2018 05 11 Referendum on Dual Citizenship. Preparation

It is entrenched in the Constitution that no one may be a citizen of both the Republic of Lithuania and another state, except for individual cases provided for by law, and this provision can only be replaced by referendum. The dual citizenship legalization is mostly desirable by those who left Lithuania after the restoration of independence on 11 March 1990, who, with some exceptions, cannot have dual citizenship. Previously, the Constitutional Court has explained that dual citizenship cannot be a widespread phenomenon, and legalization thereof by law would contradict the Constitution.

Currently, two wordings are considered regarding the legalization of dual citizenship, which would allow to retain the citizenship of Lithuania by birth.

One wording sounds the following: citizenship acquired by birth cannot be lost against the will of the person. Another wording was formed in a way that Part 2 of Article 12 would be changed as follows: except for cases provided for by the Constitutional Law, no one may be a citizen of both the Republic of Lithuania and another state.

The Seimas working group has to decide on the wording of the referendum scheduled for publication in conjunction with the presidential elections in 2019 or with 2020 elections to the Seimas. In order to change Article 12 of the Constitution, more than half of the citizens need to be involved, and more than half of yes votes of all citizens must be gathered.

The Lithuanian World Community is afraid that after the announcement of referendum, it may not be possible, and suggests to choose a later date thereof. Politicians are interested to resolve this issue as soon as possible and state that it is possible to hold a referendum in 2019, but there is a need for a public awareness campaign, that all citizens of Lithuania would receive all the necessary information.

MIGRATION LAW CENTER