of whether the individual has a link to a territory that is recognised as a State under international law. This might exclude from consideration at the outset entities that do not fulfil the concept of ‘state’ under international law. Under the 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, ‘The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: (a) a permanent Promoting citizenship and preventing statelessness in South Africa: A practitioner’s guide 43