Patrícia Jerónimo Registration of citizenship acquisition under Article 26 (1) of the Constitution is made in accordance with Articles 13 and 10 of the Nationality Regulation, with the necessary adaptations, which means that proof of domicile and a marriage certificate are required. Per Article 10 (2) of the Nationality Regulation, proof of domicile in Mozambique is done by means of a certificate attesting the residence in Mozambique and of a declaration under oath which includes, to the extent possible, the date when the signatory settled domicile in Mozambique, the localities where he or she lived and the entities for which he/she rendered services, where applicable. It is probable that the declaration under oath is no longer required to prove domicile in Mozambique. Clayton Johnam’s list of documents needed to instruct applications under Article 26 (1) of the Constitution only mentions the residence certificate, with the clarification that it is usually issued by the municipal services of the applicant’s place of residence. On the other hand, Johnam’s list includes a declaration by the Mozambican spouse agreeing to the acquisition of Mozambican citizenship, which does not seem to have any legal basis. Acquisition by naturalisation: According to Article 27 (1) of the Constitution, Mozambican citizenship may be granted by naturalisation to foreigners who, at the date of their application, meet the following requirements: (a) have resided legally and habitually in Mozambique for at least 10 years;86 (b) are over 18 years of age; (c) know Portuguese or another Mozambican language; (d) are capable of providing for themselves; (e) have civic suitability (idoneidade cívica); and (f) meet the requirements and offer the guarantees set by ordinary legislation. Article 11 of the 1975 Nationality Act applies only to the extent that the requirements listed in its paragraph (c) may assist in interpreting subparagraphs (e) and (f) of Article 27 (1) of the Constitution. Per Article 11 (c) of the Nationality Act, applicants must offer political and moral guarantees of integration into Mozambican society, must not have been involved in fascist or pro-colonial political organisations, must not have worked for a foreign political police force, and must not have been convicted for crimes against the Mozambican people and decolonisation or against the safety of the people and of the state. Both the Constitution and the Nationality Act use vague formulations – ‘civil suitability’, ‘political and moral guarantees of integration’ – which give considerable leeway to the Mozambican authorities when reviewing applications under Article 27 (1) of the Constitution. There is however no information available on how Mozambican authorities interpret these requirements in practice, as there is also no information about the means by which the Mozambican authorities assess the applicants’ knowledge of Portuguese or Mozambican languages. The naturalisation notices published in the official journal do not include any justification for the decision to grant Mozambican citizenship besides the reference to the legal provisions applied, which, as noted earlier, continued to be the provisions in the 1975 Nationality Act and the 1975 Nationality Regulation well beyond the entry into force of the 2004 Constitution and as recently as 2015. There are, furthermore, no official statistics on the number of naturalisations requested and granted under the current (or the previous) citizenship regime. 86 For the purposes of naturalisation, it is immaterial whether foreigners resided in Mozambique as immigrants or as refugees. Mozambique is among the few countries which has expressly entered reservations to Article 34 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees indicating that it does not consider itself bound to grant to refugees facilities greater than those granted to other categories of aliens in general, with respect to naturalization laws. Consistent with this reservation, Mozambique’s Refugee Act, adopted by Law no. 21/97, of 31 December 1997, expressly prescribes in its Article 12 (2), that, provided all legal requirements are met, naturalisation is to be granted to refugees on the same terms as to other foreigners (Manby 2016: 128, 131). 32 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2019/6 - © 2019 Author