User Name: Anna Country of birth: Soviet Union (Ukraine) Arrival in the Czech Republic: 2008 | Stateless since: 2015 | Current legal status: none Anna has lived in the Czech Republic for 10 years. She originally comes from Ukraine. As a young woman, she married a Bulgarian citizen and moved to Bulgaria to be with her husband. She lived in Bulgaria for many years on the basis of a permanent residence permit. She and her husband had a daughter. Anna later applied for Bulgarian citizenship. However, after many years of physical abuse and beating, she separated from her husband. At the age of 45, she moved to the Czech Republic in order to work and live with her daughter who studied there. In the meantime, Anna received a promise of citizenship from the Bulgarian authorities. The condition, however, was to renounce her Ukrainian citizenship. In 2011, she renounced her Ukrainian citizenship. However, it took the Ukrainian authorities a long time to complete the process and she was only given a confirmation of renouncement in 2015. Anna then submitted the confirmation to the Bulgarian authorities. However, after a long time, the Bulgarian authorities discontinued the pending proceedings and Anna was not granted the Bulgarian citizenship. She has been stateless since 2015. « They forced me to renounce my only citizenship. This is an issue between Bulgaria and Ukraine – Ukraine wants people to only have one citizenship. So I renounced it because they [the Bulgarians – interviewer’s note] requested it. (...) I thought they were doing something, but they weren’t. Every six months, I brought a new extract from criminal records and waited. I tried. I even have certificates proving I submitted the papers, every six months. (...) I don’t understand where I made a mistake. What did I do wrong? And have I done anything wrong at all? I don’t feel like I have.” After some time, the validity of the Bulgarian permanent residence permit had expired. In the meantime, she had lost her Ukrainian passport. As a result, she has no valid document and limited means of regularising her residence. She cannot extend her permanent residence in Bulgaria, as she has not lived there for 10 years and has no ties to that country any longer. However, she has no residence permit to stay in the Czech Republic either, despite the fact that her entire family lives there. She stays with her daughter and her daughter’s husband, who are expecting a baby. She has also had a Czech boyfriend for several years now. Anna finally decided to apply for international protection, asking for assistance in addressing her plight as a stateless person. However, the asylum procedure was discontinued as, according to the Dublin system, Bulgaria is the country responsible to assess her application. In October 2018, she lodged an application in the statelessness determination procedure pursuant to Section 8 (d) of the Asylum Act, following advice provided by her legal counsel. In administrative decisions, she is referred to as a stateless person. 58 Faces of Statelessness in the Czech Republic