Lithuania is the largest of the three Baltic States and regained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1990. Its capital, Vilnius, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994, being one of the most authentic European Old Towns in existence. Although it has a population of just under 600,000, Vilnius has an atmosphere which is almost village-like despite it being a City of Culture and full of Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches.
Citizenship by Descent
During the Second World War and afterwards, many Lithuanian citizens emigrated because of its occupation by Germany and the Soviet Union until it regained its independence from the latter in 1990. Although basically a single citizenship country, in January 2003 it introduced new legislation that allows former citizens of Lithuania who held its citizenship before 15 June 1940, their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, to re-acquire their Lithuanian citizenship without having to give up their existing citizenship. People who acquire Lithuanian citizenship will also become European Union citizens in May 2004 when Lithuania becomes a member of the EU. If you think you may be entitled to Lithuanian citizenship through descent please contact us for further information.
Citizenship-by-Investment
Although Lithuania does not have a specific Citizenship-by-Investment Programme, its legislation provides for the possibility of granting citizenship be means of naturalisation to people who have achieved particularly good results for the country in their work in science, economics, arts, culture, and sport in Lithuania, or who have invested a large sum of money in Lithuania which benefited the economy and created jobs in the country. There is no set amount of money that needs to be invested, so success depends upon the economic result and the number of jobs created. The normal requirements, including the renunciation of the applicant's existing citizenship, are not applied. Please contact us for further information and individual advice.
Dual citizenship ruled unconstitutional
The Lithuanian Constitutional Court has ruled in November 2006 that a number of provisions of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Citizenship are in conflict with the Lithuanian Constitution. In particular, the Constitutional Court has ruled that a number of current provisions of the Citizenship Law implicitly or explicitly allowing dual citizenship are in conflict with the Constitution; such provisions complemented to unconstitutional practice of making dual citizenship a common phenomenon rather than a rare exception. The provisions of the Citizenship Law announced unconstitutional are no longer valid and applicable to the extent stated by the Constitutional Court.
The Lithuanian Parliament will have to amend the Citizenship Law substantially as a result of the above-mentioned ruling of the Constitutional Court. It is not clear how the issue is to be addressed in the Citizenship Law amended by the Parliament; however, the Lithuanian Parliament would have to follow the ruling of the Constitutional Court while introducing any changes into the law in question. The Lithuanian Parliament shall not be allowed to overrule the ruling of the Constitutional Court by introducing a new regulation identical or similar to the one proclaimed unconstitutional.
Even though it appears that the Constitutional Court's ruling does not refer to the specific provisions regarding Citizenship-by-Investment, currently neither citizenship by descent nor Citizenship-by-Investment is possible.
