CITIZENSHIP BY DESCENT

What is Citizenship-by-Descent (CBD)?

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So, are you part of the exclusive club of people who can potentially claim CBD saving you a lot of money? 

If you’re a passport holder in countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, your chances of qualifying for CBD are high. Many people in these countries are of European descent.

That said, citizens of other countries may find that they are also eligible to apply for a passport from another country. People have been moving all around the globe for centuries now, but thanks to CBD, some may have good reason to return to their roots.

Is Getting Citizenship by Descent Worth it?

The two factors to consider for CBD are money and time.

Both factors are relative to each other, so the answer to the question of whether CBD is worth it for you will depend on how you value each one. 

Time. Should you take the time out of your life to pursue CBD? 

Perhaps it’s a yes. If it will help you achieve some personal goals like reconnecting with your family or give you a chance to finally live in the European Union area, then an Italian passport might absolutely be worth it for you. 

However, do keep in mind that it can take years for citizenship by descent application to get processed and approved – you’ll need to sit very tight. 

The alternative would be to pursue citizenship by investment in European countries, which would yield a passport in less than half a year, but those programs are very pricey.

This brings us to our next point…

Money. For someone low on time but with enough cash lining their pockets, citizenship by investment will be the way to go. 

This would get you citizenship fast, but you will have to spend a lot of money. 

In the end, it’s all a delicate balance of time and money. You must get it just right for your own individual situation to be happy with the outcome. 

You shouldn’t spend more money than you can afford just to get a second passport. If that leaves you with no cash to make investments or if it worsens your quality of life, for example, what’s the point? 

A second passport should give you MORE options, not fewer.

That’s why we’ve introduced our exclusive Citizenship by Descent Plan. Once you get our Plan, we’ll deal with all the paperwork and tedious foreign authorities. CBD procedures are notorious for their complication. The last thing you want to do is go through it alone. Get our Citizenship by Descent Plan today.

THE BENEFITS OF CITIZENSHIP BY DESCENT

Where Can you Acquire Citizenship by Descent?

Let’s get down to business. If you’re convinced that you want to obtain a second passport by descent, you will need to know exactly which countries offer this path to citizenship. 

It’s not a free-for-all; if your ancestry is in a country that doesn’t offer CBD, you won’t be able to get an ancestral passport – simple as that. 

There is not a best CBD program either as you can’t choose where your ancestry is from.

That said, here is a list of countries that offer citizenship to people who have ancestors hailing from their shores. It’s not an exhaustive list by any means.

GET POLISH
CITIZENSHIP BY DESCENT

Polish Citizenship Application Costs: Approximately €300

Eligibility: Polish great-grandparent, grandparent, or at least one parent

Visa-Free Access to 173 Countries

Acquiring Dual Citizenship Allowed: Yes

GET MEXICAN
CITIZENSHIP BY DESCENT

Application costs: Less than $100

Eligibility: At least one parent who is Mexican

Visa-free access: 152 countries

Dual citizenship allowed: Yes

GET HUNGARIAN
CITIZENSHIP BY DESCENT

Application costs: Under $100

Eligibility: No limit, as long as you can establish a paper trail connecting each generation to the next

Visa-free access: 172 countries

Dual citizenship allowed: Yes

GET LITHUANIAN
CITIZENSHIP BY DESCENT

Application costs: $60

Eligibility: A Lithuanian great-grandparent, grandparent, or at least one parent

Visa-free access: 172 countries

Dual citizenship allowed: Yes

GET ITALIAN
CITIZENSHIP BY DESCENT

Application costs: $340

Eligibility: A great-grandparent, grandparent, or at least one parent who is an Italian citizen

Visa-free access: 174 countries

Dual citizenship allowed: Yes

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How to Apply for CBD

However, if you see getting CBD as a fun exercise that you would like to do with your immediate family, you will soon find yourself wishing that you left the dirty bureaucratic work to someone else.

You see, the most time-consuming part of CBD is determining if you’re eligible to apply and then gathering all the documents to lodge your application.

We didn’t think so. That’s why we aim to make your life easier through our Citizenship by Descent Plan which helps you reconnect with your roots while qualifying you for a second passport. Set up a call with us today to discuss your CBD Plan

However, do you really want to be stuck in government archives for days on end looking for an obscure piece of paper? 

We didn’t think so.

STEP 1: FIND OUT IF YOU’RE ELIGIBLE

To prove your eligibility, there is a long and winding road that governments want you to take and it’s called documentation.

So, doing your own research and speaking with your aunt Mary, cousin Josh, and everyone in between won’t be enough either. Unless they have been holding on to the birth and marriage certificates of your ancestors, that is. 

We’re sure you’ll be thrilled to find out that your great-grandfather was a gentleman from the United Kingdom – just think about all of the things you could do as a British citizen after getting British citizenship by descent.

But if you don’t have his birth certificate or an ID, your citizenship claim will be no good. 

There are certain questions that you’ll be trying to answer in this step:

⤅ Can I apply on the basis of my grandparents being citizens? Great-grandparents? Great-great-grandparents? In other words, how many generations can you go back and still be eligible to apply?

⤅ Is it necessary for both the maternal and the paternal side of your family to have been citizens, or does just one side suffices?

⤅ What sort of documents will you need to provide? You need to make sure that there is a reasonable chance you’ll be able to get those documents. Otherwise, you won’t be eligible to apply.

⤅ Many countries will require that you prove your ancestor didn’t renounce or lose their citizenship before passing it on. For example, they will want to see that your grandmother Maria didn’t renounce her Estonian citizenship to become an American before birthing your mother. Your mother would have, therefore, inherited the citizenship and made you eligible for CBD.

STEP 2: PREPARE YOUR APPLICATION

Next, you must find out what documents you’ll need to process your application. This information will normally be located on the consular website of a country if it offers a CBD program.

It can also be available just in the local language on some obscure governmental website, which will require some digging and a fair amount of time spent on Google Translate.

Usually, the required documents are the following: 

• Your birth certificate
• A copy of your passport
• The birth certificates of your ancestors (those relevant to your claim to citizenship) 
• Related marriage, divorce, naturalization, and death certificates

Each of the documents will need to be in the country’s official language and have an apostille. 

Preparing your application document pack must be meticulously done because your successful outcome depends on it. No cutting corners.

If they’ve asked you for the birth certificate of your great-grandmother Elizabeth, you must provide it to them.

Don’t have that much time on your hand? Talk to us. We will handle all your CBD matters while you sit back and relax

STEP 3: WAIT FOR A DECISION

Whereas with citizenship by investment, the timeline is written out in black and white and is normally 4-6 months, the CBD processing times tend to vary wildly.

From start to finish, a CBD case could take weeks, months, or even years to come to a close.

That’s because – let’s face it – the country isn’t making any immediate profit from you. You’re probably only paying them some measly government fee and not a penny more.

They will process your claim, but they will process it on THEIR terms. 

The CBD cases are often highly bureaucratic too and can appear totally random. 

Since it’s usually the Ministry of the Interior (or an equivalent governing apparatus) that deals with naturalization requests and not a specialized unit as is the case with citizenship by investment, you’ll be at the mercy of local bureaucrats. 

The officials could come back six months later and ask for a document that probably doesn’t exist, whereas someone else in your situation might not be asked for that document at all.

It could end up being quite messy.

Want to avoid the mess? Get in touch with us today to discuss your CBD Plan.

Should I Get All the Passports I’m Eligible For?

This is the question on everyone’s lips.

Let’s say you’re an Australian citizen and your mother is a British citizen – should you go ahead and get a passport in the UK because you have a British parent.

Generally, the answer is yes. 

There will be government filing fees, lawyer fees. What’s for sure is that you won’t need to invest $2 million in real estate to get your passport – great news.

However, there are two factors that you should consider before you accept any passport that might be on your figurative table:

1. Weigh up the risks. There is always the chance that one country or another will introduce the kind of citizenship-based taxation that exists in the United States and tax your worldwide income no matter where you live. 

You should also consider whether you would have any travel restrictions if you take on a passport. For example, Israelis will find it difficult, if not impossible, to enter some countries. 

The risks of most passports aren’t huge, but you should still consider them beforehand.

2. Consider how easy it is to renounce. You always need to be aware of what the terms of renouncing citizenship are. Stay in control and if risks to your personal freedoms or your wealth become greater in the future, it will be great to have an escape plan ready.

If you can walk back on citizenship easily, then there should be no harm in taking it on (if the benefits also outweigh the risks, of course). Some countries, like Argentina for example, don’t let you renounce your citizenship – just a little something to keep in mind.

HOW MANY CITIZENSHIPS CAN SOMEONE HAVE?

Dual citizenship is allowed in many of the world’s countries when it comes to citizenship by descent. 

Meanwhile, others prohibit it. What this means is that if you obtain citizenship by marriage, for example, some countries will make you renounce your original citizenship to obtain theirs instead.

Other countries don’t explicitly allow dual citizenship but tolerate it. They have no laws prohibiting it, but they will only recognize their own citizenship as your sole citizenship as far as your affairs are concerned. 

For example, if you’re American and Polish, the government officials in Poland will consider you a Pole. 

All in all, most of the world’s countries are slowly coming to terms with the fact that more and more people have multiple passports and citizenship right now. 

With people traveling, living, and working all over the place, mixed nationality families are pretty much the norm. 

Imagine a Dutch-Lithuanian man marrying a British citizen-Chinese woman; how many passports could their child bear have?

ALTERNATIVES TO CITIZENSHIP BY DESCENT

Perhaps you aren’t really interested in digging around in your family’s history, there are no records of your ancestry, or you don’t meet the eligibility criteria for one reason or another. 

Luckily, there are multiple other ways to get a second nationality or work towards it over time. 

Here are three alternative paths that will lead you to citizenship: 

1. Citizenship by investment. This option will take money, and quite a lot of it depending on which country you go for. But if you’ve got little time or patience for bureaucracy, this could be the best path to citizenship for you, provided you’ve got cash to throw at it. In many cases, your investment can actually be recovered (and sometimes even at a profit), so if you can pay a bigger sum upfront to get your passport quickly and without producing stacks of paperwork, citizenship by investment could be it. 

2. Citizenship by naturalization. This is another way of saying that you can obtain citizenship by being a resident of a country for a set period of time. For example, Bulgaria will let you apply for its passport in just two years of being a resident and Portugal will make you wait for five years. While most of the countries won’t require you to spend actual time in the country, the naturalization laws normally require that you know the country’s history, culture, and speak its language to be eligible to apply for citizenship. 

3. Citizenship by… life. Ok, so that’s not the technical term but there is no better umbrella word that we can think of. Marriage, adoption, bearing children born abroad, or even changing one’s religion are all potential ways of obtaining citizenship in today’s world. We’re not saying that you should marry someone or adopt a child just because you want citizenship of some country, but if you happen to naturally ‘run into’ these life events, you might as well claim the citizenship that you become eligible for.

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