The author analyzes the norms of Federal Law No. 59-FZ dated 02.05.2006 «On the Procedure for Considering Applications from Citizens of the Russian Federation», amendments made to this Law in 2010, 013, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018, and their justifications. The author identifies its problems and contradictions, analyzes the works of scientists and judicial practice, including positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, expressed in numerous definitions and resolutions. The formulated proposals for amendments to the Law under consideration are based on scientific and practical analysis of the studied materials. In particular, the author justifies the proposals on the need to extend a number of important legal provisions regarding written applications to applications in the form of an electronic document and oral applications, to settle the issue with oral applications (including those submitted by phone), to specify in the law the terms in working days, and not in calendar days, to regulate and expand the possibility of applying the termination of correspondence with citizens, introduce legal regulation of «multiple (‘fan’) applications» and «mass applications», to establish a common understanding of the concept of «obscene or offensive expressions». The publication was prepared on the basis of the general scientific dialectical method. The special methods used in the preparation of the publication are: system-structural, formal-legal, logical and comparative-legal. The author raises the question of the need for legal certainty, the use of the most understandable norms of legislative regulation in the implementation of the right of citizens to appeal. In this article, the citizens’ applications are understood as applications of citizens, associations of citizens, including legal entities.