Ukrainians are using illegal ways to obtain Moldovan passports. Over the past five years, over 1,200 Ukrainians have become citizens of Moldova.
Between 2011 and 2015, 216 cases of "fake" Moldovan passports have been identified and along with another 41 attempts to illegally obtain Moldovan citizenship, the Ukrainian newspaper said, citing the Moldovan anti-corruption website Anticoruptie.md.
There are two main ways to get a Moldovan passport. The first one is to have Moldovan ancestry. Then it's pretty easy and one simply needs to pay €25, send an application and wait for about a year before receiving a Moldovan passport.
The second option is to get a fake Soviet passport of the Moldovan Soviet Republic. Armed with this antiquated document, Ukrainians can then apply for a new Moldovan passport. The scheme to obtain a false Soviet passport isn't easy and requires a great deal of money and effort.
There are a lot of illegal passport forging-services available in Ukraine. One can simply find people online using social media who claim that they can help with forging fake Moldovan passports. Fees for their "services" vary and some of them are scammers who vanish a second a person sends them the money.
Moldova has privileged visa-free access to the EU through the union's Eastern Partnership project.
