Patrícia Jerónimo influence seems to be prevalent, since Law no. 9/2002 governs aspects, such as the reacquisition of citizenship [Articles 15 to 17],98 which are absent from the Portuguese Nationality Act. On the other hand, the Portuguese influence is more readily apparent in Decree-Law no. 1/2004, of 4 February 2004 (Regulation of the Nationality Act), which is strikingly similar to the 1982 Portuguese Nationality Regulation,99 both in its structure and in the wording of many of its provisions.100 The Timorese Nationality Act has, nevertheless, a few distinctive features. Under the heading ‘basic principles’, Article 2 (1) prescribes that no citizen can be arbitrarily deprived of his or her citizenship nor of the right to change citizenship, while Article 2 (2) specifies that, for the purposes of the Act, (a) citizenship is determined by law and constitutes a legal bond between the individual and the state; (b) foreigner is the individual without a legal bond of citizenship with the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste; and (c) stateless is the individual who cannot prove a legal bond of citizenship with any state. Article 3 explicitly states that citizenship can be by birth (originária) or acquired (adquirida), replicating an identical statement in Article 3 (1) of the Constitution. Article 13 establishes an autonomous category of naturalisation for high and relevant services to Timor-Leste.101 Article 12 (1) (b), on naturalisation requirements, establishes a very precise residence timeframe, carving out the period of Indonesian occupation. Article 16 (d) and (e) surprisingly include among the grounds for opposition to acquisition of Timorese citizenship by foreigners the exercise of sovereign functions in favour of a foreign state without the government’s authorisation and the rendering of military service in favour of a foreign state outside of the cases expressly authorised. Before moving on to the detailed analysis of the different modes of attribution, acquisition and loss of Timorese citizenship, it is worth mentioning a few general aspects of the current citizenship regime, namely the temporal scope of citizenship laws and decisions, the competent authorities to assess and decide on matters of citizenship, and the conflicts among multiple citizenships. of the Timorese Act, on annotations to the birth registration, replicates Article 23 of the Cape Verdean Act and Article 19 of the Portuguese Act; Article 21 of the Timorese Act, on the birth registration of children born to foreign parents or to parents of unknown citizenship, replicates Article 24 of the Cape Verdean Act and Article 37 of the Portuguese Act; Article 23 of the Timorese Act, on proof of citizenship by birth, replicates Article 28 of the Cape Verdean Act and Article 21 of the Portuguese Act; Article 24 of the Timorese Act, on proof of acquisition and loss of citizenship, replicates Article 22 of the Portuguese Act; Article 25 of the Timorese Act, on the opinions by the Registrar of the Central Registry Office, replicates Article 23 of the Portuguese Act; Article 26 of the Timorese Act, on citizenship certificates, replicates Article 24 of the Portuguese Act; Article 27 of the Timorese Act, on legitimacy to appeal against acts pertaining to attribution, acquisition, loss and reacquisition of citizenship, replicates Article 33 of the Cape Verdean Act and Article 25 of the Portuguese Act. 98 Similarly to Articles 17 to 20 of the Cape Verdean Nationality Act. 99 Decree-Law no. 322/82, of 12 August 1982, available at https://dre.pt/application/file/397866 [22.01.2017], as amended by Decree-Law no. 253/94, of 20 October 1994, available at https://dre.pt/application/file/625909 [22.01.2017], and by Decree-Law no. 37/97, of 31 January 1997, available at https://dre.pt/application/file/571102 [22.01.2017]. 100 For verbatim similarities consider e.g. Article 3 of the Timorese Regulation, on filiation, and Article 3 of the Portuguese Regulation; Article 4 of the Timorese Regulation, on birth registration of stateless children, and Article 4 of the Portuguese Regulation; Article 5 of the Timorese Regulation, on registration of children born abroad to a Timorese parent in the service of the State, with Article 5 of the Portuguese Regulation. 101 Whereas the Cape Verdean and Portuguese Nationality Acts only consider such services as a reason to waive some of the requirements in the general naturalisation procedure: residence, for naturalisation as Cape Verdean [Article 12 (2) of the Cape Verdean Nationality Act]; residence, language and effective ties, for naturalisation as Portuguese [Article 6 (2) of the Portuguese Nationality Act]. 22 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2017/7 - © 2017 Author