the Citizenship Law is not clear on the way in which rejections are communicated with the applicant, the Constitutional and Supreme Administrative Courts have ruled that the person concerned must be informed of the reasons for the rejection and have the right to lodge an appeal with an administrative court. At the same time, the case law acknowledges that the President enjoys wide discretion in such cases. In practice, there are several obstacles for stateless persons to acquire Lithuanian citizenship through naturalization. Many older stateless persons interviewed for this research quoted the requirement to pass the Lithuanian language examination as the main obstacle.379 Those who were over 65 years old and were thus exempt from this requirement, were not aware of this fact.380 The Roma community benefits from free courses to prepare them for the language and Constitution examinations by the Trakai municipality.381 Other interviewees, especially those born in Lithuania, said they could not afford the fees for the process of naturalization and the examinations.382 At the time of research, the process of naturalization cost 179 LTL (51 Euro) and this fee could not be waived. One of the recommendations provided by the UN Human Rights Council to the Government of Lithuania during the latest Universal Periodic Review was to ease the procedure of obtaining citizenship, including by reducing the language requirement. Lithuania did not support the recommendation, as it “[did] not have any data showing that the Lithuanian provisions on obtaining citizenship create any obstacles to ensuring adequate protection of human rights for Lithuanian residents.”383 Finally, although a criminal record does not per se disqualify an applicant from naturalizing, the case of A.M. described below shows that in practice, even if the person has not been convicted of a grave crime, a conviction of any crime can result in a refusal to grant citizenship in the process of naturalization. CASE STUDY384 A.M., male, 39 Years old Country of birth: Lithuania (born to Russian parents) A.M. approached the authorities at the age of 18 (in 1991) and was told that the “zero option” time had expired but the new Law on Citizenship had not yet entered into force, so he would have to wait. In 1991 or 1992, A.M. obtained a permanent residence permit and the Stateless Person’s Travel Document. He soon returned to approach the authorities regarding citizenship. “They told me the rules had changed and now I had to take the exams and provide many documents. I started the process but soon realized it was very lengthy and complicated, so I thought I would leave it for now. Travelling was easier like that, I thought I was not going to take up a job in the civil service and that I could give up voting,” he says. A.M. lived and worked with a residence permit until he decided he definitely wanted to acquire citizenship in 2011. He gathered the necessary documents and passed the necessary exams in 2012. Asked if the exams were difficult, A.M. said: “No, for me they were not difficult. They would be difficult for foreigners who migrate to Lithuania these days, but not for somebody who is autochthonous from Lithuania.” However, a 82 379 Of the 15 participants eligible for naturalization, 5 said they would like to acquire Lithuanian citizenship but feel they would not be able to pass the Lithuanian language examination. Their age ranged from 53 to 71 years. 380 R. interviewed on 7 September 2012 and N. interviewed on 10 September 2012. 381 Interview with Svetlana Novopolskaja from the Roma Community Centre on 20 August 2012. 382 Of the 15 participants eligible for naturalization, 3 quoted prohibitive fees as an obstacle to undertaking the process of naturalization. 383 UNGA, Human Rights Council, Nineteenth session, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (Addendum): Views on conclusions and/or recommendations, voluntary commitments and replies presented by the State under review – Lithuania, A/HRC/19/15/ Add.1, 6 March 2012, paragraph 15, available at: http://goo.gl/4o1mql. 384 Interviewed on 11 September 2012. M A P P I N G S TAT E L E S S N E S S I N L I T H UA N I A