At a meeting of the Working Group on reduction and prevention of statelessness in the Kyrgyz Republic (“the Working Group”) held on 15 July 2009, which gathered representatives of authorities dealing with nationality issues, UNHCR and legal NGO’s, it was noted that a visa may not be put on USSR passports because they are invalid. The only valid document for all undocumented but permanently residing non-national’s, is a residence permit, which, in turn, is as difficult to obtain as Kyrgyz citizenship, due to the need to apply and be granted the status of immigrant prior to the issuance of residence permits. At the same time, many former USSR passport holders have propiska stamps in their passports, which serve as legal proof of residency in the place/districts in which it was stamped. Former USSR nationals who have resided in the Kyrgyz Republic for last five or more years and hold a propiska are allowed by authorities to stay in the country and apply for Kyrgyz national passport as per the new 2007 Citizenship Law. This practice suggests that some former USSR passport holders could be naturalized without going through the process of obtaining residence permits or the status of immigrant. A similar arrangement for other categories of stateless persons or persons at risk of statelessness does not exist. Holders of expired passports belonging to a CIS country are in a weaker position as far as the legality of their residence in the Kyrgyz Republic is concerned. Many cannot renew their passports, due to a failure to comply with legal requirements of their countries of origin such as, consular registration within a definitive period of time while residing overseas, and are therefore stateless. Authorities in the Kyrgyz Republic may not legally issue a visa or accept expired passports as valid identification as required for residence permits to legalize residency in the Kyrgyz Republic. Those with expired CIS or foreign passports depend fully on the will of the authorities to allow them to stay beyond the existing legal residency terms; as they are technically foreigners and their residential status is subject to visa or residence permit requirements. During field missions in the South of the country, where a majority of individuals with expired passports reside, it was noted that the internal affairs bodies in Osh province do not usually punish them for unlawful residence. Instead, they tend to assist such individuals to renew documents by approaching the respective authorities in the country of origin. 1.3 Identification of statelessness Although there is no legal act that describes separate processes for identifying stateless persons, some residency and nationality related rules and procedures may partially fill the void for statelessness identification. The Regulation “On Manner of Execution and Issuance of Temporary and Permanent Residence Permit to Foreign Citizens and Stateless Persons in the Territory of the Kyrgyz Republic” adopted on 13 November 2008 (the “2008 Residence Permit Regulations”) to further strengthen the 2000 External Migration Law refers to the Opinion on recognition of an individual as a stateless person issued by the territorial passport and visa control subdivision of the Department of Internal Affairs (para. 7 in the 2008 Residence Permit Regulations). However, the 2008 Residence Permit Regulations do not refer to any procedure on how such an Opinion can be concluded. In addition, the Regulations only refer to individuals from CIS countries as subjects of formal recognition as stateless persons through this Opinion. As previously mentioned, according to information provided by the Ministry of Interior, only about 50 individuals have benefited from residence permits for stateless persons and stateless person’s cards. No outreach campaigns to identify holders of former USSR passports, expired passports or any other categories of stateless persons/persons at risk of statelessness have been undertaken by the government. Thus far, the only efforts to identify stateless persons in the Kyrgyz Republic were the three UNHCR-funded surveys in the North and South which were aimed at assessing the situation of those with undetermined 55 Small Changes ‫ ـ‬Big Gains: An Action Plan to Prevent and Reduce Statelessness in the Kyrgyz Republic