Lithuanian citizenship

A reinstatement of citizenship of Lithuania is a process of a obtaining of citizenship of Lithuania for a person in one of the available ways.

A citizenship of Lithuania may be reinstated for a person, if such a person was a citizen of Lithuania prior to 15 June 1940. In addition, a citizenship of Lithuania may be reinstated for descendants of persons who were citizens of Lithuania prior to 15 June 1940. This provision is applicable to three generations of descendants, i.e. to children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Dual (double) citizenship can be allowed in Lithuania in exceptional cases only.

The cases when dual citizenship is allowed in Lithuania include:

1. A person was deported from occupied Lithuania prior to 11 March 1990 or is a descendant (a child, a grandchild or a great-grandchild) of a person deported from occupied Lithuania prior to 11 March 1990;

The institute of the simplified procedure of granting the citizenship of Lithuania is applicable to persons of Lithuanian origin: it provides them a right to become citizens of Lithuania upon exclusion of the naturalization process. A person may apply for granting the citizenship of Lithuania according to the simplified procedure, if he (she) is of Lithuanian origin and has the relevant evidences. According to provisions of Lithuanian legal norms, a person of Lithuanian origin is considered a person whose parents and grandparents or at least one of them are or were Lithuanians, that believes to be a Lithuanian and declares the same by an affidavit.

A certificate of Lithuanian descent shall be issued to persons of Lithuanian origin. It is a document usable as an evidence of Lithuanian origin of the person that facilitates accessibility to granting the citizenship of Lithuania according to the simplified procedure or issue a Permanent (Temporarily) Residence Permit. If a person strives to be granted the citizenship of Lithuania according to the simplified procedure or issue a Permanent (Temporarily) Residence Permit on the base of his (her) Lithuanian origin, he (she) should prove to be of Lithuanian origin. If a person has a certificate of Lithuanian descent, the process of proving becomes considerably easier and the process of granting the citizenship of Lithuania or issue a Residence Permit becomes shorter.

A certificate certifying a right for reinstatement the citizenship of Lithuania is a document certifying the facts usable as a base for reinstatement of citizenship of Lithuania and provides a right for reinstatement of the citizenship of Lithuania to the person. The said document facilitates the process of reinstatement of citizenship of Lithuania and is issued for a termless period, so its bearer may apply for reinstatement of citizenship of Lithuania and use the document at any time.

If a person was a citizen of Lithuania and lost the Lithuanian citizenship, it may be restored. If a person acquired a citizenship of Lithuania at birth, or his (her) citizenship of Lithuania was restored or granted according to the simplified procedure, or the person acquired the citizenship of Lithuania according to the procedure of naturalization and then lost it for certain circumstances (such as acquisition of a citizenship of another state), such a person may apply for restoration of the lost citizenship of Lithuania.

If Lithuania is a place of lawful permanent residence of a person for over 10 years and such a person satisfies other requirements provided in legal norms, the person acquires a right to be granted the citizenship of Lithuania according to the procedure of naturalization.

Permanent residence of a person in the country means that the person resides in Lithuania without breaks for at least six months per year. If a person strives for recognition of his (her) residence in Lithuania permanent, such a person should not leave Lithuania for staying in another state for a period over six months.

The increasingly growing number of mixed families (where a husband or a wife of a citizen of Lithuania is an alien) as well as intensive emigration from Lithuania cause the problems of a citizenship of children, including the problem of dual citizenship, that become more and more important.

The legal norms of Lithuania regulate the problems of the citizenship of children on the base of filiation, i.e. a child acquires the citizenship of Lithuania by birth. Granting the citizenship of Lithuania by birth is the principal way for acquiring the citizenship of Lithuania.

In course of increasingly growing number of mixed families (when citizens of Lithuania get married with citizens of foreign states), the problem of a dual citizenship and the opportunities for acquiring the citizenship of Lithuania by a spouse of a citizen of Lithuania becomes important.

If a citizen of Lithuania registers a marriage with a citizen of a foreign state, the latter (husband or a wife of a citizen of Lithuania) may be granted the citizenship of Lithuania after 7 years of the permanent residence in Lithuania with the citizen of Lithuania.

Legal norms of Lithuania provide the possible cases of losing the citizenship of Lithuania by a person.

A person shall lose the citizenship of Lithuania:

1. If the person acquires the citizenship of another state and no circumstances provide him (her) a right for dual citizenship; 
2. If the person renounces the citizenship of Lithuania; 

Renouncing the citizenship of Lithuania is one of the ways of losing the citizenship of Lithuania.

Any citizen of Lithuania has a right to renounce the citizenship of Lithuania and this right should not be restricted, except of certain cases provided in laws.

The cases when renouncing the citizenship of Lithuania is impossible:

It is required that documents issued by institutions of foreign states or their copies should be legalized or certified by an Apostille prior to their submission to state institutions of Lithuania.

The procedure of legalization is more complicated. A document issued by an institution of a foreign state should be legalized in the foreign state and then in Lithuania. The process of certification of a document by an Apostille is simpler and shorter; however, certification of a document by an Apostille is not available in all states.

Both the process of acquisition of the citizenship of Lithuania and the process of obtaining a Residence Permit often starts from search and collection of the required data and documents. Usually, this process is bound with preparation of requests to archives of Lithuania. This initial phase is very important both for acquisition of the citizenship of Lithuania (its reinstatement, granting according to the simplified procedure etc.) and an issue a Residence Permit to a person (when the base of issue a Residence Permit is Lithuanian descent or a right of a person for reinstatement of the citizenship of Lithuania) and the further run of the process and its success depend on it.

A frequent problem arising on submission of an application for reinstatement or acquisition of citizenship of Lithuania is discrepancy between names n/or surnames in documents of the applicant and his father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, great-grandfather or great-grandmother. Sometimes, examination of the case may be suspended because of several different letters in a first name or a surname.

In certain cases, a person may lack some documents required for supporting the circumstances important in the process of reinstatement of the citizenship of Lithuania or its acquisition in other ways as well as in the process of issue a Residence Permit, such as the documents supporting the family connections, proving that a certain person (a citizen of Lithuania) was a father, a mother, a grandmother, a grandfather, a great-grandmother or a great-grandfather of an applicant. Or proving that persons mentioned in several documents whose first names and/or surnames differ are the same person.

Sometimes, extracts from a civil status record (such as related to birth, marriage, death etc.) required for the process of reinstatement of the citizenship of Lithuania or its acquisition in other ways as well as in the process of issue a Residence Permit is not available or is incorrect. For example, the first name or the surname of the father or mother of the person is not specified in the Certificate of Birth of the person or the entry is made unduly, so the person cannot prove the family connections, so he (she) cannot prove that his (her) father, mother, grandmother, grandfather, great-grandmother or great-grandfather was of Lithuanian origin or a citizen of Lithuania.

The grandmother of the applicant was of Jewish origin; she was born in 1919 in Lithuania and was the citizenship of Lithuania prior to 15 June 1940. The grandmother of the person left Lithuania in 1938 because of suspicion of the forthcoming World War II and possible dangers bound with it, such as anti-Semitism and hard situation of Jews in Lithuania. The person applied for reinstatement of the citizenship of Lithuania upon preservation of the current citizenship of Slovenia. After examination of the submitted documents, the Migration Department of Lithuania passed a positive decision on a reinstatement of the citizenship of Lithuania upon preservation of the current citizenship (a dual citizenship).