About the Citizenship Office
The Citizenship Office of the Velocity Interoperability Network determines applications for citizenship of the Velocity Interoperability Network, maintains the Register of Citizens, holds the ceremonies at which new citizens make the affirmation of citizenship, and issues certificates of citizenship and certified extracts of the Register.
The Office was established on 6 September 2026. Before that date each member organisation of the Network dealt with the citizenship of its own staff and of those resident at its site, and the particulars of citizens were kept in separate records that were neither consistent with one another nor open to inspection by the citizens themselves. Between 10 August and 5 September 2026 those records, and the applications then outstanding, were transferred to the Office.
At establishment the Register of Citizens contained 8,740 entries and 2,486 applications received during the transition period were held for determination. The first six citizenship ceremonies are held between 19 September and 14 November 2026 at five principal sites of the Network; the dates and venues are set out on the Applying for Citizenship page.
Responsibilities. The Office's work falls into six areas.
- Determining applications for citizenship
- The Office receives every application for citizenship of the Network, verifies the residence, service or descent on which it relies, and decides whether the requirements of the route relied upon are met. It gives written reasons for a refusal and considers requests for the review of a decision.
- Publishing the requirements of each route
- The Office publishes the eligibility and residence requirements of the five routes to citizenship, the documents that must accompany an application, and the manner in which continuous residence is counted and may be broken.
- Holding citizenship ceremonies
- The Office arranges the ceremonies at which approved applicants make the affirmation of citizenship before a presiding officer, and at which the certificate of citizenship is presented. Citizenship takes effect from the date of the ceremony.
- Maintaining the Register of Citizens
- The Office keeps the Register of Citizens, in which the particulars of every citizen of the Network are recorded. It issues certified extracts on request, corrects entries found to be wrong, and controls the disclosure of particulars to third parties.
- Issuing certificates of citizenship
- The Office issues the certificate of citizenship presented at a ceremony, and replaces a certificate that has been lost or destroyed on the application of the citizen named in it. A certificate carries the register number of the entry to which it relates.
- Statistics and reporting
- The Office publishes quarterly statistics on the applications it receives, the decisions it takes, the routes relied upon, the ceremonies it holds and the size of the Register of Citizens.
How the Office decides. An application is decided on the documents supplied with it and on the records held by the Office and by member organisations. The Office does not exercise a discretion to admit an applicant who does not meet the requirements of the route relied upon, except where the Network Assembly has resolved to grant citizenship for an exceptional contribution to the Network. Every refusal is given in writing, states the requirement that was not met, and may be reviewed on the application of the person refused.
What the Office does not do. The Office does not issue travel documents, does not decide questions of entry to or residence in the Network, and does not maintain the register of members of the Network. An applicant who is not yet resident should establish residence before applying; the residence that counts towards each route is set out on the Eligibility and Residence page.
For the origins of the Office and the milestones since its establishment, see History; for the applications it has received and determined, see Statistics. General enquiries may be sent to contact@citizenship.gov.vin.