Five EU Nationalities You May Be Eligible to Apply For

Citizenship in the European Union is quickly becoming a popular alternative for citizens in the United States and United Kingdom. With affordable health care, freedom of movement, right to work across 27 member states, and low-cost education, EU citizenship offers a high return on the time and cost of pursuing citizenship by descent. Below are five EU countries many Americans can claim citizenship in:

Ireland

An estimated 32 million Americans claim Irish heritage, a significant percentage of whom are eligible for Irish citizenship. Individuals with a parent, grandparent, or in some cases a great-grandparent born in Ireland could qualify for Irish citizenship by descent. Irish citizenship is claimed through a process called Foreign Birth Registration. It’s important to note that Irish heritage alone does not qualify someone for citizenship and there is additional qualifying criteria that must be met.

Italy

Italian citizenship is one of the most straightforward citizenships to obtain via descent; nearly all those with Italian ancestry are eligible, also known as jure sanguinis or "right of blood.” Any individual with a documented Italian ancestor can qualify with no generational limitation so long as the other requirements are met. The process of collecting documents and processing the application can take 12-24 months depending on the city or municipality the ancestor immigrated from.

Germany

While more restrictive due to specific historical and legal criteria, Germany does allow descendants of German citizens and victims of the Nazi regime who were resident in Germany at the time to apply for citizenship. Note that German citizens who had their permanent residence abroad for more than 10 years before 1914 automatically lost their German citizenship unless they registered themselves in the “Konsulatsmatrikel” (consular register) of the competent German consulate.

Poland

Descendants of Polish citizens are eligible to apply for citizenship via a process called “confirmation of citizenship;” however, there are strict rules around loss of citizenship especially for those who emigrated prior to 1920. In the case of loss of citizenship in the line of descent, persons of Polish descent can either apply for a citizenship grant by Presidential decree or apply for Polish residency and accelerated naturalization through what’s known as the “Karta Polaka.”

Hungary

There are two paths to obtaining Hungarian citizenship: Verification of Citizenship and Simplified Naturalization. Like Poland and Germany, there are strict rules around the loss of citizenship for those who emigrated in the first half of the twentieth century. For those who find themselves ineligible for verification, Simplified Naturalization is a near identical process. However, Simplified Naturalization applicants must prove at least an intermediate level of Hungarian language knowledge and will be interviewed in Hungarian when presenting their application.

Many other EU countries such as Spain, Latvia, and Austria offer similar paths to citizenship via descent with their own qualifying criteria for applicants. Contact us today for help identifying the correct program for you and we’ll put together a personalized plan and support in requesting all historical family documents from around the world!