Do you have
Luxembourg ancestry? Does a genea–friend? Did you realize it might be possible
to become a citizen of Luxembourg? True! But the window of opportunity to be a dual citizen of the United States and Luxembourg will not
be open much longer – the last day to file is December 31, 2018
What is this new opportunity?
In October 2008,
the Luxembourg government passed a law that allows people who are citizens of
other countries, but who had a direct ancestor national living Luxembourg on
January 1, 1900, to apply to obtain a Luxembourg citizenship. I first heard
about this from a Belgian cousin, who was going through the process. At the
time, I was unaware that American citizens could also apply for dual citizenship.
Before this
law passed in 2008, you needed to live in Luxembourg for 7 years, be 18 years
of age or older, take a language test and attend a citizenship class. For
curiosity’s sake, I started to snoop around on the internet for answers on this
new law and found this website for the Luxembourg Embassy in Washington DC
which gives many links on how to proceed. http://washington.mae.lu/en/Consular-Section/Dual-citizenship
Of
importance is the official brochure which is listed twice. The two links for
the 72-page download of information about this process. (See “brochure” and “brochure
in English”.) But there are other helpful links as well.
Why did Luxembourg ease up their
requirements?
Luxembourg
suffered economically for many years. Citizens emigrated to other countries to
find employment. The government, for several reasons including not wanting to
deal with the paper work, decided to drop the citizenship of these people, but
did not notify them. Thus, good Luxembourg citizens who left, who did not
become citizens of other countries, or in the case of wives, did not renounce
their Luxembourg citizenships when their husbands became citizens, were left
without any citizenship AND were unaware of it. There was some kind of political
dust-up about this a few years ago. As a result, Luxembourg eased the
requirements for descendants of these people.
If you qualify by having a direct
ancestor national living in Luxembourg on January 1, 1900, what is the process?
There’s some
paperwork and a visit to Luxembourg involved and it is basically in four
phases:
Phase 1
In short, 1)
you must obtain the birth, marriage and death record of each of your ancestors
demonstrating the family line back to and including the ancestor national living
in 1900. These must be certified (stamped) by the Luxembourg authority, and
less than 6 months old. If there are similar certificates for ancestors born in
the United States, you must obtain these also, including your own. Again, these
must be obtained within the last 6 months. 2) If requested by mail, the
Minister of Justice in Luxembourg will mail you a form to be filled out. 3) You
must get a notarized color copy of your United States passport. 4) You must
show proof that you do not have an extensive arrest record in the United States.
Once these
forms are complete, and mailed to Luxembourg, there can be up to an 11 month
wait for them to be approved. Once approved you’ve completed Phase 1.
Phase 2
A trip to
Luxembourg! After your approval of Phase 1, you have up to December 2020 to take
a trip to Luxembourg. Two major procedures you must follow there are to get
proof you do not have a police record in Luxembourg, and then go to an office
where you will submit your forms and have a meeting with officials about your
citizenship. If approved, a certificate will be mailed to you.
Phase 3
Another
trip! You visit a Luxembourg Consultat, either in Washington DC or San Francisco,
California to obtain your Luxembourg passport.
Phase 4
It is
required that to keep up your Luxembourg citizenship, you must vote in the
Luxembourg elections. This can be done by mail. You also vote in the EU.
Wow! That’s a lot documents. Can I get
help with this? Yes!
The
Luxembourg American Cultural Society, located in (of all places) Belgium,
Wisconsin, has people you can hire to guide you through this process for a fee.
And the amount of the fee is reduced if you become a two-year member of the
society. You may go to their website at http://www.lacs.lu/dual-citizenship/
for more information. This is done by phone and email. It does not appear you
will be driving to Belgium, Wisconsin unless you want to. But you may want to –
it’s full of genealogical information and helpful people.
No DUIs allowed
One thing
you might want to know up front is that Luxembourg is very harsh with DUI
offenders. If the applicant has had a DUI in the past 15 years, their
application for citizen Phase 1 will be denied.
Why a Luxembourg citizenship?
With
citizenship, one can work in Luxembourg. Work there for a minimum of 10 years,
there is a retirement system that would kick in. Also, people have included
their children in this process (for an extra fee) so that they could attend
school in Luxembourg.
What does the United States government
say about dual citizenship?
You should
check this out but it appears that it is not a big deal. Here’s the link to the
Department of State website which gives more information: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal-considerations/us-citizenship-laws-policies/citizenship-and-dual-nationality/dual-nationality.html
Another website with good information
including genealogy links?
Yes, the website
for Consulate General of Luxembourg in San Francisco had an easy to read webpage
on this subject. One link I especially like is “Genealogical Research Useful
Addresses” where you see seven Luxembourg genealogical links, some in
Luxembourg, some USA and there is a list of professional genealogists living in
Luxembourg. Nice! http://sanfrancisco.mae.lu/en/Consular-Services/Dual-Citizenship-Reclaiming-Nationality
Whether or
not you decide to check into this, if you have Luxembourg ancestry, some of the
links and websites, might be helpful to your Luxembourg genealogy research. If’
you have done this process, I’d love to hear from you. In the meantime, good
luck with your Luxembourg research.
Disclaimer: (my first!) I am not a legal
professional, and the information above is not a complete description of the
process or its possible results. I paid for membership at the Luxembourg American
Cultural Society, and have received no special benefits or gifts as a result of
my membership or this blog.
