4.3.3 Reduction of statelessness 4.3.3.1 NATURALIZATION A stateless person may acquire nationality through the procedure for granting nationality by the President of Poland or through the recognition by a Voivod. The procedure before the President is discretionary and there is no formal condition that a person has to be born on the Polish territory. The provisions of the Act on Polish Citizenship are very general and merely indicate that the President can confer Polish citizenship on foreigners. Another possibility for a stateless person is to use the procedure before the Voivod, which is not discretionary. The Voivod shall recognize as a Polish citizen a foreigner who has resided in the territory of Poland over a period of at least two years, with an uninterrupted legal residence and with one of the permanent residence permits (a permanent residence permit, a long-term EU residence permit, or a right of permanent residence), and who is a stateless person. In both procedures the stateless applicant’s residence in Poland must be legal and confirmed by appropriate documents (a residence permit, Identity Document) which is often a serious obstacle for stateless persons in making use of these procedures. In the procedure before the President, the pre-condition of legality of residence is not formulated in the Act on Polish Citizenship but the sub-statutory regulations116 require a residence permit to be presented together with the application for conferment of nationality. In the procedure before the Voivod, the required length of stay is shorter than for a regular foreigner (three years), but it has to take place on the basis of the permanent residence permit which is a more stringent condition. Moreover, this procedure also requires the applicant to submit official confirmation of knowledge of the Polish language. Lastly, the person cannot be a threat to national security. 116 46 These sub-statutory acts specify the forms used in different naturalization procedures, for example: Regulation of the President of the Republic of Poland of 7 August 2012 on the specification of the form template of the application for consent to the abandonment of Polish nationality, requirements considering photograph enclosed to the application and template of the notice of the content of decision on giving the consent to abandon Polish nationality (Journal of Laws of 2012, item 928). MAPPING STATELESSNESS IN POLAND