The 6 quickest and easiest ways to get EU citizenship
Being an EU citizen is something that is coveted by a lot of people since it grants you free movement in almost all of Europe. And contrary to popular belief, it's actually not too difficult to get it now.
Everyone knows that getting married to an EU citizen is one of the most effective ways to get EU citizenship yourself, but that's not a very viable option for most people so here are the 6 best ways to acquire it outside of marriage from quickest onwards:
1.) Ancestry - 6-12+ months (citizenship application processing time)
If you have eligible ancestry from certain EU countries, you could automatically qualify for citizenship after some paperwork and bureaucracy.
There are different requirements for this (including proof that your ancestors were citizens), but the easiest ones are the ones that allow you to go as far back as your great-grandparents (or even further):
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Greece
- Hungary (need to be fluent in Hungarian)
- Ireland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Poland
- Romania
- Slovakia
Then there's those that go as far back as your grandparents:
- Czechia
- Malta
- Portugal
- Slovenia
- Spain
And those that only go as far back as your parents:
- Austria
- Belgium
- Cyprus
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Netherlands
- Sweden
And then there's the EFTA countries which also grant freedom of movement in the EU and only go as far back as your parents too:
- Iceland
- Liechtenstein
- Norway
- Switzerland
Each one of these has its own requirements so if you think you might have provable descent from one of them, read up on it and who knows, you might just get lucky.
2.) Malta's Golden Visa program - 1 year (1 year of residency in Malta + €750k contribution)
There are a few Golden Visa programs in Europe, but Malta is the only one that offers citizenship after just a year of residency. The catch is that you have to invest at least €750k in Malta's National Development and Social Fund.
Note that this is not a real estate or business investment that would give you a financial ROI (those do exist too, but aren't as great anymore compared to the other options below), but rather more of a non-refundable donation to the country.
So in essence, you're simply buying an EU passport at a super high price.
If you want to save €150k, you could also donate a lower amount of €600k instead, but you'd have to stay in Malta for 3 years to be able to apply for citizenship. However, if you're someone who would even consider investing €600k just for a passport, what's another €150k to speed it up by 2 years?
If you'd rather not drop several hundred Gs though (like most people), then read on.
3.) Ibero-American & former colony citizens - 2 years (2 years of residency in Spain)
Citizens of former Spanish colonies + Brazil can acquire EU citizenship through Spain by moving to Spain for 2 years. The easiest way to get residency in Spain for 2 years is by getting a Digital Nomad Visa.
The countries/regions that qualify for this are:
- Argentina
- Bolivia
- Brazil
- Chile
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- El Salvador
- Equatorial Guinea
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- Mexico
- Nicaragua
- Panama
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Philippines
- Puerto Rico*
- Uruguay
- Venezuela
*Since Puerto Rico is not a country and Puerto Ricans are simply US citizens, they instead need to prove their Puerto Rican "citizenship" through a document called the "Certificado de Nacionalidad Puertorriqueña". This comes in handy for non Puerto Rican US citizens, see below.
4.) American citizens - 3 years (1 year of residency in Puerto Rico + 2 years of residency in Spain)
The great thing about Puerto Rico being a part of the US is that this means non-Puerto Rican US citizens can also take advantage of the exemption made for Puerto Rico and acquire Spanish citizenship after only 1 year of residency in Puerto Rico to qualify for the certificate mentioned earlier.
Then all they have to do is spend 2 years in Spain for a total of only 3 years needed to acquire EU citizenship. This is a great hack for American citizens looking to speed up their path to an EU passport.
Edit: if you're serious about trying this loophole, consult with a Spanish immigration lawyer first since there is conflicting information out there about the validity of this hack.
5.) (Theoretical) Non-US citizens who can acquire residency in the US - 3 years (1 year of residency in Puerto Rico + potential tuition fees + 2 years of residency in Spain)
Theoretically, even non-American citizens could also take advantage of the Puerto Rico loophole by acquiring US residency first, spending a year in Puerto Rico, getting the certificate needed, and then moving to Spain for 2 years.
I would imagine that a student visa for a Puerto Rican university would be the easiest visa type to obtain so if you're willing to go to school for a year, including paying the international student tuition fees for it for a year, then drop out and spend 2 years in Spain, you could potentially get your EU citizenship 2 years sooner than you'd otherwise normally be able to (see below).
Of course, this is merely an idea. I don't know if Puerto Rican authorities will grant the "citizenship" certificate to non-US citizens on a student visa, it's quite possible they wouldn't, so YMMV here.
Edit: if you're serious about trying this loophole, consult with a Spanish immigration lawyer first since there is conflicting information out there about the validity of this hack.
6.) Everyone else - 5 years (5 years of residency in Portugal)
For everyone else, there are several different EU countries that allow you to apply for citizenship after 5 years of residency, but I highlight Portugal here since their Digital Nomad Visa can be extended for up to 5 years, meaning you could simply stay 5 years under that easy-to-get visa and then apply for citizenship.
Other countries have 10 year residency requirements for citizenship (like Spain & Italy), or only allow you to extend your DNV up to 2 or 3 years, or don't even offer a DNV to begin with, so Portugal is unique and more advantageous in this regard.
So if you're serious about acquiring EU citizenship and don't qualify for any of the previous methods mentioned, then this would be your best bet.
Anyway, this was fun for me to look into. Hopefully someone got some value out of it!
Edit: there is some contention on the topic of the Puerto Rico loophole discussed in options 4 and 5. I am by no means an expert in this, I'm merely conveying information that I have found.
Spanish immigration lawyers say that as long as you have the certificate mentioned here, it doesn't matter if you are actually Puerto Rican or not, you still qualify.
At the same time though, the Civil Counsel in Spain says you need to have been born in Puerto Rico (or have parents born in Puerto Rico) to qualify, regardless of whether or not you have the certificate.
However, it's arguably in the Civil Counsel of Spain's best interest to not promote loopholes like this one so they not be telling the whole truth. The only way to really find out is to try it yourself.