A total of 81,500 foreigners have applied for Romanian citizenship in 2015, the number being almost four times higher than the one registered in 2014, of nearly 21,000, according to the president of the National Citizenship Authority (ANC).

Moreover, the upward trend continues in 2016, with 52,000 applications already being registered in the first six months of the year, reports local Mediafax.

Most of those who have applied for reacquisition of citizenship are Moldovan citizens, followed by Israelis, while citizens of Arab countries filed most of the applications for naturalization.

“The average rate of rejection is about 10% or less,” said the ANC president.

On average, the procedure for obtaining citizenship takes about one year in Romania.

On the other hand, a total of 24,300 Romanians got citizenship of other EU state in 2014, according to recent data from EU’s statistical office Eurostat. Most Romanians (26.5% of the total of 24,300) got Italian citizenship, while 25.5% acquired Hungarian citizenship, and 10.7% got German citizenship.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com