From January to August 12,927 persons have applied for Slovene citizenship

Ljubljana, 21 August - From January 1, to August 1, of this year, a total of 12,927 persons have applied for Slovene citizenship. Of these applications, 8,565 have already been resolved, while 4,362 are still being processed, said the director of the Board for Administrative and Legal Matters, mg.Slavko Debelak. The structure of the already processed applications shows that the majority of applicants were Croatian citizens, (i.e. 4,315 persons), 1,933 were from BiH, 1.720 were from Serbia, 347 from Macedonia and 250 of the applicants were Montenegrins. About 290,000 of the permanent residents registered in Slovenia do not have Slovene citizenship. Of these, 149,000 declared themselves as Yugoslavs during the last population census - among these also a fair number of Slovenes. The Board for Administrative and Legal Matters expects more than half of these Slovenes will opt for Slovene citizenship. Around 100 applications for Slovene citizenship arrive daily, so that the real rush will be in September, but the Board is well staffed and well prepared in general. The final date for application is December 25, 1991, so that all who will not have sent an application by that date will have the status of foreign citizens from December 26th onwards. For these, Article 10 of the Citizenship Law will apply, meaning, that they will have to fulfil the 8 conditions stipulated therein prior to receiving Slovene citizenship. Otherwise, until the 25th of December (inclusively), anyone who is registered as and has also in fact been a permanent resident of the Republic of Slovenia since the 23rd of December 1990 is eligible to obtain Slovene citizenship upon application.