As part of its responsibility to redress the Romanian government’s former alliance with the Nazi regime, Romania allows descendants of individuals who were victims of the Nazi holocaust to apply for citizenship. Depending on your family heritage, you may be eligible to apply for Romanian citizenship if one of your ancestors was persecuted or lost their Romanian citizenship due to the former oppressive regimes, or if one of your ancestors was born in a former Romanian territory. Make the most out of your ancestry by acquiring a Romanian passport and experience the civil and social protections afforded to EU nationals.
Romania is an advanced tech hub for global investors, with capital city Bucharest as the center of diverse business opportunities and major city Cluj-Napoca known as the ‘Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe’. The country has one of the fastest growing economies in the EU. Romania offers a very high quality of life to its residents and citizens and visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to over 170 destinations worldwide. As a Romanian citizen, you can live and work in the country, access free education, and travel easily to the rest of the EU and Switzerland at any time.
Romania acknowledges its former alliance with the Nazi regime and its part in the heinous acts committed during this time, particularly between 1937 and 1945 when the holocaust unfolded in Romania, leading to the persecution and ethnic cleansing of Jewish and other victims such as the Hungarian aristocracy. As such, based on the Romanian constitutional principle of reestablishing the connection and belonging of a natural person to the Romanian state, the Romanian National Citizenship Authority provides reparations to persons persecuted by this regime and to their descendants by allowing them to apply for Romanian citizenship by descent.
There are two ways you can obtain Romanian citizenship:
Direct descendants up to the second degree (including those adopted as minors) of a formerly persecuted ancestor are eligible to apply for Romanian citizenship:
Descendants up to the third degree (including those adopted as minors) of an ancestor born in Romania or in a former Romanian territory are eligible to apply for Romanian citizenship:
These documents are required for both reparative and (former) territory citizenship applications.
The National Citizenship Authority requires applicants who wish to apply for citizenship by ancestry to submit the following documents:
Each application is case-by-case dependent, but these are the usual documents that are required by the applicant on behalf of their ancestor (where applicable):
Applicants must file the documents personally to the Romanian National Citizenship Authority or at a Romanian consulate from their country of residence, along with the mandatory supporting documents. Children up to 18 years at the date of application can also be included in the citizenship application.
The Romanian citizenship law permits holding dual citizenship, so you do not need to give up your present citizenship. Also, no Romanian language proficiency is required for the process. Successful applicants take the oath of allegiance after citizenship approval. Romanian citizens by descent may choose to reside either in Romania or in another country.
Henley & Partners can seamlessly manage the entire citizenship by descent application process for you, from helping you prove your lineage by checking various institutions and archives to assisting with legalizing and apostilling documents, to liaising with the relevant authorities, to you receiving your Romanian passport in hand.
The process for acquiring Romanian citizenship through descent takes from six months to two years depending on the National Citizenship Authority’s capacity and document verifications with other institutions (such as secret services and population records) in Romania or internationally.
For more information on how we can help you secure your future by connecting with your family’s legacy, please complete the Romanian citizenship by descent enquiry form below.
Have one of our qualified advisors contact you today.
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