Residency by Descent: The Fastest EU Citizenship Paths in 2026

Citizenship by descent is the only residency-free EU citizenship pathway open to most Americans, Canadians, Australians, and New Zealanders. The legal bases vary by country, as do the documentary thresholds and the current backlogs. The fastest pathway in principle is often not the fastest pathway in practice.

**Ireland.** One Irish-born parent or grandparent is sufficient. If a parent was Irish at the time of the applicant's birth, the applicant is Irish by operation of law and only needs to apply for a passport. If the connection is through a grandparent, the applicant must first be entered on the Foreign Births Register — a process that takes, per Department of Foreign Affairs published service levels, roughly 18 months as of early 2026, down from a 24-month peak in 2023. Required documents are straightforward: original long-form birth certificates for the Irish-born ancestor and each intermediate parent, plus the applicant. Marriage certificates close the chain where names change. Irish Foreign Births Register processing is the most forgiving of this list — documentary gaps from the pre-1864 civil-registration era are usually the only hard obstacles.

**Italy.** The Italian jure sanguinis regime, codified in Law 91 of 1992, recognises descent through the male line without generational limit, and through the female line for descendants of women who were Italian citizens after January 1, 1948. There is no theoretical cap — an applicant with an Italian great-great-grandfather who emigrated in 1880 and never naturalised in his new country remains Italian. The practical constraints are documentary: every ancestor's birth, marriage, and death certificate back to the Italian ancestor, plus proof that the Italian ancestor did not naturalise before the next generation's birth. This last proof comes from the US National Archives, Canadian Library and Archives, or their national equivalents, and is the single most time-consuming piece of most Italian applications. Consular processing has backlogs of 18–36 months at many US consulates; judicial applications filed directly in Italian court following a minor-issue case win have accelerated in 2024, though the legal landscape is evolving quickly. The Cassation Court's 2024 decision narrowing the "minor issue" interpretation tightened one pathway. For most applicants, 2–4 years from gathering documents to recognition is realistic.

**Poland.** The 2009 Act on Polish Citizenship allows confirmation of citizenship for descendants of Polish citizens who did not affirmatively renounce citizenship or lose it under specific historical provisions. The key dividing date is January 19, 1920 — the Polish Citizenship Act of that year — with earlier emigrants treated differently. Documentary requirements are similar to the Italian case: a complete chain of birth and marriage records linking the applicant to the Polish ancestor. The Voivode-level processing times run 12–24 months. The added complexity is the historical-citizenship question: Polish authorities require proof that the ancestor was Polish under the 1920 law and did not lose citizenship by, for example, service in a foreign military or foreign naturalisation before certain dates.

**Greece.** Greek citizenship by descent is administered under Law 3284/2004. The pathway operates through "definition of Greek citizenship" (kathorismos ithageneias) at the Greek consulate or directly at the relevant Greek municipality. Processing times range from 18 months to 4 years depending on consulate and the complexity of the documentary chain. Greek law requires proving the applicant's ancestors were registered in a Greek municipality's demotologio (municipal register) or mitroo arrenon (male register). For descendants whose ancestors left Greece before 1940, original records may exist only in regional archives and require in-country retrieval. The Greek pathway is the least predictable of this list; applicants should budget for it rather than plan around it.

**Germany.** Germany is a restitution jurisdiction rather than a general jure sanguinis jurisdiction. The core provision is §15 of the Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz, which restores citizenship to descendants of Germans who lost it between January 30, 1933, and May 8, 1945, on political, racial, or religious grounds — principally Jewish families forced to emigrate during the Nazi period. Related provisions cover women who lost German citizenship through marriage to a foreigner before 1953 and their descendants. Documentation is strict: proof of the ancestor's German citizenship, proof of loss during the qualifying period, and a documentary chain of descent. Federal Administrative Office (Bundesverwaltungsamt) processing times are currently 24–36 months. The pathway is narrow but generous: successful applicants receive German citizenship in addition to their existing citizenship, with no residency requirement.

The broader picture is that descent-based citizenship is almost always a documentary problem rather than a legal problem. The statutes are reasonably clear; the obstacle is reconstructing civil-registration chains through three or four generations of emigration, name changes, religious conversions, and missing records from two world wars. Applicants who start gathering certificates at the start of the process, before engaging a lawyer or consulate, typically shorten the overall timeline by six months to a year. Those who wait to be told what they need typically do not. The timelines above are for the government side of the process. The genealogical side can be longer, and it is the part the applicant controls.