Belarus · Citizenship by naturalisation
Citizenship by naturalisation
Open
Last verified August 2026
Open under Article 14 of the Law on Citizenship of 1 August 2002, as amended. The residence requirement is five years, cut from seven by a later amendment. Decisions are made by the President.
Five years is short, and the reduction from seven in 2020 was a real liberalisation. But this is the rare naturalisation on this site that costs you something structural rather than just time and money: you give up the passport you have. For almost every family that reads this, that alone decides it.
Qualifying routes
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Five years of continuous permanent residence
Counted from the grant of the permanent residence permit, with absences of no more than 90 days in any calendar year.
The facts
- Total landed cost
- State duties and document costs. The real price of this route is the renunciation of your existing citizenship.
- Route type
- By residence
- Timeline
- 1–2 years (After the five years of permanent residence. The decision rests with the President, which makes the outer timeline difficult to predict.)
- Physical presence
- Five continuous years on a permanent residence permit, with no absence longer than 90 days in any calendar year.
- Family
- Spouse, on their own qualifying residenceMinor children with a parent
- Permanent residency
- The permanent permit is the prerequisite. It comes either after seven years of temporary residence or directly on an Article 53 ground such as the investment route.
- Citizenship
- Five years of continuous permanent residence, knowledge of Belarusian or Russian, respect for the Constitution, and the resolution of your existing citizenship.
- Language test
- Yes — one of the state languages, to the level needed for communication.
- Dual citizenship
- Belarus does not recognise dual citizenship. Article 14 requires the applicant to hold no other citizenship, or to lose it on acquiring Belarusian citizenship, or to have applied to the foreign authority for its termination. A handful of exceptions exist by presidential decision; they are not a plan.
- Requirements
- five years of continuous permanent residence, with no absence over 90 days in a calendar yearknowledge of Belarusian or Russianno other citizenship, or its loss or formal renunciationa lawful source of income and respect for the Constitution
What can go wrong
- RENUNCIATION IS THE POINT OF THE ROUTE, NOT A FORMALITY. You must have no other citizenship, lose it on acquisition, or at minimum have formally applied to give it up.
- Naturalised citizenship can be withdrawn. The 2020 amendments to Article 19 allow loss of citizenship for naturalised and restored citizens on the basis of a Belarusian court verdict, a foreign criminal court decision or an international tribunal ruling confirming participation in extremist activity or serious harm to the interests of Belarus. Citizens by birth are not exposed to it. The provision has been used against political opponents abroad and it carries a real risk of statelessness.
- Since Decree No. 278 of 4 September 2023, Belarusian passports are no longer issued or extended at embassies and consulates. A citizen abroad whose passport expires has to return to Belarus, or apply through the consular department, to replace it. For anyone who might one day be reluctant to enter the country, that is a serious constraint on the value of the passport.
- Renunciation of Belarusian citizenship is itself granted by presidential decision and is refused where the applicant has outstanding obligations to the state, including taxes and military service, or is a defendant in criminal proceedings.
- The passport is weak by regional standards: roughly 78 visa-free destinations, below every neighbouring country.