Acquire Citizenship of Armenia

The rapid economic and social development of Armenia makes an increasing number of foreign nationals turn their eyes to the country. The Armenian authorities welcome foreigners to apply for legal residence and full citizenship of the country. There are several ways to acquire citizenship of Armenia and we discuss them below.

You do not have to renounce your present citizenship when acquiring an Armenian passport: the country does not have anything against dual citizenship. Offshore Pro Group will be delighted to assist you in applying for citizenship of Armenia. The cost of the service starts at 600 EUR and the ultimate cost will depend on the amount of paperwork that needs to be done in each particular case.

Citizenship of Armenia for ethnic Armenians living abroad

Ethnic Armenians living in foreign countries are eligible to apply for citizenship of Armenia. It does not matter if they emigrated from Armenia before or they were born outside the country. However, the applicant for Armenian citizenship by descent has to provide conclusive proof of having Armenian roots. That means that even if you are fluent in Armenian and have an Armenian name, you won’t be able to obtain an Armenian passport without the papers. You have to supply one of the following documents:

• An official document that certifies your Arminian origins such as a birth certificate, for example;
• A baptismal certificate from an Armenian church;
• Some family records that certify your Armenian ethnicity.

The Armenian Citizenship Act does not actually specify the types of documents that may serve to confirm your Armenian ethnicity. For instance, if there is an Armenian expat community in the country where you live, you might be able to obtain a certification document from its officials. In this case, the document needs to be legalized at the Armenian embassy in your country of residence.

Citizenship of Armenia by marriage

One more method of acquiring citizenship of Armenia is by marrying a citizen of the country. If your husband or wife is an Armenian national, you can qualify for citizenship of the country if one of the following conditions is satisfied:

• You have been in marriage for at least two years and you have spent at least half of this time on the territory of Armenia; or
• You have a common child that is registered as an Armenian citizen.

When you apply for citizenship of Armenia by marriage, you have to pass a test that will demonstrate your knowledge of the Armenian Constitution. The test contains 33 questions and you have to give correct answers to at least 17 of them to pass it. Normally, the test will be in the Armenian language but this condition does not have to be satisfied. You can take the test in English or some other national language. Alternatively, you can use the services of a certified translator.

If you would like to avoid the red tape, the possible pitfalls, and waste of time, please apply for our professional assistance in acquiring citizenship of Armenia.

Citizenship of Armenia by residence

You can also acquire citizenship of Armenia if you permanently live in the country for at least three years (you stay there has to be legal, of course). Again, there are no specifications in the Armenian legislation concerning ‘permanent residence’ in the country. That is to say, the law does not indicate how much time exactly you have to spend in Armenia over the three-year period to classify as a permanent resident. What is important is having a place to stay in the country.

Similarly to acquiring citizenship of Armenia by marriage, those applying for citizenship of the country by residence have to take the test described above. Because your application for citizenship of Armenia by residence might be rejected due to the unclear regulations, we recommend that you apply for our assistance. We will look into your personal situation, inspect the application documents that you are planning to submit and tell you if you are going to qualify for Armenian citizenship or not. 

Citizenship of Armenia by investment

You can also be awarded citizenship of Armenia for some ‘extraordinary services’. Now an investment into the country’s economy can be considered an extraordinary service in Armenia. This is the fastest way of acquiring Armenian citizenship as all the bureaucratic procedures are going to be minimized.

A foreign investor is entitled to submit the application documents directly to the Prime Minister’s office without having to go through any preliminary procedures at the immigration service. Here are some additional advantages of this path to citizenship of Armenia:

• The applicant is not required to take any tests.
• The applicant does not have to speak Armenian.
• There will be no inspections on the part of the Armenian immigration authorities who wish to ascertain that the immigrant complies with the requirements in other cases.

We know of some cases when citizenship of Armenia has been denied to people from the Middle East and some African and Asian countries. Citizens of Iran and Iraq in particular face serious challenges when applying for citizenship of Armenia. Nevertheless, our team has been successful in helping an Iranian national to acquire Armenian citizenship. He made a considerable investment in the country’s economy and created several new jobs in the country, which made the Armenian authorities well-disposed to him. Please apply for our professional assistance in acquiring citizenship of Armenia if you are interested in this opportunity.

Acquiring citizenship of Armenia: state duties involved

Let us tell you what state duties a foreign applicant for Armenian citizenship has to pay. If you look at the table below, you will notice that the duties are negligible.

State duties

Procedure/ document	State duty
Application for citizenship submission	1,000 Armenian Drams (AMD) (2 USD)
Normal passport	1,000 AMD (2 USD)
Biometric passport	25,000 AMD (52 USD)
Identification card	3,000 AMD (6 USD)
Address registration	1,000 AMD (2 USD)
Accelerated issuance of the passport or the ID	On the next business day	20,000 AMD (42 USD)
	Within three business days	10,000 AMD (21 USD)
	Within five business days	5,000 AMD (10 USD)

What steps do you have to take to acquire citizenship of Armenia?

The standard procedure of acquiring Armenian citizenship looks as follows (please mind that the steps in the procedure will depend on the individual situation of each applicant so some deviations are possible):

• Submission of the application for citizenship to the passport office *;
• Test in Armenian Constitution;
• Application processing by the police authorities, national security service, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Citizenship Committee at the President’s Office (4 to 6 months);
• If the application is approved – a visit to Armenia to pick your passport;
• Registration with the military authorities (applicable to male applicants below 50 years of age);
• Application for a biometric passport (if you wish);
• Oath of allegiance, issuance of the passport.

*You can file an application for Armenian citizenship at the Armenian embassy in your home country too. In this case, however, the application processing is going to take longer as the documents will have to travel to Armenia and back.

Now let us see how much time each procedure is going to take:

*Please note that male citizens of Armenia between 18 and 26 years of age have to do military service in the country unless they are unfit for medical reasons. You might want to consider applying for Armenian citizenship after you turn 27. In this case, you can be called to duty only if Armenia enters a military conflict.   

When your Armenian passport is ready, you will be notified of that in any case and you can make an appointment to receive the passport.

Read about other opportunities available in Armenia

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Citizenship of Armenia: main advantages

First of all, the Armenian passport will give you access to some countries hardly accessible with the passport of a western country such as Russia, Iran, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, for instance). Armenian nationals need visas to visit the EU/ Schengen zone countries but the local Government is counting on making a visa-free travel agreement with the Schengen group by 2023. We must note here that Armenians qualify for a ten-year Type B visa to the USA as well as an E2 investor visa to the country.

Some other advantages of holding an Armenian passport include the following ones:

• You can find employment in any EAEU (Eurasian Economic Union) country if you have an Armenian passport.
• You can keep your present citizenship as dual citizenship is allowed in Armenia.
• Your family members will also qualify for Armenian citizenship after you acquire the passport. They don’t have to live in Armenia to be citizens of the country.
• The process of acquiring Armenian citizenship is fast and inexpensive. If you file an application for citizenship in Armenia, you will normally not have to wait for more than five months. No police clearance is required to apply for citizenship of Armenia, no tax declaration, no registered address, and so on. A Curriculum Vita will suffice.
• Citizens of Armenia are entitled to purchase agricultural lands (non-citizens are not).
• You will be eligible for all social support programs available in Armenia.
• The crime rates in Armenia are extremely low. If there is trouble in your home country, you can easily relocate to Armenia with your family and find peace and quiet there.
• You will be entitled to take a public office in Armenia, elect and be elected.

A citizen of Armenia is free to renounce his/ her citizenship of the country without any explanations. If you want to do so, you have to have no unfulfilled obligations to the Armenian Government.