Acquisition of nationality through naturalization former Soviet republic had the opportunity to register as citizens within a year of the law entering into force (Article 18(e)). The same opportunity was extended to foreign citizens and stateless persons who had either acquired Russian citizenship by birth or had an ancestor who was a Russian citizen by birth, regardless of their place of residence. Through a 1993 amendment, the law also allowed former USSR citizens who took up residence in the territory of the Russian Federation after 6 February 1992 to acquire Russian Federation citizenship by registration, with a three-year deadline to do so, later extended to 31 December 2000. The Russian citizenship of the vast majority of the population living in the Russian Federation after its independence was thus secured, as was the citizenship of many individuals who had ties with Russia. Individuals who could not prove that they were permanently resident in the Russian Federation but who held temporary residence status or had no legal residence were not entitled to acquire Russian citizenship. Over the course of the Russian Federation’s first decade as an independent State, the practical application of the Federal Law was complicated by related laws regarding the regulation of residence in the Federation. Before new passports of the Russian Federation were given, citizenship of the Russian Federation was established by inserting stickers (kaddish) into an individual’s former USSR passport. Once new Russian Federation passports were developed, a series of deadlines were given for individuals to exchange their former Soviet passports for new Russian Federation passports. Many individuals did not comply with these deadlines and continued to use their former Soviet passports as identity documents. Furthermore, after 1992, the Russian Federation continued to attract many migrants from other former constituent republics of the Soviet Union, which had also become independent States. By the end of the 1990s, many former Soviet citizens in the Russian Federation had not undertaken affirmative steps to regulate their citizenship status there or in other States they had ties with. Some had automatically become citizens of other newly-independent States, sometimes without knowing it, while others remained stateless because their personal circumstances were such that they failed to qualify for nationality anywhere. U N H C R > G P P A C T I O N 1 : R E S O LV I N G E X I S T I N G M A J O R S I T U AT I O N S O F S TAT E L E S S N E S S 43