Romania's acting Minister of Justice Catalin Predoiu calls on the people who want to obtain Romanian nationality to be patient and understanding. In an interview to Info-Prim Neo's correspondent in Bucharest, he said the Romanian citizenship regaining process will improve considerably in several months, when the National Citizenship Agency, which will start work in the second half of 2010, will process the applications within five months. According to the Romanian Ministry, the visible efforts to simplify the citizenship granting procedure made by the Government of Romania this year led to a substantial rise in the number of applications, but also to a significant increase in the number of processed applications – from 2,200 in 2007 to 20,000 in 2009. At the same time, after an Information Office was created in summer at the Citizenship Division of the Romanian Ministry of Justice, the workload increased significantly as there were also applications for information besides applications for citizenship. “Now the employees not only process files, but also have to answer the applications, asking for information about the situation of the files,” Catalin Predoiu said. “To provide a well-documented answer to an application for information, the employees must carry out a series of administrative procedures and this is a rather difficult process.” The amendments to the legislation made by the Romanian Parliament this spring oblige the Ministry of Justice to radically reform the Citizenship Division, as regards the number of employees and the internal procedures, so as to cope with the large number of applications. “The Ministry of Justice was among the promoters of the bill to modify the Citizenship Law, which fluidized the procedure for regaining Romanian citizenship,” Predoiu said. “We realized that the problem needs special attention and proposed creating an autonomous National Citizenship Agency that will work as part of the Ministry of Justice.” The Government of Romania earmarked money for founding the National Citizenship Agency in the draft state budget law for 2010. “I'm convinced that the Agency will be dealing with the applications for citizenship in the second half of next year,” Catalin Predoiu said.