ABOUT 10,000 RECEIVE CITIZENSHIP CERTIFICATES LAST YEAR

KOTA KINABALU (Sabah, Malaysia), Feb 10 (Bernama) -- About 10,000
applicants who applied for Malaysian citizenship received their certificates
last year, Deputy Home Minister Abu Seman Yusop said.

He said the applicants, including 659 in the east Malaysian state of Sabah,
were those who submitted their applications before 2010.

He told this to reporters after presenting the Malaysian citizenship
certificate to Chen Mei Ying, one of the five recipients who were presented the
certificates at their respective residence here Thursday.

Abu Seman said that last year alone, the ministry received about 17,000
applications for citizenship, including 1,286 from Sabah.

"Although, the ministry's charter requires an application to be settled in
two years, we try to settle it in a year," he added.

He said among the factors which may delay processing of the application was
failure of the applicants to submit the necessary documents.
-- BERNAMA