Report on Citizenship Law: East Timor (Timor-Leste) The birth registration of children born in Timor-Leste to a foreign parent or parents must include an express mention that the parent(s) is/are foreigner(s) and, whenever possible, the foreign citizenship of the parent(s) must be certified by a document attesting that none of the parents is Timorese (Article 21 of the Nationality Act). Article 2 (3) and (4) of the Nationality Regulation adds specifications for the cases in which the foreign father or mother are in Timor-Leste in the service of their country. Per Article 2 (3), the birth registration must mention, as an ‘identification element’ of the registered child, the ‘special situation of the parents’. Per Article 2 (4), the author of the registration request must present a document issued by his or her respective diplomatic or consular services, and confirmed by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, which proves that the father or the mother of the child was in Timor-Leste in the service of his or her State at the time of birth.113 These specifications seem to be mere formalities, since neither the Constitution nor the Nationality Act include a ‘diplomatic exception’, i.e. the exemption of children of diplomats and consular officers from the imposition, by a ius soli rule, of the citizenship of the State where the parents happen to be positioned at the time of birth. Such an exemption is not necessary, because Timorese citizenship is not imposed but merely offered. The children born in TimorLeste to foreign diplomats are entitled to Timorese citizenship under Article 3 (2) (c) of the Constitution like any other child born in Timor-Leste to a foreign parent. As for the ‘citizenship declaration’ (declaração de nacionalidade), Article 19 (1) of the Nationality Act allows for it to be submitted before Timorese diplomatic or consular agents, in which case it is registered ex officio on the basis of the necessary documents sent, for that purpose, to the Central Registry Office. Article 19 (2) clarifies that the mere consular registration is not, in itself, a title attributing Timorese citizenship. The Nationality Regulation adds a considerable amount of confusion to the regime, by using the same expression – ‘citizenship declaration’ – to two very different cases in its Articles 6 and 7. Article 6 will be looked at below when we discuss the attribution of Timorese citizenship to children born abroad to a Timorese parent. Article 7 refers to the ‘citizenship declaration’ that individuals born in Timorese territory to a foreign father and mother must make after reaching 17 years of age [paragraph (1)]. Besides the ‘typo’ in the use of ‘and’ instead of ‘or’, addressed earlier, there seems to be also a mistake in the use of the verb ‘must’ (devem). The declaration is not an obligation but an entitlement. Obviously, not all individuals born in Timor-Leste to foreign parent(s) are obliged to declare their wish to be Timorese. An even bigger confusion is made in Article 7 (2), which prescribes that the citizenship declaration must be accompanied by the birth certificate of the author of the declaration and by a document issued by the competent services attesting to the ‘circumstances pertaining to the Timorese parents’ of the author of the declaration. A similar mistake is made in the template for the citizenship declaration under Article 7 of the Nationality Regulation (Model D1), which was approved by Ministerial Diploma no. 4/2006, of 23 October 2006.114 Birth to a Timorese father or mother irrespective of place of birth: Article 3 (3) of the Constitution recognises as Timorese citizens by birth the children of a Timorese father or mother, even if born abroad.115 This provision is replicated by Article 8 (2) of the Nationality 113 This requirement is waived when the child to be registered is the child of a diplomatic or consular officer accredited with the Timorese Government [Article 2 (4) of the Nationality Regulation]. 114 Available at http://www.mj.gov.tl/jornal/public/docs/2006/serie_1/serie1_no19.pdf [25.01.2017], p. 1563. 115 It is worth noting that the English version of the Timorese Constitution available on the Timorese government’s website has a different wording to Article 3 (3). It reads: ‘Irrespective of being born in a foreign country, children of a Timorese father or mother shall be considered original citizens of East Timor. (a) Children of an East Timorese father or mother living overseas; (b) Children of an East Timorese father or mother serving the State outside the country;’. The text is available at http://timor-leste.gov.tl/wpRSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2017/7 - © 2017 Author 27