The two figures represent different legal procedures. The first group was admitted to Uzbek citizenship through presidential decrees, while the second group had their citizenship formally recognized under procedures introduced for stateless people permanently residing in Uzbekistan.
Since December 2016, 117 presidential decrees have granted Uzbek citizenship to a total of 25,339 stateless people.
In 2020, Uzbekistan also introduced a procedure for recognizing the citizenship of stateless people who permanently reside in the country.
Under this procedure, authorities have reviewed the documents of 66,189 people across three categories and issued them Uzbek passports or ID cards.
The first category covers 24,456 people who moved to Uzbekistan and registered for permanent residence before January 1, 1995. Their documents were reviewed, and they were issued Uzbek citizen passports or ID cards.
The second category includes 22,692 people who moved to Uzbekistan and registered for permanent residence before January 1, 2005, and had never held citizenship of another country. They were issued Uzbek ID cards.
The third category covers 19,041 people who had lived permanently in Uzbekistan for at least 15 years without holding citizenship of another country during that period. It also includes children living in Uzbekistan whose parent has been recognized as an Uzbek citizen, provided they have not acquired citizenship of another country. Following review of their applications, these people were issued Uzbek identification ID cards.
Taken together, the three recognition categories account for 66,189 people whose Uzbek citizenship was formally recognized and who were documented with Uzbek identification documents.
The authorities are currently processing applications from 1,795 people seeking Uzbek citizenship in accordance with established legal procedures. Of these, 401 have applied for recognition of their Uzbek citizenship.
