Top 10 European Countries With Citizenship by Descent (2026)

If you have European roots, you may already hold the right to an EU passport without knowing it. Dozens of European countries grant citizenship by descent, the principle known as jus sanguinis, or right of blood, which passes nationality down through the family line regardless of where you were born. For the descendants of people who emigrated from Ireland, Italy, Poland, and beyond, that ancestry can be worth a second citizenship, full rights to live and work across 27 EU countries, and a passport you can pass to your own children.

This guide ranks the ten best European countries for citizenship by descent in 2026, based on how far back you can claim, how demanding the process is, and how valuable the passport is. It also covers a trend that matters right now: several of the most generous ancestry routes have just been narrowed or closed, so eligibility you have today may not last. Every rule here has been checked against the current 2025–2026 position, but nationality law is technical and changes often, so treat this as a starting map and confirm your own case with a specialist.

What citizenship by descent actually means

Citizenship by descent means you inherit a country's nationality from an ancestor who held it, rather than earning it through years of residence. Most European countries apply some version of it, but they differ enormously in the details: how many generations back you can reach, whether the chain of citizenship must be unbroken, whether you need to speak the language, and whether you can keep your existing passport.

Those details are everything. A country that lets you claim through a great-grandparent opens the door to far more people than one that stops at a grandparent. A route that waives language tests and allows dual citizenship is worth more than one that demands fluency and forces you to renounce. The ranking below weighs all of that, starting with the most accessible and valuable.

1. Ireland: the grandparent rule

Ireland offers one of the simplest and most popular ancestry routes in the world. If you have at least one grandparent born anywhere on the island of Ireland, including Northern Ireland, you can claim Irish citizenship by registering on the Foreign Births Register. The passport gives you full EU rights, and because Ireland shares a travel area with the UK, it is especially valuable to those with roots on both islands.

The main limit is that you can generally skip only one generation. You can claim through an Irish-born grandparent, but a great-grandparent usually only works if your parent had registered as Irish before you were born. Timing matters for your children too: they qualify only if you were entered on the register before their birth. Processing currently runs to roughly nine to twelve months. Our guide to Irish citizenship through grandparents covers the paperwork in detail.

2. Poland: deep roots, no strict generation cap

Poland is one of the most generous routes for those who can document their lineage. It follows jus sanguinis without a fixed generational limit, so you may claim through a parent, grandparent, or great-grandparent, provided your ancestor held Polish citizenship after 1920 and did not lose it before you descend from them. Poland also allows dual citizenship, so you keep your current passport.

The trade-off is documentation. You must prove an unbroken chain of Polish citizenship, and the rules around when and how an ancestor may have lost their status, through foreign military service or naturalisation before certain dates, are intricate. For those with the records to back it up, though, Poland is one of the deepest-reaching EU ancestry routes available, and confirmation of citizenship can then be used to obtain a Polish passport.

3. Lithuania: restoration for pre-1940 families

Lithuania lets descendants of its pre-war citizens reclaim nationality, reaching back up to three generations to an ancestor who was a Lithuanian citizen before 15 June 1940 and left the country between 1919 and 1990. A parent, grandparent, or great-grandparent can anchor the claim. For the large Lithuanian diaspora, particularly in North America and South Africa, it is a well-trodden path to an EU passport.

Dual citizenship is the key nuance. Lithuania generally permits it where your ancestor left before the Soviet era ended in March 1990 and went to a non-Soviet country, which covers most diaspora cases, but the rules are specific and worth checking against your family history. Our guide to Lithuania citizenship by descent walks through eligibility.

4. Hungary: the widest reach, with a language catch

Hungary's simplified naturalisation route places no generational limit on ancestry at all. If you can document a direct Hungarian ancestor, even a great-great-grandparent, and prove the lineage, you can apply from anywhere in the world with no requirement to live in Hungary. That reach makes it one of the most far-reaching ancestry programs in Europe.

The catch is language. Applicants must show a working command of Hungarian, assessed in an interview rather than a formal exam, which is a real hurdle for descendants who did not grow up with the language. For those with Hungarian heritage who are willing to learn, it delivers a full EU citizenship without a residence requirement. Our guide to Hungary citizenship by descent has the specifics.

5. Italy: still open, but sharply narrowed in 2025

Italy was for decades the most generous ancestry route on earth, with no generational limit, which let millions of descendants of Italian emigrants claim citizenship through a great-grandparent or further back. That era ended in 2025. Under Law 74/2025, effective from late March 2025, claims are now generally limited to those with an Italian-born parent or grandparent, and additional conditions apply around the ancestor's nationality and connection to Italy.

This is the single biggest change in the ancestry world this decade, and it removed eligibility for a huge number of people overnight. Applications lodged before the March 2025 cutoff are still assessed under the old rules. If your Italian ancestor is a parent or grandparent, Italy remains a strong route to an EU passport with dual citizenship allowed. If your connection is further back, the door has largely closed, which makes this a cautionary example of why acting on eligibility matters.

6. Germany: descent plus restoration for the persecuted

Germany passes citizenship by descent through a German parent, subject to the rules in force when each generation was born. Beyond ordinary descent, it offers something distinctive: a restoration route for the descendants of people who were stripped of German citizenship by the Nazi regime between 1933 and 1945 on political, racial, or religious grounds. Under Article 116 of the Basic Law and a 2021 amendment to the nationality act, those descendants have a clear entitlement to be naturalised, with no generational cap on that route and no residence requirement.

For families who lost their German nationality to persecution, this is a meaningful act of reparation as well as a path to an EU passport, and Germany now broadly permits dual citizenship. Documentation of the ancestor's loss of citizenship is central to the claim, so the process rewards careful genealogical work.

7. Greece: ancestry with no hard generational limit

Greece recognises citizenship by descent through a Greek ancestor, and in principle there is no fixed limit on how many generations back you can go. A parent, grandparent, or in some cases a more distant ancestor can anchor the claim, provided each link in the chain held Greek citizenship when the next generation was born, and the ancestor was registered in a Greek municipal record.

In practice, the further back you reach, the harder the documentation becomes, since you must produce birth, marriage, and death certificates for every generation, translated and apostilled. Greece allows dual citizenship, and cases typically take twelve to twenty-four months. For those who can assemble the paper trail, it is a valuable and often overlooked route into the EU.

8. Croatia: generous since the 2020 reform

Croatia became far more accessible after a 2020 reform removed its previous three-generation cap. You can now claim through a Croatian emigrant ancestor with no limit on how far back the connection goes, as long as you can document it, and the same reform scrapped the language and culture test for emigrants and their descendants. Dual citizenship is permitted, so there is no need to renounce your current nationality.

The route is built around ancestors who emigrated from Croatia before October 1991 intending to live abroad permanently, which fits the large Croatian diaspora in the Americas and Australia. With no language exam and no generational ceiling, it is one of the friendlier ancestry programs in Europe, though gathering historical records can still make cases run twelve to twenty-four months.

9. Slovakia: a fast-track for great-grandchildren

Slovakia opened a facilitated route in 2022 for the descendants of former Slovak or Czechoslovak citizens born in Slovakia, reaching down to great-grandchildren. It waives the usual eight-year residence requirement and the Slovak language exam, which makes it unusually accessible for a Central European program. Dual citizenship is allowed.

The cost varies by how close the ancestor is: a modest administrative fee applies where your Slovak ancestor is a parent or grandparent, rising steeply for a great-grandparent, so the maths is gentler the nearer your connection. For the Slovak and Czechoslovak diaspora, it is a clear, recent, and welcoming path to EU citizenship. Our guide to Slovakia citizenship by ancestry covers the process.

10. Latvia: restoration for exiles and their descendants

Latvia lets people who held Latvian citizenship on 17 June 1940, the eve of the Soviet occupation, and their descendants restore their nationality. The route is aimed at exiles who fled the occupation between 1940 and 1990 and did not return, along with their descendants, and it is one of the faster ancestry processes in Europe, often completing in six to nine months once documents are ready.

Latvia allows dual citizenship for descendants restoring nationality this way, which covers most diaspora applicants. One detail to watch is that descendants of exiles generally needed to have been born by 1 October 2014 to qualify under the exile provisions, so timing can be decisive. For families with documented pre-war Latvian roots, it is an efficient path to an EU passport. Our guide to Latvia citizenship by descent has the detail.

How to work out if you qualify

The starting point is always the same: identify your most recent European-born ancestor and work out whether their country lets you claim through that relationship. A grandparent opens far more doors than a great-grandparent, and a parent opens almost all of them. From there, three questions decide most cases.

First, was the chain of citizenship unbroken? Most descent routes require that each ancestor still held the citizenship when their child was born, and that none of them lost it, through naturalisation elsewhere or other acts, before passing it on. Second, can you document it? Ancestry claims live and die on civil records, birth, marriage, and death certificates for every generation, often needing translation and apostille. Third, does the country allow dual citizenship? Most on this list do, but a few routes elsewhere still require renunciation, which changes the calculation.

If you clear those three, the prize is substantial: a citizenship you did not have to earn through residence, full EU rights, and something you can pass down to your own children.

The bigger picture: ancestry windows are closing

The reason to act rather than file this away is that the most generous ancestry routes are being narrowed, one after another, and the trend is only in one direction.

Italy's 2025 reform is the headline. A route that once reached back through great-grandparents and beyond now generally stops at grandparents, ending eligibility for millions overnight. Spain's Democratic Memory Law, the grandchildren's law that let descendants of exiles claim Spanish nationality, closed to new applications on 22 October 2025 with no further extensions. Portugal has abolished its Sephardic Jewish descent route, which had already been closed to new applicants since 2022. Luxembourg's popular recovery-by-ancestry option shut back in 2018. Each of these was, at the time, one of the most generous programs available, and each is now gone or greatly reduced.

The lesson is that ancestry eligibility is not permanent. Governments open these routes for their own reasons and close them when politics shifts, often with little warning and short transition windows. If you qualify today under one of the routes above, the safe assumption is that the terms will get stricter, not more generous. Confirming your eligibility and starting your paperwork while the door is open is the practical response.

What if you do not qualify by descent

Not everyone has the right ancestor or the records to prove it, and the closing windows mean some people who once qualified no longer do. That does not end the search for a second passport. Where descent is unavailable, citizenship and residency by investment offer a direct alternative, granting a second citizenship or a route to one through a qualifying investment rather than a family tree. It is a different path to the same goal of an additional passport and greater global mobility.

For many people the smartest approach is to combine the two: pursue any ancestry claim you may have, and use an investment route where descent falls short or takes too long. The end goal is the same, a diversified passport portfolio that gives you options no single citizenship can.

Build your citizenship strategy with CitizenX

Whether your path to a second passport runs through your family tree or through investment, the goal is the same: more options, more mobility, and security that does not depend on a single country. Confirming an ancestry claim while it is still open, or pairing it with an investment route, is how you lock that in.

Explore citizenship and residency programs on CitizenX to compare your options, see transparent pricing, and find the route that fits your goals. If you have European roots, start with our country guides to citizenship by descent, and if you may not qualify by ancestry, see our overview of citizenship by investment as an alternative.

Frequently asked questions

Which European country has the easiest citizenship by descent? Ireland is among the easiest for those with an Irish-born grandparent, thanks to the straightforward Foreign Births Register and no language requirement. Hungary and Poland reach further back generationally, but Hungary requires Hungarian language ability and Poland demands detailed documentation.

How many generations back can I claim European citizenship? It depends on the country. Ireland generally allows one skipped generation (a grandparent). Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Croatia can reach great-grandparents or further, and Hungary and Greece set no fixed limit. Italy narrowed its rules in 2025 to parents and grandparents only.

Can I keep my current passport if I claim citizenship by descent? Usually yes. Ireland, Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Greece, Croatia, Slovakia, and Latvia all permit dual citizenship for descent claims, so most applicants keep their existing nationality. Always confirm your own country also allows it.

Are ancestry citizenship routes closing? Some are. Italy sharply restricted its rules in 2025, Spain's grandchildren's law closed to new applications in October 2025, and Portugal's Sephardic route has been abolished. This is why confirming eligibility and applying promptly matters.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Nationality laws are technical and change frequently. Always confirm your eligibility with a qualified citizenship specialist before making decisions.