Grounds for citizenship
One of the most frequent requests to us recently is a request for citizenship of another country. We have prepared a short overview of the grounds on which citizenship can be granted to adult applicants in a relatively short period of time.
By birth (filiation)
Two principles apply here: the "right of soil" and the "right of blood". By "right of soil" a child acquires citizenship of the country where he or she was born. For example, in the USA, Canada, Argentina. According to the "right of blood" the child acquires citizenship from his/her parents, the actual place of birth is not taken into account.
Descent (a subspecies of filiation)
When your ancestors lived in a certain territory for a set period of time or had a certain nationality.
The possibility of obtaining citizenship by descent is available in many countries, e.g. Israel, Romania, Moldova. Under this principle, it takes approximately 1-1.5 years to obtain citizenship, as the documents confirming the applicant's origin are checked (often such checks require international exchange of information).
Through naturalisation
Legal residence on the territory of the state for a certain amount of time gives an opportunity to apply for citizenship.
The most common way of obtaining citizenship through naturalisation is to obtain a residence permit, then a permanent residence permit and then apply for citizenship. This basis is applicable in many jurisdictions. Some of the most popular jurisdictions where our lawyers can help you obtain a residence permit are Portugal and Spain. You can obtain Portuguese citizenship after 5 years of residence in Portugal on the basis of residence permit. Spanish citizenship - after 10 years of residence, of which 5 years should be on the basis of residence permit in Spain.
At the same time, obtaining a residence permit in Portugal can be the first step to obtain European citizenship in the future, because the procedure for obtaining a residence permit in Portugal is the simplest and fastest.
As a result of investment in property or the local economy
On this basis it is possible to obtain citizenship and a passport of a foreign country if you purchase real estate for a certain amount or make investments in the economy of the country (for example, a monetary contribution to the development fund of the region).
The most well-known jurisdictions that grant citizenship for investment are Turkey (purchase of property worth at least 400 thousand US dollars) and Vanuatu (investment in the National Development Fund of Vanuatu at least 130 thousand US dollars). The terms for obtaining citizenship on the basis of investment are the shortest. Thus, you can get a passport of another country in 6-9 months after the beginning of the procedure.
Now in all countries migration legislation is changing very quickly - some countries want to attract migration flows, some want to strengthen the selection of candidates, some want to get even more benefits by raising the requirements. For example, in the legislation of Turkey at the end of 2022 there were changes, as a result of which citizens of foreign countries can not buy property in shared ownership, if between them is not registered official marriage. Although before this, it was very common for individuals who were not related to each other to buy property for citizenship purposes in shares. The possibility of migration changes should be taken into account especially when choosing long term programmes.
If you are interested in obtaining citizenship of another country, we recommend you to pay attention to the programmes of obtaining citizenship of Turkey and Vanuatu for investment, or to the programmes of obtaining a residence permit of a European country, in particular Hungary, Portugal or Greece.
If you have any questions, you can ask REVERA lawyer Yaroslavna Zadesenskaya (y.zadesenskaya@revera.legal).
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