Indicator history

Regularization of legal status in Slovenia is possible under a law which was adopted for people who have been unlawfully deprived of their legal status in 1992 after the independence of Slovenia (the so-called ‘erased people’).

The erased people: In accordance with Article 40 of the Citizenship of the Republic of Slovenia Act, in 1991 all citizens of other republics of the former SFRY who had permanent residence in Slovenia on 23 December 1990 (the day of the referendum of independence) and de facto resided in Slovenia had the right to apply for citizenship under more lenient conditions in a six-month deadline. Those who had not applied or their application was refused, were also erased from the registry of permanent residents. Even though the majority of them resided in Slovenia for many years or even decades, they were considered immigrants staying on the territory of Slovenia without any legal status and were expected to regulate their status anew. This group later became known as the ‘erased’ people.

In 1999, the Constitutional Court found that the erasure was unlawful as it was carried out without any legal basis. The Constitutional Court also prohibited deportations of the erased people until their status is resolved. Following the Constitutional Court decision, a 1999 Act Regulating the Legal Status of Citizens of Former Yugoslavia Living in the Republic of Slovenia (hereinafter Legal Status Act) was passed, providing those erased who could prove that they de facto lived in Slovenia from the erasure onwards to apply for permanent residence status under more lenient conditions than those generally in place in the Aliens Act.

In addition, the Legal Status Act did not recognize the right to apply for permanent residence permit under more lenient conditions only to those who were registered as permanent residents on 23 December 1990, but also to those who were only de facto living in Slovenia at the time of independence and have continued to de facto live in Slovenia ever since.

In 2003, the Constitutional Court declared parts of the Legal Status Act unconstitutional. It took seven years for this Constitutional Court decision to be implemented by both the Ministry of Interior and the National Assembly. In 2010 the amendments to the 1999 Legal Status Act have been enacted, providing for a possibility for the erased people who were absent from Slovenia to regulate their permanent residence status under strict conditions. This act also still provides an opportunity to obtain a permanent residence permit for all those people who are de fact living in Slovenia without interruption since the independence onwards.

Those who manage to receive a permanent residence permit under this law, have the right to access the labour market and the right to social assistance under the same conditions as nationals of Slovenia.
 

Source:

Zakon o urejanju statusa državljanov drugih držav naslednic SFRJ v. Republiki Sloveniji (Act Regulating the Legal Status of Citizens of Former Yugoslavia Living in the Republic of Slovenia), Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 61/1999 and 50/2010.

Kogovšek Šalamon, Migration Law in Slovenia, IEL, Kluwer Law International, 2011.