From now on, Ukrainians forcibly deported to the Russian Federation can issue a certificate for return to Ukraine
Today, the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has entered into force, which approves the Procedure for the implementation of an experimental project on the registration and issuance of an identity card for return to Ukraine on the territory of Ukraine. This Government resolution was adopted on October 21, 2022.
As a result of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, more than one million fellow citizens were forcibly deported, displaced or removed from the occupied territories to the Russian Federation. Documents certifying their identity and confirming their citizenship of Ukraine were seized, stolen or destroyed from these people. As a rule, it is because of this that they continue to stay in Russia and are deprived of the opportunity to return to the territory controlled by the Ukrainian government. Under such conditions, these people actually found themselves outside the legal field of Ukraine.
Implementation of the experimental project initiated by the DMS of Ukraine will help fellow citizens, as well as stateless persons who have permanently resided in Ukraine and subjected to forced displacement, to be identified and get a chance to return to the territory of Ukraine.
The procedure also provides that the issuance and transfer of certificates for return to Ukraine for persons who have been forcibly removed to the territory of the aggressor state and have lost their documents can be carried out without their personal presence, but only at the request of their close persons, legal representatives or the Ministry of Reintegration.
How will this happen?
Identity card for return to Ukraine will be issued to persons whose information is in the Unified State Demographic Register or the information systems of the SMS. And also to children, regardless of whether there is information about them in the relevant registers.
To do this, one of the parents or another legal representative (for a person under the age of 18), and for an adult person - a family member (one of the parents, spouse, adult child, relative (adult, minor) brother/sister) will need to contact the territorial body of the DMS.
The information provided will be checked by DMS employees according to the State Register of Civil Status Acts of Citizens. If the deported person does not have relatives in Ukraine or they cannot apply to the DMS unit due to their stay in the occupied territory, a certificate for the return of the person may be issued upon official request of the Ministry of Reintegration to the SMS.
The decision to issue an identity card for return to Ukraine will be made by the relevant DMS unit based on the results of identity identification, verification of the fact of belonging to Ukrainian citizenship or recognition as a stateless person in Ukraine and verification of information submitted by a legal representative, family member or Ministry of Reintegration.
Issuance of the certificate will be carried out free of charge within five working days from the date of submission of the application form of the established form. The validity of the document is up to three months.
The State Migration Service of Ukraine will do everything possible to make this experimental project successful. So that people who were forcibly taken to the Russian Federation get a chance to return home, even without having passport documents with them.
State Migration Service of Ukraine
