Naturalização por casamento

ME-MAR-01 is naturalization by marriage (prijem brakom) under Art 11 of the Law on Montenegrin Citizenship — the spousal admission route for the foreign husband or wife of a Montenegrin citizen. It is a lex specialis to the ordinary-naturalization route (Art 8): it borrows Art 8's machinery but applies only a reduced SUBSET of the eight baseline conditions and substitutes a shorter, marriage-specific residence threshold. Who qualifies: a person who (a) has been married to a Montenegrin citizen for at least three years AND (b) has resided in Montenegro legally and continuously for at least five years before applying, provided he or she also meets Art 8(1) conditions 1, 4, 5 and 7 (age 18; secured accommodation and income; no disqualifying conviction; no security/defence obstacle). Decisively, the marriage route does NOT require release from the prior citizenship (Art 8(1)(2) is omitted) and does NOT require the Montenegrin-language test (Art 8(1)(6) is omitted) — the two heaviest practical burdens of ordinary naturalization. The route also reaches the surviving spouse: Art 11(2) extends it to a person who was married to a Montenegrin citizen for at least three years where the marriage ended by death of the spouse (widow/widower). Within the broader framework — Art 4's four acquisition modes (origin, birth, admission, treaty) — ME-MAR-01 sits in the admission (prijem) family alongside the emigrant route (Art 10), the extraordinary state-interest grant (Art 12), and the refugee/stateless routes (Arts 13-14). It is materially lighter than Art 8 on conditions but is policed strictly on residence: the apex case law construes the five-year residence as five years of PERMANENT residence, not merely five years of any lawful stay. The route is operative today and its 3-year-marriage / 5-year-residence thresholds are stable across the full amendment cascade.

Governing provision: Art 11 of the Law on Montenegrin Citizenship, with Art 17 (Government criteria delegation) and the Odluka o kriterijumima supplying the meaning of 'legal continuous residence'. The native operative text, reproduced verbatim by the Constitutional Court in U-III 1363/19, reads: 'Lice koje je u braku sa crnogorskim drzavljaninom najmanje tri godine i zakonito i neprekidno boravi u Crnoj Gori najmanje pet godina prije podnosenja zahtjeva za prijem u crnogorsko drzavljanstvo, moze steci crnogorsko drzavljanstvo prijemom ako ispunjava uslove iz clana 8 stav 1 tac. 1, 4, 5 i 7 ovog zakona.' (Art 11(1)). Art 11(2): 'Odredbe stava 1 ovog clana odnose se i na lice koje je bilo u braku sa crnogorskim drzavljaninom najmanje tri godine, a brak je prestao smrcu bracnog druga.' (the widow/widower extension). Art 11(3): 'Zakoniti i neprekidni boravak lica iz stava 1 ovog clana utvrdjuje se prema kriterijumima propisanim aktom iz clana 17 ovog zakona.' — i.e. residence is determined by the Art 17 bylaw criteria (the Odluka o kriterijumima, Sl. list CG 47/08.. 15/22), whose Art 2 ties 'legal residence' to permanent residence (stalno nastanjenje). The incorporated Art 8(1) conditions, in EN, are: (1) age 18; (4) secured accommodation and a permanent income source enabling material and social security; (5) no unconditional prison sentence over one year for an ex-officio offence (or consequences ceased); (7) no obstacles for reasons of security and defence. By deliberate omission, Art 11 does NOT incorporate Art 8(1)(2) (release from prior citizenship), Art 8(1)(3) (the 10-year residence — replaced by the 5-year marriage figure), Art 8(1)(6) (language), or Art 8(1)(8) (tax). Amendment history: the marriage route is part of the 2008 Law (Sl. list CG 13/2008) and its 3-year/5-year thresholds are unchanged across 40/2010, 28/2011, 46/2011, 20/2014 (a Constitutional Court annulment), 54/2016, 73/2019 and 77/2024 (the last touching only Art 37). U-III 1363/19 itself cites the cascade 'br.13/08.. 20/14', confirming the text applied.