With Amendment to the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania More Persons Will Be Eligible for Exercising the Right to Reinstate Lithuanian Citizenship

On 20 January 2022, the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania adopted the Law Amending Article 2 of the Republic of Lithuania Law on Citizenship No XI-1196, whereby it sets up the concept of a person who held citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania before 15 June 1940.

Moreover, Article 2 of the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania was amended by paragraph 11, which establishes that

“A person who held Lithuanian citizenship before 15 June 1940 shall mean a person who held citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania at any time prior to 15 June 1940. This concept shall not embrace individuals who have lost Lithuanian citizenship after carrying out the mandatory procedures provided for in the laws of the Republic of Lithuania and for whom decisions on the loss of Lithuanian citizenship stipulated in the laws of the Republic of Lithuania have been adopted.”

This amendment to the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania is aimed at mitigating the burden of proof for those persons who are applying for reinstatement of Lithuanian citizenship. Clarifications of legal acts provided by the Courts of the Republic of Lithuania have determined the practice applied by the Migration Department in proceedings concerning reinstatement of Lithuanian citizenship, when individuals applying for reinstatement of Lithuanian citizenship had a disproportionately high burden of proof laid on them to provide evidence that an ancestor (or the person himself) who possessed Lithuanian citizenship had not lost it by 15 June 1940. Furthermore, a person or his ancestor (parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, or one of them) had to be a Lithuanian citizen before 15 June 1940 and on 15 June 1940.

It was assessed during the process of restoration of Lithuanian citizenship on 15 June 1940 whether a person, who fled the Republic of Lithuania before 15 June 1940, acquired citizenship of a foreign state. The moment of acquiring foreign citizenship is of vital importance, as well as the basis of acquiring citizenship of a foreign state, documents with which the person who departed from the territory of the present Republic of Lithuania lived abroad, whether he has addressed the Lithuanian mission abroad for the issuance (extension) of documents evidencing Lithuanian citizenship. Until now, the person who has acquired foreign citizenship before 15 June 1940 was considered to have lost citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania prior to 15 June 1940.

The Methodology of Examining Applications for Reinstatement of Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania prepared by the Migration Department on 10 September 2020 laid down that if, on the basis of documents submitted by an applicant and/or received by the Migration Department, it is identified that a person, by whom citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania held before 15 June 1940 is being proved, voluntarily renounced or deliberately sought to renounce citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania (e.g. when acquiring citizenship of another state, he indicated that he had renounced citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania), but there is no data that a person would have lost (ceased) citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania prior to 15 June 1940, then such a person is considered to have lost citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania before 15 June 1940, and a submission for non-reinstatement of citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania is to be prepared.

The Supreme Court of Lithuania clarified in the Resolution in the Civil Case No e3K-3-284-219/2020 dated 04 November 2020 that provisions for the legal regulation of citizenship of the interwar Republic of Lithuania provide grounds to make a conclusion that a person, who held citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania according to norms of laws effective at that time, could have been recognized as having lost citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania in the cases established by law. It should be concluded from the specified regulation that the reasons determining this may have been related to a person’s departure to another state, his failure to perform certain obligations (to register, withdraw identity documents), and loss of connection with the Lithuanian life.

Amendments to the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania adopted by the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania should mitigate the burden of proof for those persons who are applying for reinstatement of Lithuanian citizenship. They should also expand the possibilities of exercising the right to reinstate citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania.

The Law Amending Article 2 of the Republic of Lithuania Law on Citizenship No XI-1196 enacted by the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania shall come into force after it is signed by the President of the Republic of Lithuania.

MIGRATION LAW CENTER