Report on Citizenship Law: Mozambique Mozambican authorities have discretion in their decision on whether or not to grant Mozambican citizenship by naturalisation. Competence lays with the Minister of Interior, per Article 12 of the Nationality Act. The procedure, as set by the 1975 Nationality Regulation, is as follows: applications are submitted at the Central Registry Office, with the indication of the applicant’s full name, date of birth, civil status, filiation, citizenship, place of birth, place of current residence and activity developed in Mozambique, and accompanied by his or her birth registration certificate, proof of habitual and legal residence in Mozambique for a minimum period of ten years, and criminal record or similar document [Article 14 (1) and (2), with the necessary adaptations]. Other documents will be necessary to prove that applicants’ meet the new naturalisation requirements introduced by the 2004 Constitution, such as capacity to provide for one’s subsistence. The Central Registry Office organises the documentation received and sends the file to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for an opinion on the merits of the application and on the repercussions that a positive reply may have for the relations between Mozambique and the applicant’s state of origin. The opinion is to be issued within a six-month deadline, following which the file is sent to the Minister of Interior who, on delegation from the Council of Ministers, decides on the application after reviewing it and checking whether or not the naturalisation requirements are met [Article 14 (4)]. Once the naturalisation is granted and the naturalisation decree is published in the official journal, the Central Registry Office registers it ex officio, although the interested party is also entitled to request the registration by presenting a copy of the official journal in which the naturalisation decree was published (Article 15). Acquisition by unmarried children under 18 years of age, following acquisition by one of the parents: According to Article 28 of the Constitution, the administrative decision which grants Mozambican citizenship by naturalisation may also grant Mozambican citizenship to the applicant’s children, provided that they are under 18 years of age and unmarried. The wording of Article 28 – ‘may be granted’ – suggests that Mozambican authorities have discretion in their decision on whether or not to grant Mozambican citizenship under this provision, but it would be at odds with the seemingly underlying goal of keeping parents and children united in the same citizenship status to deny the extension of the naturalisation to the applicant’s children. In any case, the extension of Mozambican citizenship to the children of naturalised citizens must be requested together with the naturalisation application and follows the same procedure. Article 14 (3) of the Nationality Regulation prescribes that the applicants wishing that their unmarried children under 18 years of age also acquire Mozambican citizenship have to enclose the children’s birth registration certificate. Since the constitutional provision only covers children under 18 years of age, not under 21 years of age as the 1975 Nationality Act, the requirement that children over 18 years of age declare their agreement to the naturalisation no longer applies. Acquisition based on adoption by Mozambican citizen: According to Article 29 of the Constitution, foreign or stateless children87 adopted by a Mozambican citizen acquire Mozambican citizenship. Children adopted by Mozambican citizen(s) are entitled to acquire 87 The Mozambican Family Act – approved by Law no. 10/2004, of 25 August 2004 – sets different age limits for adoption, depending on the child to be adopted and on the person adopting. If the person adopting is the spouse or partner of the child’s biological parent, the adoption can take place until the child turns 21 years of age, whereas orphan or abandoned children can only be adopted until they turn 14 (Article 395). Text available at http://jafbase.fr/docAfrique/ Mozambique/Lei%2010.2004%20-%20Lei%20da%20Familia.pdf [03.04.2019]. RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2019/6 - © 2019 Author 33