Acquiring citizenship

Sadly my pursuit of an Irish passport has hit a brick wall. My notes on this page, are about how to get an alternative EU passport, and point at a white paper looking at global law. ….

I came across this article in the New European dated Sep 2022, which does a review of the current visa requirements, the trend for allowing digital nomads specific visas, some of which only require income guarantees, although most are above that of the British pension. Berlin and Porto are popular destinations.

Ireland

Obvious, there is no residency nor a language qualification for Ireland, partly because of the Good Friday agreement.

Before applying for a passport I need to establish Irish citizenship rights, on this page. and this page, by registering a foreign birth. For this I need the Birth and Death certificates of Granda Frank which I can’t find, partly because I now think he was born in Hackney.

The Irish document requirements

Lithuania

They do not require a language skill, but do require a blood line to Lithuanian residency. I have a great grand father born in Lithuania and they are developing law to allow recognition of expatriates but I think he died too early, 1923, if he’d lasted like his wife to 1943 it might be game on except Lithuania is not very keen on dual nationality. Lithuania uses the Euro.

Estonia

They require one to have resided in Estonia legally for at least eight years and, of that, have spent the last five years with permanent residence in Estonia. Be familiar with the Estonian language. Take an examination demonstrating familiarity with the Estonian Constitution. Show a demonstrated means of support and take an oath of loyalty. Dual Nationality is not permitted. They have an e-residency scheme, which seems to be more of a company registration scheme, rather than a personal application and acquisition of privileges.

Germany

The Germans have laws that allow those deprived of citizenship by the Nazi’s can reclaim it, and so can their descendants, but don’t think this is very helpful to me.

Poland

Apply to be recognised as a Polish citizen from the Polish Government, or to the President. These routes all require good Polish, if adult an income to support oneself, and some time spent in legal residency. I found this, which seems to major on the usual routes.
The Polish Government permit dual nationality.
Polish citizenship for Jews from the an Israeli NGO
Polish Citizenship by Descent by whatpassport.com i.e. not the Polish Government, some rules on date of birth and residence, and some disqualifying changes, inc. great grand parents, of which I have two.

Portugal

I should write up on Portugal, they seem fairly open to UK citizens obtaining residency.

Greece

I wrote about getting permission to remain in Greece, in my travel page on Greece.

Sweden

It looks, while the UK is not in the EU, that unless one has worked for 4 years, one may not stay in Sweden; that’s a no for me then.

Citizenship as inherited property

I came across this, “Citizenship as Inherited Property”, Ayelet Shachar and Ran Hirschl Political Theory, Vol. 35, No. 3 (Jun., 2007), pp. 253-287 (35 pages) Published By: Sage Publications, Inc.

The global distributive implications of automatically allocating political membership according to territoriality (jus soli) and parentage (jus sanguinis) principles have largely escaped critical scrutiny. This article begins to address this considerable gap. Securing membership status in a given state or region–with its specific level of wealth, degree of stability, and human rights record–is a crucial factor in the determination of life chances. However, birthright entitlements still dominate both our imagination and our laws in the allotment of political membership to a given state. In this article we explore the striking conceptual and legal similarities between intergenerational transfers of citizenship and property. The analogy between inherited citizenship and the intergenerational transfer of property allows us to use existing qualifications found in the realm of inheritance as a model for imposing restrictions on the unlimited and perpetual transmission of membership–with the aim of ameliorating its most glaring opportunity inequalities.

Abstract

To me the importance of Jus Soli and Jus Sanguinis, you can see these in today’s laws, although it seems that marriage is being excluded as a means of acquiring nationality.