On September 22, 2017, the Public Defender of Georgia addressed the State Security Service of Georgia and the Public Service Development Agency with two recommendations in relation to two cases of Georgian citizenship and one case of residence permit.

The Public Service Development Agency refused to grant a permanent residence permit to J.P., a citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, on the ground of protection of state and/or public safety. Based on the same ground, citizens of the Russian Federation P.I. and L.M. were refused to be granted Georgian citizenship in an exceptional manner. According to the legislation, the State Security Service of Georgia provides information on the existence of security protection interest to the Public Service Development Agency. The Public Defender of Georgia requested the State Security Service to provide the documents, which served as basis for establishing the existence of interest of the protection of state and/or public security.

As a result of studying the correspondence, the Public Defender of Georgia considered that the reasons for refusals were not justified in any of the three cases. Furthermore, the Agency's legal acts did not specify which particular circumstances of the law led to the need for the protection of the given interest. Thus, according to the documents of the State Security Service and the legal acts of the Public Service Development Agency, the applicants’ rights to get residence permit and Georgian citizenship were illegally restricted.

Based on the abovementioned, the Public Defender addressed the State Security Service of Georgia with recommendations to prepare new justified documents in connection with the abovementioned cases and send them to the Agency. At the same time, the Public Service Development Agency was requested to revoke the negative decisions and issue new justified legal acts on the basis of thorough study of case circumstances.