Citizenship Request Process Amendment | The Versutian Federation

Ghostopolis
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Citizenship Request Process Amendment Dec 17, 2018 2:06:16 GMT

Post by Ghostopolis on Dec 17, 2018 2:06:16 GMT

CITIZENSHIP REQUEST PROCESS AMENDMENT

A Regional Code Amendment to refine the citizenship process by implementing a formal request and removal process.

1. Chapter 1, Clauses 2 and 3 of the Legal Code shall be amended to read:

2. All residents of The Versutian Federation may apply for citizenship in the region ~~by creating a forum account~~ using their forum account, by stating their nation in The Versutian Federation and requesting to be made a citizen.

3. ~~Any citizen who leaves the region for longer than one day; ceases to exist for longer than one day; or is so ordered by the Court will have their status as a citizen revoked.~~

2. The following clauses shall be inserted into Chapter 1 of the Legal Code, and all subsequent clauses shall be renumerated accordingly:

3. The Minister of Immigration will be responsible for verifying the residency of all applicants during the citizenship request process and monitoring the residency of existing citizens, and may request the assistance of the other Regional Officers in executing this duty.

4. Forum Administration will be responsible for verifying the unique identity of all applicants' forum accounts so that no individual has more than one forum account, is evading a ban or judicial punishment, or is utilizing a proxy.

5. Requests for citizenship will be invalid if at any time prior to being made a citizen the applicant's nation no longer resides in The Versutian Federation, Forum Administration cannot verify their unique identity, their citizenship was previously revoked by the Court and the revocation has not yet expired, or they are part of a region at war with The Versutian Federation.

6. If an applicant's request is not deemed invalid for any of the preceding reasons, and the applicant has been a continuous resident of The Versutian Federation for at least one week since arriving or returning to the region, the Minister of Immigration will promptly approve the request.

7. The Minister of Immigration will promptly inform Parliament whenever an applicant's request is approved or rejected and initiate all procedures needed to update that applicant's status and roles in the region.

8. Any citizen who leaves the region for longer than one day; ceases to exist for longer than one day; or is so ordered by the Court will have their status as a citizen revoked.

9. The Minister of Immigration will promptly inform Parliament whenever an individual's citizenship lapses and initiate all procedures needed to update that individual's status and roles in the region.

10. In the event an individual's lack of residency would have triggered revocation of citizenship but the Minister of Immigration did not inform Parliament before residency was re-established, that individual's citizenship will be considered to have remained in effect without lapse.

Last Edit: Dec 24, 2018 21:54:40 GMT by Asairia

Ghostopolis
Speaker

Discord Administrator

Posts: 116

Citizenship Request Process Amendment Dec 17, 2018 2:13:02 GMT

Post by Ghostopolis on Dec 17, 2018 2:13:02 GMT

This looks like a lot, but it really isn't. Instead of citizenship automatically being granted if someone makes an account and is here for at least a week, this amendment does two big things: it makes citizenship something that must be specifically sought out by someone, and it puts to rest any confusion about how to handle shared or dubious accounts. Everything else is just explicitly outlining things that are already required. Residency is more carefully contemplated, and the Minister of Immigration is now the officer primarily responsible for handling all of this. I like this change because it finally gives the MoI some concrete duties aside from the amorphous, always difficult matter of recruitment to the region. In addition to residency and admin identity concerns, I made sure to include Court rulings explicitly and added a provision for regions at war with TVF. This is the only security-related block that is in the amendment. Some regions have an extra layer that allows them to block entry of dangerous individuals, usually with additional oversight. I don't believe we need that much here, but if that's something that interests any of you, we can try drafting an additional clause for that.

Finally, I added an explicit clause about what happens if someone should have lost citizenship but didn't and we find out too late. It is now explicitly the case that if that happens, the person is safe, so long as their state of being ineligible does not continue after being discovered. Communication is now required for these things, in the formal person of the MoI. The original provisions for lapsed citizenship remain and no additional ones have been added.

Asairia
Unverified Member

Posts: 283

Citizenship Request Process Amendment Dec 17, 2018 3:31:40 GMT

Post by Asairia on Dec 17, 2018 3:31:40 GMT

The Speaker has scheduled this proposal. Discussion shall end on Friday the 21st.

Delegate: January 8, 2019-May 23, 2019
Interim Delegate: December 29, 2018-January 8, 2019 (10 days)
Acting Delegate: December 28-29, 2018; (2 days)
Speaker: April 2, 2018-January 8. 2019 (3.25 terms = 9 months, 6 days)
President: October 7, 2016-April 2, 2018 (6 consecutive terms = 17 months)
Minister of Immigration: August 2-October 2, 2016 (2 terms = 2 months)
Vice Minister of Immigration: June 24-August 2, 2016 (1 Month and 9 Days)

Helvurium
Unverified Member

Posts: 36

Citizenship Request Process Amendment Dec 17, 2018 20:21:54 GMT

Post by Helvurium on Dec 17, 2018 20:21:54 GMT

Clause 10 causes some confusion for me. Does this mean that unless the MoI informs Parliament about someone not meeting the citizenship requirements anymore they continue to be a citizen?

I don't think that should be the case, if so. The citizenship process should be fairly automatic with the masking and changing of roles being formalities.

"It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Ghostopolis
Speaker

Discord Administrator

Posts: 116

Citizenship Request Process Amendment Dec 17, 2018 23:08:05 GMT via mobile

Post by Ghostopolis on Dec 17, 2018 23:08:05 GMT

Dec 17, 2018 20:21:54 GMT Helvurium said:

Clause 10 causes some confusion for me. Does this mean that unless the MoI informs Parliament about someone not meeting the citizenship requirements anymore they continue to be a citizen?

I don't think that should be the case, if so. The citizenship process should be fairly automatic with the masking and changing of roles being formalities.

And how will you automate it? Human error is a result of a system that requires the actions of human beings. The alternative is a bot which I haven’t seen any forum use for this sort of thing. Not saying it can’t be done but, it would need to be developed. If you don’t do that, then the only other option I can think of is revoking citizenship retroactively even if the person has residency. At that point you’re just forcing them to jump through hoops for no reason except to be punitive.

Government officials have jobs to do and some of them do those jobs better than others. If the MoI drops the ball, that’s what happens. You can hold them accountable for that, but I don’t agree you have to hold the person who benefited from that mistake accountable. It just seems pointless to me.

I took one last look at your remarks and another thought occurred to me. If you meant automatic to refer to someone taking it upon themselves to do this without announcement, that would involve changing an earlier clause, not clause 10. The MoI can enlist the help of the other officers to check residency, but only he or his deputy can actually trigger the removal of citizenship under this law as written. This is because residency checks and citizenship matters are being explicitly delegated to the MoI just as the other two officers have duties delegates to them. This amendment is also seeking to finally put to rest the question of who is responsible for this. If this is what you meant when you said “automatic” I would point out that even then it still isn’t automatic. Someone has to click the buttons.