The Missing Notarized Consent for a Minor's Passport
A Ukrainian mother and her 14-year-old son have lived in Varna for three years on a long-term residence permit. She now applies for Bulgarian citizenship by naturalization. She meets the residence requirement and passes the language interview. The child's father remains in Ukraine; the parents divorced in 2019, and the Ukrainian court awarded the mother full custody. The mother submits the divorce decree and a custody certificate, but no notarized paternal consent for the child's Bulgarian citizenship. The child was born in 2011 and has held a Ukrainian passport since 2019. The mother argues that because she has sole custody, the father's consent is unnecessary. The caseworker must decide whether the application can proceed for both applicants or only the mother, and what additional document, if any, is required.
1. May the caseworker accept the application for the minor without the father's notarized consent, given the sole-custody decree? Explain the legal reasoning.
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No. Under the Bulgarian Citizenship Act, a minor acquires Bulgarian citizenship by naturalization only with the consent of both parents, expressed in a notarized declaration. A foreign custody decree does not automatically substitute for that consent. The caseworker should not treat the Ukrainian decree as equivalent to a waiver of the father's parental rights. The correct step is to request a notarized, apostilled declaration of consent from the father, translated into Bulgarian by a certified translator. If the father refuses or cannot be located, the mother may seek a Bulgarian court decision establishing that consent is impossible or contrary to the child's best interests. Until then, only the mother's application can be processed; the child's file stays open but incomplete.
2. What happens if the father's consent arrives after the statutory processing period for the mother's application has ended?
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The two applications are separate files with separate decision dates. The mother's naturalization can be completed once her requirements are met, even if the child's file is still pending. The child's application does not expire merely because the parent's application is decided. If the consent arrives late, the authority assesses it against the file as it stands and issues a separate decision for the minor. The caseworker should record the late submission and avoid closing the child's file for a missing document that has since been supplied.