Armenia Moves to Tighten Citizenship Rules With Residency Requirements, Tougher Ancestry Checks and Higher Fees

Armenia is moving to tighten access to citizenship, proposing new residency requirements, tougher checks on Armenian ancestry and steep fee increases under a government plan that would reshape who can obtain an Armenian passport.

The changes would affect both foreign nationals and ethnic Armenians, who have traditionally had an easier path to citizenship. Applicants would be expected to show a meaningful connection to Armenia, including legal residence and time physically spent in the country.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has put the legislative package up for public discussion, arguing that citizenship has increasingly been obtained by people with little or no connection to Armenia beyond the passport itself.

The government also wants to make the process considerably more expensive. The fee for obtaining Armenian citizenship would rise fivefold, from 50,000 drams (about $130) to 250,000 drams (about $660). Renouncing citizenship would cost 1.5 million drams (about $4,000), 10 times the current fee of 150,000 drams (about $400).

The proposal comes after a sharp increase in citizenship grants in recent years.

More than 110,000 people became Armenian citizens between Jan. 1, 2021, and Aug. 31, 2026, according to figures included in the ministry’s justification for the bill. Over the past 15 years, about 250,000 people have obtained citizenship.

The ministry says most of those new citizens never established permanent residence in Armenia. Some, it says, sought an Armenian passport primarily for easier travel or other practical advantages.

That is the central issue the government says it wants to address.

Under the proposed rules, citizenship would no longer be based solely on whether an applicant meets formal requirements on paper. Foreign nationals would need legal residency in Armenia and would have to spend a required period physically in the country before qualifying.

The same principle would extend to ethnic Armenians, although they would retain a simplified path to citizenship. Armenia’s Constitution provides ethnic Armenians with special eligibility to acquire citizenship, and the government is not proposing to eliminate that provision.

Instead, applicants using that route would also have to demonstrate a genuine connection to Armenia.

The government is separately seeking tougher safeguards for determining Armenian ancestry.

Applicants can currently submit documents recognized under Armenian law to establish that they are ethnically Armenian. The ministry says documents alone have not always provided reliable proof and has pointed to cases involving records that were allegedly forged or altered.

Authorities identified 71 such cases from 2023 through the first half of 2026. Five were recorded in 2023, followed by 21 in 2024, 26 in 2025 and 19 during the first six months of 2026.

According to the ministry, some cases involved documents in which a parent, grandparent or other relative’s ethnicity had been changed or recorded as Armenian, allowing the applicant to seek citizenship through the simplified procedure.

The legislation would create a specialized commission to assess whether the evidence presented by an applicant is sufficient to establish Armenian ethnicity. Its powers and procedures would be set by the government.

Another change would determine exactly when a new citizen legally acquires Armenian citizenship.

A presidential decree granting citizenship would no longer be enough on its own. The decision would take effect only when the applicant signs the citizenship oath, which would have to be done in Armenia.

Applicants would have one year after the presidential decree to complete the oath. If they fail to do so, the decree would not take effect.

The ministry says some people have gone years without appearing for their oath ceremony after receiving approval, leaving authorities uncertain whether they still intended to become citizens. In some cases, the government said, officials could not rule out that the applicant had died.

The legislation would also make it harder for people who voluntarily give up Armenian citizenship to later reclaim it.

Anyone who renounces citizenship would have to wait five years before being eligible to restore it.

The ministry specifically cited cases involving parents who give up citizenship to terminate the Armenian citizenship of their male children or avoid or postpone mandatory military service obligations, then later seek to restore their status.

The government argues that citizenship should not be surrendered and reclaimed based on short-term circumstances.

Renunciation would carry the largest fee increase in the package, rising from 150,000 drams (about $400) to 1.5 million drams (about $4,000). The government says acquiring or giving up citizenship should not be treated as an ordinary administrative service because it creates or ends a long-term legal relationship between an individual and the state.

The legislation would also revise how authorities handle rejected citizenship applications, including cases involving national security.

State bodies recommending that an application be denied would have to substantiate their conclusions and identify the facts or risks behind them. Those could include threats to national or public security, public order, public health or the rights of others.

The full explanation, however, would not necessarily be disclosed to the applicant in the presidential decree denying citizenship.

The ministry says some rejections may rely on state secrets or other protected information whose disclosure could threaten national or public security. The underlying reasoning would instead have to be documented in the administrative case and the relevant authority’s conclusion.

The proposal would also reinforce the president’s discretion in granting citizenship. Courts would not be able to replace the president’s judgment with their own decision on whether citizenship should be granted.

Judicial oversight would remain in other areas. Courts could examine whether authorities followed the law, properly established the facts, stayed within the limits of their powers and used that discretion for its legally intended purpose.

The government also wants to abolish the interagency commission that currently reviews applications for acquiring and terminating citizenship. The ministry says the body rarely changes preliminary decisions and provides little practical value.

A separate, more specialized commission would instead focus specifically on determining whether applicants have sufficiently established Armenian ancestry.

Taken together, the changes would mark a significant shift in Armenia’s approach to citizenship. If adopted, Armenian ancestry or formal eligibility on paper would no longer necessarily be enough. Applicants would increasingly have to demonstrate that their connection to Armenia exists in practice as well.

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