Ukrainian-born Larisa Bakurova is on edge of achieving Taiwanese dual citizenship
Taiwan News
Date: 2016/12/22
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
Taipei (Taiwan News) — Ukrainian born actress and model, Larisa Bakurova (瑞莎), was granted
Larisa Bakurova breastfeeding daughter (Image from 瑞莎 Larisa Facebook page)
permission to apply for naturalization as a Taiwanese citizen, while apparently also being permitted to retain her Ukrainian citizenship in November by the Ministry of the Interior due to an obscure exception listed in the “Nationality Act.”
Generally speaking, most foreign nationals are required by law to relinquish the citizenship of their birth before their Taiwanese citizenship has been approved, which in the past led to many people becoming stateless before receiving approval, or remaining so if their approval was denied. A recent amendment passed earlier this month now gives foreign nationals a one year grace period to relinquish their original citizenship before their Taiwanese citizenship is finalized.
Still, the requirement to renounce citizenship itself is a highly contentious issue as many other countries such as the United States do not have such a requirement, and thus Taiwanese who become naturalized American citizens can hold dual passports, while the opposite is not true.
In the case of Bakurova, she has been in a state of limbo for two years because the country of her birth, Ukraine, does not recognize Taiwan as a country nor does it allow for the renunciation of Ukrainian citizenship, and has refused to respond to her requests. After the Ministry of Foreign Affairs intervened on her behalf and tried to contact Ukrainian authorities without success, she qualified for Article 9 of the Nationality Act, which stipulates that she can gain an exception to relinquishing citizenship if providing a certificate of doing so is beyond her control: [FULL STORY]
