7 Ways to Obtain a Second Citizenship

There is no single “second citizenship application.” There are seven distinct legal doors, each built on a different premise (blood, time, marriage, money, or history), and each with its own cost, timeline, and eligibility bar. Some of these doors have narrowed sharply in the last two years; a couple have closed outright. This is a plain accounting of what still works in late 2026, what to be skeptical of, and who each path actually fits.

1. Citizenship by descent (jus sanguinis)

If a parent, grandparent, or in some cases a more distant ancestor held citizenship of another country, you may already qualify for that country’s citizenship without ever having lived there. This is the fastest and cheapest path for the people who clear it, because it isn’t a request for a new status; it’s a request to have an existing legal claim recognized on paper.

The catch is that “who clears it” is entirely country-specific and has been moving. Italy long allowed claims to trace back indefinitely through an unbroken paternal or (after a court ruling) maternal line, but 2025’s Tajani law restricted new claims going forward to a parent or grandparent who was an Italian citizen, with tighter “exclusively Italian ancestry” requirements. Ireland remains comparatively generous, generally covering an Irish-born parent or grandparent. Canada’s Bill C-3 restored eligibility for people previously cut off by a first-generation limit. Poland, Hungary, and Germany all have workable descent provisions with their own generational cutoffs and documentation demands.

Who it fits: anyone with documented foreign ancestry within the eligible generations. Cost/speed: low cost, months to a couple of years, almost entirely a paperwork and archival exercise rather than a legal long shot.

2. Naturalization through residency

This is the path most people picture: move to a country, hold a qualifying visa, live there for a set number of years, and apply. Requirements typically include language proficiency, a clean record, demonstrated ties (employment, property, family), and sometimes formal renunciation of a prior citizenship depending on the destination’s dual-citizenship rules.

It’s open to nearly anyone willing to commit the time, with no ancestry or marriage required, which is its real advantage. The tradeoff is the timeline: residency-based naturalization commonly takes five to ten years and requires genuinely living in the country for most of that period, which rules it out for anyone who wants a passport without relocating.

Who it fits: people willing to relocate, retire abroad, or who are already living overseas long-term. Cost/speed: modest direct cost, but years of your life and an actual move.

3. Citizenship through marriage

Marrying a citizen of another country can shorten a residency requirement considerably, sometimes to a year or two, though almost no country grants citizenship automatically at the wedding. Most still require a period of residency or a registered marriage abroad plus a formal application, an interview or documentation proving the marriage is genuine, and in many cases basic language or integration requirements.

This route only exists for people who are already married, or planning to marry, a foreign national. It isn’t something to pursue as a standalone strategy, but for those it applies to, it’s often the fastest non-ancestry route available.

Who it fits: spouses (or fiancés) of foreign nationals. Cost/speed: low direct cost, one to five-plus years depending on the country.

4. Citizenship by investment (CBI)

A small number of countries, mostly in the Caribbean, allow citizenship in exchange for a qualifying financial contribution to a national fund, real estate purchase, or business investment, often within months and without any residency requirement. This is the most expensive path by a wide margin, typically well into six figures, and the one most exposed to sudden policy change.

That exposure isn’t theoretical. Malta’s citizenship-by-investment program, once one of the highest-profile CBI routes into the EU, was shut down in 2025 after sustained pressure from the European Commission. Anyone evaluating a CBI program today needs to verify against the government’s current, official terms rather than older marketing material, since program details and price points change without much notice.

Who it fits: people with significant capital and no ancestral or marital tie who want speed and are comfortable with policy risk. Cost/speed: high cost, months, but program availability itself is not guaranteed to hold.

5. Golden visa, then naturalization

A related but distinct route: obtain residency (not citizenship) through a qualifying investment, then naturalize after living in the country long enough to meet the ordinary residency requirement. This is slower than CBI but generally far cheaper, and it runs through a country’s normal naturalization process rather than a bespoke citizenship-for-money law, which makes it politically sturdier, though not immune to change.

Spain closed its Golden Visa program to new applicants in April 2025, following Portugal’s earlier move away from real-estate-qualifying investments. Other European residency-by-investment programs remain active but face tightening scrutiny and shifting minimum investment thresholds, so current terms need to be confirmed directly with the issuing government before you plan around them. We cover the programs still standing, and how this route compares to straight CBI, in more detail on our golden visa deep dive.

Who it fits: people with capital who are willing to trade CBI’s speed for a materially lower price and a more conventional legal footing. Cost/speed: moderate-to-high cost, several years total once naturalization is included.

6. Historical redress and restitution citizenship

A handful of countries offer citizenship as a form of legal atonement to descendants of people they stripped of citizenship or expelled. Germany’s Article 116(2) restores citizenship to descendants of people who lost it under Nazi-era persecution, including cases the German government previously interpreted narrowly; reforms in recent years expanded eligibility for several categories of descendants who had been excluded on technical grounds.

Portugal and Spain both created similar routes for descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492. These have not held up as stable, reliably open doors: Spain’s dedicated Sephardic law carried a statutory deadline that has since passed, and Portugal’s version has gone through repeated rounds of proposed restriction and legal challenge, with its current shape genuinely unsettled as of this writing. Anyone considering either route should treat confident claims that it’s simply “open” or “closed” with real skepticism and verify status directly with a consulate or the relevant Jewish community body before relying on it.

Who it fits: descendants of specific, legally recognized historical persecution or expulsion, where the underlying documentation exists. Cost/speed: varies widely; Germany’s route is comparatively established, the Sephardic routes are currently in flux and require direct verification before you invest time in them.

7. Citizenship by exceptional merit

A small number of countries reserve a discretionary path for individuals judged to have made an exceptional contribution to national life: elite athletes competing under a new flag, scientists, artists, or figures a government decides it wants to claim. This isn’t an application process in the ordinary sense; it’s typically a government or head-of-state decision, with no fixed criteria an applicant can simply satisfy.

Who it fits: a genuinely small number of people with an extraordinary, publicly recognized record in their field. Cost/speed: not cost-based and not something to plan around; it’s the exception, not a route.

Which door is actually yours

Descent is the cheapest and fastest path when you qualify, but the generational rules are specific and have moved in both directions recently. Residency-based naturalization is open to almost anyone but demands years of actually living abroad. Marriage can be fast but only applies if you’re already partnered with a foreign national. Investment routes, whether CBI or golden-visa-then-naturalization, are open to those with capital but carry real policy risk, as Malta and Spain’s applicants learned firsthand. Historical redress routes are powerful when they apply but, in the Sephardic case especially, currently unstable enough that they need a direct answer from a consulate, not a blog post. Exceptional merit isn’t a path most people can plan for at all.

For most people exploring a second passport, the honest first move isn’t picking a program off this list; it’s finding out which of these doors, if any, you already qualify to walk through, usually through a parent’s or grandparent’s birthplace, a spouse, or a country you’ve already spent time living in.

Take the Second Pass eligibility quiz

Informational only, not legal or tax advice.