Sri Lanka will once again grant dual citizenship to expatriate Sri Lankans, the Ministry of Defence announced on Wednesday.

Civil Defence and Development Additional Secretary Damayanthi Jayaratne said that the government would introduce a dual citizenship system that would be applicable to citizens of 10 countries.

Sri Lankans living in the US, Canada, Switzerland, France, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Norway, Sweden and Italy will be permitted to request for dual citizenship in this category. The new “hassle free” system allows Sri Lankan expatriates to apply for the dual citizenship immediately.

“Because of numerous requests received from Sri Lankans living abroad to settle here to launch business ventures, President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defence Secretary Gotabhya Rajapaksa have instructed that a hassle-free system be implemented,” said Jayaratne.

According to the previous system, only Sri Lankans who have been living abroad for five years were eligible to apply for dual citizenship. The latest system, however, allows Sri Lankans to get their dual citizenship immediately after submitting relevant documents from the respective diplomatic missions in the countries where they reside, and facing an interview.

The dual citizenship status was introduced in 1988 with a fee of 5,000 rupees which was hiked up to 200,000 rupees in later years.  The current government scrapped the dual citizenship system four years ago after the end of the country’s three decade-long civil war, but continued to receive a spate of inquiries about the status of the facility.
(Khaleej Times)