A public petition launched by a company providing legal consultancy on Romanian identification papers in the Republic of Moldova, JustConsult, will be transmitted to the Romanian authorities, in particular the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for seeking the restoration of reasonable timeframes for providing consular services on the territory of the Republic of Moldova, similar to those offered until March 16, 2020, when a state of emergency was declared nationwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The authors ask to restore the normal work program at the Consular Offices of Romania in Chisinau, Bălți and Cahul. Up to this moment, the petition was signed by over 1,600 persons online and by more than 500 persons physically, IPN reports.

The petition says over 70,000 Moldovans have waited for a year to have appointments at Romania’s Consular Offices in the Republic of Moldova scheduled because the online appointment making and application examination system works with difficulty.  Following the declaring of a state of emergency, Romania’s Consular Offices didn’t work between from March 16, 2020 and July 27, 2020. Later, these gradually resumed work, but according to a reduced program. In the period, the National Citizenship Authority of Romania issued 410 orders concerning the provision of Romanian nationality to 70,712 persons. Most of these persons have the domicile in the Republic of Moldova and they could not take an oath of allegiance within six months according to the principle of territoriality, as the law provides.

As a result, tens of thousands of persons have waited for over a year to be issued with invitations to take an oath. For applying for an ordinary electronic passport for adult Romanian citizens with the domicile abroad, depending on the Consular Office, an appointment can be scheduled during a period of four to nine months.

The petition suggests implementing the mixt regime of scheduling appointments for consular services, increasing the number of competent employees of the Consular Office so as to accept applications to make appointments and to also serve citizens who come to the Office in person, hastening the opening of the new Consulate General of Romania in the municipality of Chisinau, holding oath taking ceremonies in the open air, in the yards of Consular Offices.

The petition can be signed online and physically inside the central office of JustConsult.