רכישה מחדש (rifitimi) על ידי אזרחים לשעבר שהתנערו

A person who reacquires Albanian citizenship holds it on the same footing as a citizen who never lost it; Ligj 113/2020 attaches no diminished-rights status or waiting period to reacquired citizens. The defining status feature of this route is DUAL-NATIONALITY RETENTION. Albania has permitted multiple nationality since the predecessor statute: Ligj 8389/1998 Neni 3 provided that “Shtetasi shqiptar mundet të jetë edhe shtetas i një shteti tjetër” ( Ligj 8389/1998 Neni 3), and Ligj 113/2020 continues that line without any renunciation-of-foreign-nationality condition. The constitutional guarantee reinforces it: under Kushtetuta Neni 19(2) an Albanian citizen “nuk mund ta humbasë shtetësinë, përveçse kur ai heq dorë prej saj” — citizenship is lost only by the citizen’s own voluntary renunciation ( Kushtetuta Neni 19(2)) — so reacquiring Albanian citizenship neither requires nor causes loss of a nationality acquired in the interim. This is confirmed affirmatively, not merely by silence: Udhëzim 65/2021 kreu VI.2 is written expressly for the reacquirer who “ka fituar një shtetësi tjetër” and asks only for proof of the earlier Albanian renunciation, never for surrender of the new passport ( Udhëzim 65/2021 kreu VI pika 2). Historically the route serves the Albanian diaspora: rifitimi was designed for emigrants who had renounced Albanian citizenship to satisfy the single-nationality naturalisation rules of restrictive host states (for instance historical German and Austrian requirements) and who now wish to recover it while keeping the acquired nationality (Overlap Map, cross_border). Once the oath is sworn the reacquired citizen enjoys the ordinary bundle of Albanian civil and political rights; the KB records no route-specific restriction on the reacquired status beyond the general Neni 15 deprivation grounds applicable to all citizens alike.

Eligibility for rifitimi is defined by two gates: WHO may apply, and WHICH conditions they must meet. WHO — the route is renouncer-only: it opens only to a person who RENOUNCED Albanian citizenship (heqja dorë) and wishes to retake it, the trigger being “personi që ka hequr dorë” under Neni 13. This is a hard scope boundary: persons DEPRIVED of citizenship under Neni 15 have NO Neni 16 channel — Ligj 113/2020 contains no dedicated restoration route for deprivees, and Neni 23(2) likewise reaches only pre-2020 renouncers, so communist-era deprivees (Ligje 377/1946; Dekret 1874/1954) and modern Art 15 deprivees must instead use the ordinary acquisition routes such as Art 8 naturalisation or Neni 6 origin for their descendants. WHICH CONDITIONS — the applicant must satisfy ONLY Art 8(1)(a) age 18 (“ka mbushur moshën 18 (tetëmbëdhjetë) vjeç”), (b) legal capacity (“ka zotësi juridike për të vepruar”), (dh) no final conviction carrying at least 3 years’ imprisonment under Albanian law — measured across the applicant’s home state, Albania or any third state, with the sole carve-out where the conviction is shown to be politically motivated — and (ë) no threat to public order or national security ( Neni 8(1)(a),(b),(dh),(ë)). Letters (c) residence-plus-permanent-permit, (ç) housing, (d) income and (e) Albanian language-and-history are TEXTUALLY OMITTED and do not apply: there is NO residence requirement, NO permanent-residence permit, NO housing or income test and NO language or history examination for this route. Nor is there any requirement to renounce an acquired foreign nationality. Udhëzim 65/2021 kreu VI splits reacquirers into two documentary classes — VI.1 for the ex-citizen who did NOT acquire another nationality and VI.2 for the ex-citizen who DID — and VI.2, drafted expressly for the reacquirer who “ka hequr dorë nga shtetësia shqiptare dhe ka fituar një shtetësi tjetër”, asks only for “dokument i cili vërteton heqjen dorë nga shtetësia shqiptare” (proof of the earlier renunciation), never surrender of the new passport ( Udhëzim 65/2021 kreu VI pikat 1-2).

The reacquisition file runs through the ordinary acquisition procedure (Nenet 17-22), with one moving part — the FILING CHANNEL — that changed at 21.6.2024. In window W6a (14.10.2020–20.6.2024, original Art 17) applications for acquisition, reacquisition and renunciation were filed with the local responsible State Police structures of the applicant’s residence (Art 17(1)); a person resident abroad could lodge the renunciation/reacquisition request at the Albanian diplomatic mission or consular post of the state of residence (Art 17(2)). From 21.6.2024 (windows W6b/W6c), Ligj 77/2023 Neni 6 rewrote Art 17(1) so that the request addressed to the President “depozitohen online nëpërmjet platformës elektronike “e-albania”” ( Ligj 77/2023 Neni 6); the live service-code landscape shows 9627 fitim / 9635 lënie / 9763 rifitim-MPJ / 9764 lënie-MPJ, and consular intake continues for abroad-filed heqje dorë and rifitim, with the mission forwarding via the MFA within 15 days (Art 18(2), unchanged). The END-TO-END REVIEW CHAIN is unchanged across W6a–W6c: (1) the local State Police structure runs public-security verifications and forwards the file to the ministry within one month (Neni 18(1)); (2) the ministry reviews within six months and forwards the President a decree proposal (Neni 18(3)); (3) incomplete files are returned within 45 days with 15-day applicant notification (Neni 18(4)); (4) the President issues the decree within 60 days of the proposal (Neni 20(1)); (5) a copy goes to the Ministry of the Interior for civil-status action (Neni 20(2)); (6) the decree is published in the Fletorja Zyrtare (Neni 20(3)); and (7) every fitim/rifitim/lënie decree is entered in a special statistical register whose format is set by Udhëzim 66/2021 (Neni 20(4); Udhëzim 66/2021 pika 1). FEES: the application fee is 10,000 lekë in-country ( Udhëzim 271/2021 Shtojca 1(A)) or €30 for abroad-filed rifitim (Shtojca 1(B)), non-refundable on withdrawal (pika 4) and statutorily capped at the cost of the service (Art 17(3)); the decoded instrument refutes any 5,000-lekë figure and dates the 10,000-lekë level to 1.7.2021. DOCUMENTATION: the operative baseline is Udhëzim 65/2021 kreu VI, with foreign documents individually legalised, translated into Albanian, notarised and dated within the last six months (kreu VII pika 5). A currency caveat attaches to W6b/W6c — Ligj 77/2023 Neni 8 ordered a joint MoI+MFA documentation instruction within 15 days of 21.6.2024, and that instruction remains unlocated after an exhaustive probe, so W6b/W6c documentation is pinned to the decoded 65/2021 baseline (corroborated by live MEPJ/embassy pages) with no claim about the new instruction’s content.

Reacquisition (rifitimi) rests on a single operative provision. Ligj 113/2020 Neni 16 (“Rifitimi i shtetësisë”) provides that “Personi që ka hequr dorë nga shtetësia shqiptare dhe dëshiron ta rimarrë atë paraqet kërkesë për rifitimin e shtetësisë shqiptare sipas procedurës për fitimin e shtetësisë” ( Neni 16 fjalia 1). The article performs two operative moves: it fixes the trigger class narrowly to a person who executed voluntary renunciation (heqja dorë) under Neni 13, and it routes the request through the ordinary acquisition procedure while cutting the condition set to a reduced four-letter subset — “personi duhet të plotësojë kushtet e përcaktuara në shkronjat “a”, “b”, “dh” dhe “ë” të pikës 1 të nenit 8” ( Neni 16 fjalia 2). Those four conditions — (a) age 18, (b) legal capacity, (dh) no disqualifying final conviction, (ë) no public-order/national-security threat — form the cross-route reduced-conditions set that recurs across Ligj 113/2020: the (dh)+(ë) pair alone is imported by Neni 6(2) (origin) and by Art 8/a(4) (marriage, since 20.6.2026), while the a/b/dh/ë set governs rifitimi and the c/dh/ë set governs stateless naturalisation. CONSTITUTIONAL ANCHOR: Kushtetuta Neni 19(2) permits loss of Albanian citizenship only by voluntary renunciation — “Shtetasi shqiptar nuk mund ta humbasë shtetësinë, përveçse kur ai heq dorë prej saj” ( Kushtetuta Neni 19(2)) — which both explains why only renouncers can “reacquire” and forecloses any reading that would condition reacquisition on surrendering an acquired foreign nationality. Acquisition type: reacquisition. The provision has been continuously operative since 14.10.2020 and was left untouched by both later amending laws (Ligj 77/2023 and Ligj 49/2026), the only moving part being the Art 17 filing channel (see era_context).

DECISION-MAKER: the President of the Republic grants reacquisition by decree, issued within 60 days of the ministry’s proposal ( Neni 20(1)); a refusal, by contrast, is taken by administrative act of the Minister responsible for the interior (Neni 18(5)). PROPOSING/REVIEWING BODY: the citizenship structure within the Ministry of the Interior reviews the file within six months and forwards the President the decree proposal (Neni 18(3)). INTAKE AND SECURITY VERIFICATION: the local responsible State Police structures receive the in-country application and, within one month, run the public-security verifications before forwarding the file to the ministry (Neni 17(1) original; Neni 18(1);); Udhëzim 65/2021 kreu VIII confirms State Police intake of acquisition, reacquisition and renunciation applications. ABROAD CHANNEL: Albanian diplomatic missions and consular posts receive abroad-filed reacquisition (and renunciation) requests and forward them via the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, which transmits them to the ministry’s citizenship structure within 15 days (Neni 17(2); Neni 18(2), unchanged). ELECTRONIC PLATFORM: since 21.6.2024 the e-Albania platform is the statutory deposit channel ( Ligj 77/2023 Neni 6; rifitim service 9763 for the MFA/abroad route). OATH OFFICER: the mayor (kryetar i bashkisë) of the municipality of residence — or an authorised officer, or a consular post in the Neni 9 cases — administers the loyalty oath (Neni 21). RULE-MAKERS: documentation is set by ministerial udhëzim (Art 17(1)) and, for the abroad route, by a joint MoI+MFA instruction (Art 17(2); the Ligj 77/2023 Neni 8 successor instruction is unlocated); the service fee is set by the joint MoI+Ministry of Finance instruction Udhëzim 271/2021 (Art 17(3)); the statistical-register format is set by Udhëzim 66/2021 (Neni 20(4)). JUDICIAL REVIEW: the Administrative Court of First Instance Tirana hears appeals against a non-acceptance act (Neni 19/1, from 21.6.2024).

PRIMARY (decoded verbatim from the native Albanian corpus).: Ligj 113/2020 “Për shtetësinë”, Fletorja Zyrtare Nr. 174/2020 — the OPERATIVE statute (Nenet 6, 8, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26).: Kushtetuta e Republikës së Shqipërisë, consolidated (Neni 19).: Ligj 77/2023, FZ Nr. 95/2024 — amends Art 17 (Neni 6, e-Albania), adds Art 19/1 (Neni 7) and orders the joint documentation instruction (Neni 8); entered into force 21.6.2024.: Udhëzim 65/4.2.2021 — documentation for fitim/heqje dorë/rifitim (kreu VI = rifitim; kreu VII-VIII form and intake).: Udhëzim 197/12.4.2021 — amends only kreu V.: Udhëzim 271/1.7.2021 (MoI+MoF) — service tariffs, 10,000 lekë in-country / €30 consular, non-refundable, cost-capped.: Udhëzim 66/4.2.2021 — statistical register (Neni 20(4)).: Ligj 8389/1998 — predecessor statute, dual-nationality lineage (Neni 3).: Ligj 49/2026 — repeals Art 8(3), inserts Art 8/a, restructures Neni 9; entered into force 20.6.2026.: Ligj 49/2012 — administrative-courts framework underpinning the Neni 18(5)/Neni 19/1 appeal. EVIDENCE ASSERTIONS:,,,. Every statutory quotation placed in this document was verified verbatim against the decoded primary files. This is a knowledge-base synthesis, not legal advice; verify the live e-Albania service state and the (unlocated) post-21.6.2024 joint documentation instruction before reliance.