How to Get EU Citizenship by Descent: Countries That Offer Ancestry Visas to Americans

An EU passport is one of the most valuable documents an American can hold: it grants the right to live, work, study, and retire in any of the 27 European Union countries, with no visa to renew and no clock ticking. For millions of Americans, that right is already an inheritance. EU citizenship by descent – the legal principle that nationality passes down through your bloodline – lets you claim a European passport through a parent, grandparent, or in some countries a great-grandparent, no matter where you were born. 

Roughly 130 million Americans have European ancestry, and a large share may qualify through an ancestor. But the rules shifted hard in 2025 and 2026: Italy tightened its famously generous law, Spain closed a major window, and the EU’s last “buy a passport” scheme was struck down. This guide is current for 2026 and walks through who qualifies, country by country, what it costs, how long it takes, and how to get EU citizenship as an American without the myths.

What Is EU Citizenship by Descent?

EU citizenship by descent is the right to become a citizen of a European Union country because one of your ancestors was a citizen – a principle lawyers call jus sanguinis, Latin for “right of blood.” It stands in contrast to jus soli, or “right of soil,” the birthplace-based rule the United States uses to grant citizenship to anyone born on its territory. Under jus sanguinis, where you were born does not matter; what matters is the unbroken legal thread connecting you to a qualifying ancestor.

The practical payoff is enormous. A single EU passport gives you freedom of movement across all 27 member states – the right to settle, work, study at local-tuition rates, and use healthcare systems in any of them, plus visa-free travel to much of the world. You will sometimes see these routes marketed as “ancestry visas,” but that label is misleading: most descent routes grant citizenship outright, not a temporary visa. Because the United States permits dual nationality, Americans who qualify generally keep their U.S. passport while gaining a European one. European citizenship by descent, in other words, is additive – you gain rights without surrendering the ones you already have.

Why Americans Are Claiming European Citizenship by Descent Now

Interest in a second passport has surged, and the reasons are practical as much as emotional. Many Americans want a “Plan B” – a legal foothold in a stable region they can activate if they ever need to. Remote work has made living abroad realistic for people who never expected to leave, and an EU passport removes the single biggest obstacle: the right to stay. For Americans planning to retire abroad, the appeal is sharper still. Without a second citizenship, U.S. retirees in Europe are bound by the Schengen 90/180 rule, which caps visits at 90 days in any 180-day period. An EU passport erases that limit entirely, along with residency-permit renewals, income thresholds, and the annual visa paperwork.

The result is a wave of applications: Ireland’s Foreign Births Register has a backlog measured in years, and Italy saw a rush of filings before its 2025 reform. Reclaiming a grandparent’s nationality has become one of the most concrete ways to secure long-term freedom of movement. If you are weighing how to get EU citizenship as an American, the honest first step is figuring out which ancestral line – and which country’s rules – actually applies to you.

The 2025–2026 Changes That Rewrote the Rules

If you researched EU citizenship by descent even two years ago, some of what you found is now wrong. Four changes reshaped the landscape in 2025 and 2026, and they are the reason this guide is dated.

Italy tightened a famously open law. For decades, Italy let you claim citizenship through almost any Italian ancestor in an unbroken line, with no generational limit. That ended in 2025. Decree-Law No. 36/2025, issued on 28 March 2025 and converted into Law No. 74/2025 (in force 24 May 2025), limits jus sanguinis to a parent or grandparent. Foreign-born dual nationals who had not already applied or secured a confirmed appointment by March 27, 2025 are excluded from the old rules.

Spain closed its grandchild window. The “Ley de Nietos” (Law 20/2022), which let grandchildren of Spaniards claim citizenship, closed to new applicants on October 22, 2025 after a one-year extension.

The EU’s last golden passport fell. On April 29, 2025, the Court of Justice of the EU ruled in Commission v Malta that selling citizenship is unlawful – European citizenship, the Court held, cannot result from a commercial transaction. Malta ended its investor-citizenship route months later.

Portugal reshuffled its rules. Lei Orgânica 1/2026 (in force May 19, 2026) closed Portugal’s Sephardic Jewish route to new applicants and added a conditional great-grandparent path.

The theme is unmistakable: several doors are narrowing. If you think you qualify, it is worth checking now rather than assuming the rules will wait.

EU Countries That Offer Citizenship by Descent to Americans

Not every EU country offers a descent route, and those that do vary enormously – from Ireland’s simple grandparent rule to Poland’s unlimited lineage to Spain’s newly narrowed options. The table below compares the countries most relevant to Americans with European roots, ranked roughly from most to least accessible. Costs and timelines are approximate and current as of 2026; always confirm the specifics with the relevant government authority, since consular capacity and case complexity move both. These are among the easiest European countries to get citizenship in when the paperwork lines up.

*Italy limited to parent/grandparent since May 24, 2025. Portugal’s great-grandparent route is conditional (Lei Orgânica 1/2026). Figures as of 2026 – verify with official sources.

Croatia

Croatia broadened its emigrant-descent route in 2020, allowing descendants – to the great-grandparent level – of emigrants who left before October 8, 1991 to claim citizenship, generally without a language test on this path. Dual citizenship with the United States is allowed. For the large Croatian-American community, it is a straightforward line back to an EU passport when the emigration history can be documented.

Germany

Germany offers two paths. The ordinary route passes citizenship from a German parent to their child. Separately – and importantly for many American families – descendants of people persecuted by the Nazi regime can reclaim citizenship under Article 116(2) of the Basic Law and §15 of the Nationality Act, reaching children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. A related provision, §5, corrects historical discrimination that denied citizenship through mothers or to children born outside marriage; declarations are open until August 19, 2031. Germany’s 2024 reform made dual citizenship standard. Restoration declarations for persecution cases are often free. If your family left Germany under duress in the 20th century, this route is worth investigating. Our Germany guide explains the wider picture.

Greece

Greece can reach back to a great-grandparent when the chain of municipal registrations is intact. Claims through a parent move fastest – often six to 12 months – while grandparent-and-beyond cases can run two to three years and may involve an interview or a check of your ties to Greece. Dual citizenship is permitted. The decisive factor is usually whether your ancestor’s records still exist in the relevant municipality, so early record-hunting pays off.

Hungary

Hungary imposes no generational limit down a direct Hungarian line, which makes it broadly accessible on paper. The catch to plan for is language: simplified naturalization requires a conversational Hungarian interview, so this route rewards those willing to study or who already speak some Hungarian. Dual citizenship is allowed, and cases often conclude within about a year. Since the simplified process opened in 2010–2011, well over a million people have naturalized through it.

Ireland

Ireland offers one of the simplest and most generous descent routes anywhere. A grandparent born on the island of Ireland – the Republic or Northern Ireland – lets you claim citizenship by registering on the Foreign Births Register (FBR); a great-grandparent qualifies you only if your parent registered on the FBR before you were born. There is no language test and no residency requirement, and dual citizenship is unrestricted, so you keep your U.S. passport. The main catch is time: the FBR backlog frequently pushes registrations past a year. Costs are modest – around €278 plus a passport. For Americans with recent Irish roots, this is often the clearest path to an EU passport. Our Ireland guide covers the logistics.

Italy

Italy remains one of the most important descent routes for Americans – millions have Italian ancestry – but it is no longer the open door it once was. Since Law 74/2025 took effect on May 24, 2025, you can generally claim only through a parent or grandparent. If you did not apply or hold a confirmed consular appointment by March 27, 2025, the pre-reform rules are closed to you. There is no language requirement for recognition, and Italy allows dual citizenship, so your U.S. passport is safe. The consular route commonly takes two years or more; some applicants pursue recognition through the courts instead. Because the Constitutional Court has reviewed the reform and reporting on the outcome is unsettled, verify the current rules before investing in documents. Our Italy guide covers the steps.

Lithuania

Lithuania lets descendants – down to great-grandchildren – of citizens of the interwar Republic of Lithuania (1918 to June 1940) restore citizenship, provided the ancestor left before March 11, 1990. Restored citizens may hold Lithuanian and U.S. citizenship together. As with most Central European routes, the challenge is documentary: you will need records from Lithuanian archives, plus evidence of your ancestor’s departure and citizenship. For Americans descended from the interwar diaspora, it is a genuine and often overlooked option.

Poland

Poland is the quiet standout: it sets no generational limit at all. If you can document an unbroken line back to an ancestor who was a Polish citizen after 31 January 1920 – and show that citizenship was never lost – you can pursue “confirmation of Polish citizenship,” which recognizes a status you already hold rather than granting a new one. There is no language requirement, and Poland permits dual citizenship. The real work is archival: assembling birth, marriage, and emigration records, often in Polish, drives both the cost and the roughly 12-to-18-month timeline. For Americans whose roots run deep but not recent, Poland is frequently the answer to how to get EU citizenship when other countries’ limits shut the door. Our Poland guide has more.

Portugal

Portugal’s rules depend heavily on how far back you reach. A Portuguese parent passes citizenship automatically, with no language requirement. A grandparent claim requires A2-level Portuguese plus proof of effective ties. A newer, conditional great-grandparent route (Lei Orgânica 1/2026, in force May 19, 2026) adds B1-level language and residence conditions. That same reform closed Portugal’s well-known Sephardic Jewish route to new applicants, so that window has shut. Portugal permits dual citizenship. Because the rules changed recently and vary by generation, confirm which tier applies before starting. Our Portugal guide covers living there once you have status.

Slovakia

A 2022 reform reopened Slovakia to descendants of Czechoslovak citizens born on what is now Slovak territory, reaching as far as a great-grandparent and, crucially, dropping the old bar on dual citizenship – so Americans keep their U.S. passport. Estimates suggest the change opened eligibility to hundreds of thousands of Americans. Fees are low for parent or grandparent claims and higher (around €1,000) for great-grandparent cases. It is one of the easiest European countries to get citizenship for those with Slovak roots.

Spain

Spain deserves a candid note, because it is now a weaker option for Americans than many older guides suggest. The “Ley de Nietos,” which let grandchildren of Spaniards claim citizenship, closed to new applicants on October 22, 2025. And ordinary naturalization generally requires renouncing your existing nationality – the United States is not on Spain’s short list of exceptions (Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, Portugal, and Sephardic Jews). In practice, most Americans would have to give up their U.S. passport, a trade few want to make. If Spain is your target, go in with clear expectations. Our Spain guide covers residence-based alternatives.

How Far Back Can You Claim?

It depends entirely on the country – from parent-only in newly reformed Italy to effectively unlimited in Poland and Hungary. That single variable often decides which passport is realistically within reach, so map your family tree against the table below before committing. The rule of thumb: the further back your qualifying ancestor sits, the more documentation you will need and the longer the process tends to take, because every generation adds another set of records to locate and certify.

EU Countries That Allow Dual Citizenship With the U.S.

Reassuring news for most applicants: the United States permits dual citizenship, and the great majority of EU descent countries do too. Gaining a European passport by descent does not require giving up your American one – the two coexist. The main practical rule to remember is that U.S. law requires dual nationals to enter and leave the United States on their U.S. passport.

Among the descent routes covered here, the EU countries that allow dual citizenship with the U.S. include Ireland, Italy, Poland, Germany, Hungary, Greece, Portugal, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Croatia – plus, more broadly, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Latvia, Malta, and Sweden. The notable exception is Spain, which generally does not recognize dual citizenship with the United States outside a narrow list that does not include America. If keeping your U.S. passport is non-negotiable – and for most people it is – that distinction should shape which country you pursue. You can see which destinations Americans are actually choosing in our data on the EU countries American expats favor.

Can You Still Buy an EU Passport? Descent vs. Investment

If you have searched for the cheapest citizenship by investment in Europe, here is the straight answer for 2026: the EU no longer has a genuine citizenship-by-investment program. The last one – Malta’s – was struck down when the Court of Justice of the EU ruled in April 2025 that European citizenship cannot be sold as a commercial transaction. Malta ended its investor route shortly after. The premise behind “buying” an EU passport quickly no longer holds.

What remains are two different things often confused with it. The first is citizenship by investment in non-EU European countries – North Macedonia and Turkey, for instance – which grant passports that are not EU passports and carry no EU free-movement rights. The second is residency by investment, the so-called golden visa. Programs like Latvia’s grant residence through investment, but residence is not citizenship: it becomes a passport only after years of lawful residency and full naturalization, usually with language and physical-presence requirements. There is no legitimate shortcut that converts money directly into an EU passport today.

This is exactly why descent matters. For anyone wondering which European country offers the cheapest – or effectively free – path to citizenship, the honest answer for most Americans is not an investment scheme but their own family tree. Ancestry is the genuine low-cost route to a European passport, and unlike a golden visa it does not demand six or seven figures of capital. If your family history qualifies you, you are already most of the way there. Some European countries even offer incentives to attract new residents, worth exploring alongside a descent claim.

Documents You’ll Need to Prove Descent

Every descent claim, in every country, rests on the same foundation: an unbroken paper trail. You are proving a legal chain from yourself back to your qualifying ancestor, and each link needs a document. That means vital records – birth, marriage, and death certificates – for every person connecting you to the ancestor, plus proof the ancestor held the citizenship and did not lose it before the next person in the line was born. That last point trips up many applicants: if your great-grandparent naturalized as a U.S. citizen before your grandparent was born, the chain may have broken at that moment, depending on the country’s law and the dates.

Expect to gather and certify the following:

• Your long-form birth certificate and current passport
• Birth, marriage, and death certificates for every person in the line back to the qualifying ancestor
• Proof the ancestor held citizenship – and did not lose it before the next birth in the line
• The ancestor’s U.S. naturalization record (or proof they never naturalized), with dates
• Marriage and name-change documents that explain any spelling discrepancies
• Apostilles (under the Hague Convention) on U.S.-issued documents
• Certified translations into the destination country’s language

Names are the other common snag. Officials frequently changed or misspelled surnames, so you may need marriage or name-change records to explain why “Kowalski” became “Kovalsky.” Knowing how to get EU citizenship in practice is often less about the law and more about patient genealogy.

Costs and Processing Times

It is easy to underestimate what a descent claim costs, because government fees are usually the smallest part. Official charges are often modest – Ireland’s FBR fee is around €278, Greek consular fees run roughly €150 to €250 – but the real expenses are genealogy research, certified translations, apostilles, and, in complicated cases, a specialist immigration lawyer. Those can add up to thousands of dollars depending on how many records you need and how many languages they span.

Timelines vary just as widely. A parent-level claim, or a Polish confirmation with clean paperwork, can conclude in under a year. Ireland’s FBR backlog, Italy’s consular queue, and older-generation Greek cases can each run two to three years or more. Consular capacity and the complexity of your family history are the biggest swing factors, so treat any single estimate with caution. All of these figures are current as of 2026 and should be confirmed against the relevant authority before you budget around them. If your case looks complex, our experts directory can connect you with professionals who handle descent claims.

EU Passport Requirements for U.S. Citizens Today

If you are researching EU passport requirements for U.S. citizens, you may really be asking about travel – what you need to visit Europe right now, before any second passport comes through. As of 2026, Americans can travel to the Schengen Area visa-free for up to 90 days within any 180-day period, on a valid U.S. passport. That is unchanged.

Two newer systems are worth knowing about. ETIAS – the European Travel Information and Authorisation System – is a pre-travel authorization, not a visa, similar to the US ESTA. It has been set at €20, but it is not yet live as of mid-2026, and its launch has slipped repeatedly; expect it in late 2026 or 2027, with no firm date confirmed. Separately, the biometric Entry/Exit System (EES) is reported to have become operational across Schengen external borders on April 10, 2026.

The point that ties it together: every one of these requirements applies to visitors. An EU passport obtained by descent removes all of them at once – instead of counting days and filing travel authorizations, you gain the unconditional right to live, work, and retire anywhere in the Union. That is the whole reason the descent route is worth the effort.

U.S. Tax and Reporting Obligations for Dual Citizens

The United States taxes its citizens on their worldwide income no matter where they live, and that continues whether you hold one passport or three. As a U.S. citizen, you must keep filing a federal tax return every year, and you’ll likely have foreign-account reporting duties too – the FBAR (Foreign Bank Account Report) and FATCA disclosures – once your overseas balances cross the reporting thresholds.

The good news is that relief mechanisms exist to keep most people from being taxed twice, chiefly the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE) and the Foreign Tax Credit. How they apply depends entirely on your situation, so this is one area where general guidance is not enough. Before and after you acquire a European passport, talk to a cross-border tax professional who understands both systems. Going in informed keeps a second citizenship an asset rather than a paperwork surprise.

The Bottom Line

For Americans with European roots, EU citizenship by descent remains the most realistic and affordable way to secure a second passport – and the freedom to live, work, and retire across 27 countries that comes with it. Several strong routes are still wide open, from Ireland and Poland to Germany, Hungary, and beyond, and most let you keep your U.S. citizenship. But 2025 and 2026 narrowed a few of those doors, and more change is likely, so the smartest move is to check your eligibility now rather than later. Not sure which country fits your family and your goals? Start with the Expatsi Test to find your best-fit destination, then dig into the country guides – and bring in an expert if your case is complex.

Frequently Asked Questions

How far back can you claim EU citizenship by descent?

The limit varies sharply by country. Poland and Hungary set no generational cap if you can document an unbroken line, and Lithuania, Slovakia, Greece, and Croatia often reach a great-grandparent. Ireland allows a grandparent, and Italy – after its 2025 reform – now stops at a grandparent too. Germany’s ordinary route runs through a parent. Mapping your family tree against each rule is the essential first step.

Which EU country is easiest to get citizenship by descent for Americans?

For many, Ireland is the simplest: a grandparent born on the island qualifies you, with no language test and full dual citizenship. Poland is unbeatable for deep roots, since it imposes no generational limit at all. Slovakia reopened a generous great-grandparent route in 2022. The easiest country ultimately depends on where your ancestors came from and how complete their surviving records are.

Can I get EU citizenship if only my grandparent was European?

A grandparent is enough in several countries. Ireland’s Foreign Births Register is built around exactly this scenario, and Italy still recognizes grandparent claims after its 2025 reform. Poland, Hungary, Greece, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Croatia can reach a grandparent or further. The key requirement is proving an unbroken legal chain – and that your ancestor did not lose citizenship before your parent was born.

Does the U.S. allow dual citizenship with EU countries?

American law permits holding citizenship in another country alongside U.S. citizenship, and most EU nations – including Ireland, Italy, Poland, Germany, and Portugal – allow it in return. Dual nationals must enter and exit the United States on their U.S. passport. Spain is the main exception among descent routes, generally requiring you to renounce your prior nationality, which few Americans choose to do.

What is the cheapest way to get EU citizenship?

Ancestry is almost always the lowest-cost route. Since the EU struck down Malta’s investor-citizenship scheme in 2025, no member state sells passports outright, and residency-by-investment golden visas require large sums plus years of residence. If a parent, grandparent, or sometimes great-grandparent was a European citizen, descent can cost only modest government fees plus document and translation expenses – a fraction of any investment path.

How long does citizenship by descent take?

Timelines range from under a year to more than three, depending on the country and your paperwork. Parent-level claims and Polish confirmations with clean records move fastest. Ireland’s Foreign Births Register, Italy’s consular queue, and older-generation Greek cases often take two to three years. Gathering, apostilling, and translating documents is usually what sets the pace, so starting early helps considerably.