How to Get an EU Passport: Descent, Naturalization, and Investment

To get an EU passport, you have to become a citizen of one of the 27 member states, because the European Union itself doesn’t issue passports. Each country prints its own national passport with “European Union” on the cover and sets its own rules for who qualifies. Once you hold citizenship in any single member state, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union grants you the right to live, work, study, and vote in local elections across all 27 countries, plus consular protection from any EU embassy abroad when your own country lacks one nearby.¹ So the real question is which country, and which route.

There are four practical pathways: descent from an EU ancestor, naturalization after legal residency, marriage to an EU citizen, or a residency-by-investment program that eventually leads to citizenship. Each has different timelines, costs, and paperwork. Pick the one that fits your situation, then follow that country’s specific rules.

Citizenship by Descent

If a parent, grandparent, or in some cases a great-grandparent was a citizen of an EU country, you may already have a claim without ever having lived there. This is usually the fastest route for people who qualify, and most countries don’t require residency or language exams for descent claims.

Where countries draw the generational line matters. Ireland lets grandchildren of Irish-born citizens register on the Foreign Births Register; your own children can then register too, but only if you completed your registration before they were born.² Poland extends eligibility through grandparents and sometimes great-grandparents who held Polish citizenship.

Italy historically had the most generous rule, recognizing claims through any ancestor born after Italian unification in 1861 who never renounced citizenship. That changed in 2025. Under Decree-Law 36/2025, if your Italian ancestor naturalized in another country before August 1992 and their child was a minor at the time, that line is now cut off. Italy also has a longstanding gender restriction: citizenship passed through mothers only to children born after January 1, 1948. Claims through a maternal line before that date require a lawsuit in Italian civil court.³

Descent applications are document-heavy. You’ll typically need birth, marriage, and death certificates for every person in the chain between you and the qualifying ancestor. Italy requires that all foreign-issued documents be in long form, legalized, and translated into Italian, plus proof that the ancestor never naturalized abroad.⁴ Gathering records from the 1800s or early 1900s can take months, especially where civil registries have gaps. Start the document search well before you plan to apply.

Citizenship by Naturalization

No EU ancestry? Then the standard route is to move to an EU country legally, live there for a set number of years, and apply. Residency requirements vary widely:

Portugal and France: five years.
Germany: five years since June 2024, down from eight, with an accelerated three-year track for outstanding professional achievement or civic involvement.⁵
Spain: ten years, but only two for citizens of Latin American countries, the Philippines, and Portugal.
Italy and Greece: seven to ten years.

Language and Integration Requirements

Nearly every EU country requires a language exam graded on the Common European Framework of Reference. Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands set the bar at A2 (roughly conversational). France, Germany, Austria, and Finland require B1, which means discussing everyday topics, expressing opinions, and handling moderately complex texts. Denmark sits at the top, requiring B1 or B2 proficiency.

Many countries also test knowledge of history, political systems, and cultural norms. Germany’s naturalization test draws 33 questions from a pool of over 300, and you need at least 17 correct.⁶ A clean criminal record is required everywhere.

Physical Presence Rules

Continuous residence doesn’t mean holding a residence permit while spending most of your time somewhere else. Countries track actual days on their soil, and long absences can reset the clock. Germany considers residence uninterrupted only if stays abroad don’t exceed six months. Austria caps absences at 20 percent of the qualifying period. Denmark, which requires nine years of residence, allows no more than one year of total absence across the entire span. Poland caps total absences at ten months across the required decade. If your work or personal life involves heavy international travel, check the physical presence rules for your target country before committing.

Citizenship Through Marriage

Marrying an EU citizen shortens the naturalization timeline in most countries, though how much varies enormously. Spain offers one of the fastest tracks, allowing spouses of Spanish nationals to apply after just one year of legal residence. France requires four years of marriage plus proof of community life in France. Most other countries fall somewhere between, trimming a few years off the standard requirement while still demanding language proficiency and integration.

Some countries barely reduce the timeline. Latvia still requires roughly ten years of residency even for spouses of Latvian citizens. Marriage alone is never enough anywhere. You still need language skills, integration requirements, and a clean record, and countries scrutinize the genuineness of the marriage, particularly when the timeline is short.

Golden Visas: Residency Through Investment

The EU has cracked down on programs that sell citizenship outright. Cyprus shut down its citizenship-by-investment scheme in 2020, and Malta’s program was suspended in 2025 following a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union. No EU country currently offers a straightforward cash-for-passport deal.

Several countries do offer “golden visa” programs that grant residency in exchange for a qualifying investment. Because residency can eventually lead to naturalization, these function as a slower, paid path to citizenship. Current thresholds:

Portugal: €500,000 in qualifying investment funds, with citizenship eligibility after five years of residency.
Greece: €400,000 to €800,000 in real estate depending on location, with citizenship eligibility after seven years.
Italy: €250,000 to €2 million depending on the investment type, followed by the standard ten-year residency path.
Hungary: €250,000 in a government-accredited real estate fund, with citizenship after eight years of continuous residence.
Bulgaria: approximately €512,000 in a qualifying fund investment, with citizenship eligibility five years after obtaining permanent residency.

Even with a golden visa, you still need to meet the regular naturalization requirements: language exams, physical presence minimums, and a clean criminal history. The investment buys your way into the residency queue, not out of the citizenship tests.

The Dual Citizenship Trap

Not every EU country lets you keep your existing citizenship when you naturalize. Austria, the Netherlands, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Slovenia generally require renunciation of your prior nationality. Spain has reciprocal agreements with some countries but requires renunciation for others.

Germany’s 2024 reform changed things significantly. Before June 2024, most applicants had to give up their previous citizenship. The new law eliminated that requirement, allowing all naturalizing citizens to hold multiple nationalities.⁵ If dual citizenship matters to you, verify the current rules for your target country before starting. Losing your birth citizenship can affect property rights, inheritance, and your ability to live in your home country long-term.

Citizenship by descent usually doesn’t trigger renunciation issues, because most countries treat it as recognizing an existing right rather than granting a new one. Check both sides, though: your current country may also have rules about acquiring a second nationality.

Preparing the Paperwork

The document stage is where most applications stall. A single missing or improperly formatted paper can cause months of delay.

Documents, Translations, and Apostilles

At a minimum, expect to gather birth certificates, marriage certificates, proof of residency, and criminal background checks. Descent applicants also need ancestral records going back one or more generations. Every document not issued in the target country’s language will need a certified translation by a translator recognized by the receiving authority.

Most documents also need an apostille, a standardized certificate verifying that a document is genuine for use in another country that is party to the 1961 Hague Convention.⁷ In the United States, state-issued documents like birth certificates get their apostille from the secretary of state’s office in the issuing state, typically for $10 to $20. Federal documents go through the U.S. Department of State.⁸

Criminal Background Checks

Every EU country requires proof of a clean criminal record, and most want checks from every country where you’ve lived. U.S. citizens need an FBI Identity History Summary, which costs $18 and can be requested electronically or by mail with a fingerprint card. Fingerprints can be taken at participating U.S. Post Office locations for electronic submissions. After the FBI authenticates the result with a watermark and signature, you send it to the U.S. Department of State for an apostille before submitting to the foreign government.⁹ Plan for several weeks from start to apostille.

Fees

Application fees vary widely. Germany charges a flat €255 per adult and €51 for a minor child naturalizing alongside a parent, with reductions available for low-income applicants.¹⁰ Austria is far more expensive, with application fees starting at €163 and citizenship conferral fees ranging from roughly €1,100 to €1,450. Italy raised its consular fee for descent-based citizenship applications from €300 to €600 per adult applicant effective January 2025.³ Beyond government fees, budget for translations, apostilles, international courier charges, and possibly genealogical research if you’re tracing ancestors.

A Warning for U.S. Citizens

Americans pursuing EU citizenship need to know the United States taxes its citizens on worldwide income regardless of where they live. Becoming an EU citizen and moving abroad doesn’t reduce your U.S. tax obligations. It adds to them.

Once you open a bank account in an EU country, you trigger a reporting requirement if the combined value of all your foreign accounts exceeds $10,000 at any point during the year. You must file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) electronically through FinCEN’s BSA E-Filing System. Whether the accounts earn taxable income is irrelevant; the filing requirement stands and carries severe penalties for noncompliance.¹¹ Some dual citizens eventually consider renouncing U.S. citizenship to simplify their tax picture, but that decision triggers an expatriation tax regime for higher-net-worth individuals and warrants professional tax advice before any steps are taken.¹²

Submitting Your Application and Waiting

Submission depends on where you are and which country you’re applying to. Applicants already living in the EU typically submit at a local government office or municipality. Those living abroad usually go through an embassy or consulate, often by scheduling an appointment months in advance. Italian consulates are notorious for multi-year appointment backlogs for descent-based claims.

Some countries allow submission by registered mail or through online portals, though in-person appointments remain the norm, especially when biometric data must be collected. An interview may be part of the process, particularly for naturalization applicants, to verify your file and assess your language ability in a live setting.

Processing times run from a few months to several years. Germany’s standard naturalization takes six to twelve months after submission. Italian descent cases through consulates abroad routinely take two years or more.

From Approval to Passport

Approval of your citizenship application doesn’t automatically put a passport in your hand. Several countries require a formal step between approval and citizenship taking effect. Germany and others hold an oath of allegiance or naturalization ceremony. Only after that step is your new citizenship official.

You then apply separately for the passport through the national passport office, or through the embassy or consulate if you live abroad. You’ll need your citizenship certificate or naturalization decree, passport photos, and the applicable fee. Passport processing typically takes a few weeks, and the document itself is valid for ten years in most EU countries, five for minors.

Once you have it, you can enter and reside in any of the 27 member states without a visa, work without a work permit, and access public services including healthcare and education under the same conditions as local nationals.¹ Those rights extend to your spouse and dependent children under EU family reunification rules, even if they are not EU citizens themselves.

1
EUR-Lex. Consolidated Version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union – Article 20
2
Department of Foreign Affairs (Ireland). Registering A Foreign Birth
3
Consolato Generale d’Italia a Los Angeles. Citizenship by Descent
4
Consolato Generale d’Italia a New York. How to Apply for Citizenship by Descent (Iure Sanguinis)
5
Federal Ministry of the Interior (Germany). New Law on Nationality Takes Effect
6
Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge. Naturalisation in Germany
7
USAGov. Authenticate an Official Document for Use Outside the U.S.
8
U.S. Department of State. Preparing a Document for an Apostille Certificate
9
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks Frequently Asked Questions
10
Federal Ministry of the Interior (Germany). New Fees
11
Internal Revenue Service. Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR)
12
Internal Revenue Service. Expatriation Tax