Marriage-based naturalisation - spouse of RO citizen (Art 8(1)(a), 5y)

There is no fixed statutory grant period; the controlling administrative figures are a moving ANC snapshot, not a statutory term (VC-RO-F-43). The dated ANC Informare gives an average processing time for the Art 8 track of approximately 2.09 years (RO-EVID-046); a later ANC Stadiu-dosar snapshot and a 03-Feb-2026 parliamentary question report a higher current Art 8 average of around 2 years 6 months (RO-EVID-047). These figures are snapshots that drift upward and should be re-pulled at finalization; they are not entitlements. Structurally, the Commission's report term was reset by L14/2025 to up to 2 years, extendable by up to 6 months (Art 15(10)–(11)), applied also to pending files per the transitional Art XIV(2) (RO-EVID-048). After a favourable ANC President order, the applicant must take the oath of allegiance within ONE YEAR of communication of the order (Art 20(2); RO-EVID-084, VC-RO-F-07) — this is a one-year window, not six months. Citizenship is acquired on the oath date (Art 20(1); RO-EVID-084), and failure to take the oath within the one-year term causes the order's effects to cease (Art 21(1)). The 5-year residence clock itself runs from the marriage date, and any year with more than 6 months spent abroad is excluded (Art 8(4); RO-EVID-033), which can lengthen the qualifying period in practice.

The statute does not fix a single application fee in its body; the principal pinned cost is the card de cetatenie romana — the chip-bearing citizenship card that replaces the paper certificate — set at 91.50 lei (VAT included), effective 01.08.2025 (RO-EVID-038; pinned to the ANC announcement RO-SRC-007, not to the statute, because Art 22^1(13) delegates the figure to Imprimeria Nationala; VC-RO-F-32). Some legacy ANC pages still display the prior 90.00 lei figure — the current amount is 91.50 lei. The card cost is borne by the holder and paid in advance with the application, with proof attached, and is refundable on rejection within one year (Art 22^1; RO-EVID-018, RO-EVID-038). Ancillary costs that fall outside the citizenship statute and are not pinned here include: apostille/super-legalisation of foreign documents, certified Romanian translations, criminal-record certificate fees, and the costs of assembling residence and means evidence — these vary by jurisdiction and document volume and should be checked against the live consular/registry fee schedules. There is no investment threshold or payment-for-citizenship element in this route: Romania operates no citizenship-by-investment scheme (VC-RO-F-15), and the marriage route is a residence-and-conditions naturalisation, not a transactional one.

An order rejecting an Art 8 marriage-naturalisation application is challengeable within 15 days of communication at the Sectia de contencios administrativ si fiscal a Tribunalului Bucuresti, with recurs to the Curtea de Apel Bucuresti (Art 19(4), as set by Legea 2/2013; RO-EVID-090, VC-RO-F-24). This is the grant/reacquisition-rejection venue and it governs RO-MAR-01. It is not a generic "competent Curte de Apel with recurs to the ICCJ": the appeal architecture is jurisdictionally fixed on the Bucharest courts, and there is NO ICCJ recurs layer in any citizenship-order appeal (VC-RO-F-24). For completeness, the parallel venues for other order types are: a renunciation-rejection order follows the same Tribunalul Bucuresti → Curtea de Apel Bucuresti route (Art 31(6)), and a withdrawal order goes directly to the Curtea de Apel Bucuresti and is FINAL with no recurs (Art 32(7), as amended L14/2025 pct 34). For the marriage applicant, the operative point is that an adverse ANC order on the naturalisation application is reviewable first at the Tribunalul Bucuresti and, on recurs, at the Curtea de Apel Bucuresti — and no further. Because the substantive grant decision is heavily discretionary (Art 12(3)), judicial review focuses on legality and procedure rather than substituting the court's own assessment of the conditions.