Country guide · Austria

Does Austria allow dual citizenship with the USA?

Citizenship-by-Descent.com·Last reviewed November 2026

Educational information only — not legal advice. Always verify with the relevant authority, consulate or registry office.

Generally no. Austrian law works to avoid dual citizenship, but an American can legally hold both in three main situations: you were born with both, you claimed under section 58c as a descendant of a Nazi victim, or you got a retention permit before naturalising. An Austrian who becomes a US citizen by application without that permit loses Austrian citizenship automatically under section 27 of the Citizenship Act, and no authority has to do anything for it to happen. An American naturalising in Austria normally has to give up US citizenship. For descendants, section 27 is usually the reason there’s no claim to make, and section 58c is the main way around it.

The short answer

  • Born with both, for example in the US to an Austrian parent: you keep both and never have to choose under Austrian law.
  • Austrian who applies for US citizenship without a permit: Austrian citizenship ends automatically.
  • Austrian with a retention permit granted first: stays Austrian.
  • Descendant claiming under section 58c: keeps US citizenship. The notification is free.
  • American naturalising in Austria: generally must give up US citizenship.

What section 27 says

Section 27(1) of the Citizenship Act (Staatsbürgerschaftsgesetz, StbG) says a person loses Austrian citizenship if they acquire a foreign nationality on the basis of their application, their declaration or their express consent, unless they were granted retention beforehand. Three details decide most cases.

  • It’s automatic. The government’s oesterreich.gv.at portal says the loss happens by operation of law. No letter or decision is needed, so you can lose citizenship without anyone in Austria knowing.
  • It’s wider than naturalisation. The trigger is any application, declaration or express consent. Claiming a third citizenship by descent through a declaration or an application can therefore count. The portal’s point about children is that no positive declaration of will may be involved: the foreign citizenship has to arrive automatically under that country’s law.
  • Permission must come first. The portal says you must wait until the written decision has been issued and collected before you take further steps, such as applying for the foreign citizenship.

Children are treated separately. A minor under 14 loses citizenship only if a legal representative made or agreed to the application, and a minor aged 14 or over only if they also expressly agreed beforehand (sections 27(2) and (3)).

Section 29: a parent’s loss can reach the children

This catches families by surprise. Under section 29, the loss extends to the parent’s children if they are minors, unmarried and follow the parent into the new citizenship by law, or would do so if they didn’t already hold it. It doesn’t apply if the other parent remains Austrian. The Foreign Ministry says it also applies where children are dual citizens from birth and their Austrian parent takes on the spouse’s citizenship. So being born before the parent’s naturalisation doesn’t by itself protect a child.

How Austria got here

The principle is old, and section 27(1) reads the same in the first version of the 1985 Act held in Austria’s legal database. Most of the change has been in the exceptions.

  • Before 1 September 1983: fathers only. A child born in marriage was Austrian only if the father was.
  • 31 July 1985: the 1985 Act. Retention needed an interest of the Republic, based on the person’s achievements or a special reason. Private and family reasons weren’t a ground.
  • 1 January 1999: a family ground. Section 28(2) opened retention to citizens by descent with an especially significant reason in private and family life, if the foreign state agreed.
  • 23 March 2006: minors. The welfare of a minor became a ground.
  • 1 August 2013: wider descent. The foreign state’s agreement stopped being a condition under section 28(2). Children of unmarried Austrian fathers also became able to acquire citizenship at birth, if paternity was acknowledged or established within eight weeks of it.
  • 1 September 2020: descendants of Nazi victims. Section 58c was extended to direct descendants.
  • 1 May 2022: the current text. The version of section 58c in force today dates from this amendment. It includes people deported or killed by the regime, and their descendants.

The Act was amended again on 12 June 2026, but that change didn’t touch sections 27 to 29.

Getting a retention permit

Section 28 says retention must be granted in three situations:

  • Interest of the Republic. Retention is in the Republic’s interest because of your past and expected achievements, or for an especially significant reason. Where reciprocity exists the other state must agree, and you must meet the conduct conditions in section 10.
  • Minors. It serves the child’s welfare.
  • Citizens by descent. You became Austrian by descent and there’s an especially significant reason in your private and family life.

You apply in writing and sign in person. Abroad, the Foreign Ministry says you can file at the embassy or consulate general for your place of residence, but the decision belongs to the provincial government, which it says must apply a strict standard under case law. The permit is granted on condition that you acquire the foreign citizenship within two years (section 28(3)). At a hearing in Austria’s parliament in October 2025, a representative of the Austrians abroad association said personal reasons are rarely given weight in practice.

If you’ve decided to leave rather than apply, section 30 lets the authority confirm in writing that you’ll cease to be a citizen on taking the foreign nationality. Another country may ask for this.

Other ways Austrians lose citizenship

  • Foreign military service (section 32). Citizenship must be withdrawn from someone who voluntarily joins the military of a foreign state, even if they become stateless. The Foreign Ministry says compulsory service in a state whose nationality you also hold doesn’t lead to loss, but any voluntary extension does, even for one day.
  • Harm in foreign state service (section 33(1)). Withdrawal if a citizen in a foreign state’s service seriously damages the interests or reputation of the Republic.
  • Armed groups and terrorism (sections 33(2) and (3)). Citizenship must be withdrawn from a person who fights abroad for an organised armed group, and can be withdrawn after a terrorism conviction, in both cases only if that doesn’t leave them stateless.
  • Failing to leave a former citizenship (section 34). For people naturalised by grant who kept a foreign nationality through their own fault.
  • Renunciation (section 37). Only if you hold another nationality. After five uninterrupted years with your main residence abroad, the conditions on pending criminal cases and military service fall away.

Section 58c: dual citizenship for descendants of Nazi victims

Section 58c gives people persecuted by the Nazi regime, or for standing up for the democratic Republic, and their direct descendants a way to acquire citizenship by written notification. The rule requiring a new citizen to give up a previous one, section 10(3), isn’t among the conditions it applies, and the Austrian Embassy in Washington says descendants don’t have to give up their current citizenship. The notification, decision and required documents are free (section 58c(9)), and it can be filed at an Austrian consulate or embassy. If the conditions are met, you become a citizen on the day the notification reaches the authority (section 58c(7)).

Three limits matter for dual citizens.

  • Section 58c isn’t a lifetime exemption. The Act has no carve-out from section 27 for people who acquired citizenship this way. If you later take a further citizenship by application, section 27 applies, and the descent ground in section 28(2) refers to citizenship acquired by descent, so a permit may be harder to support. Ask before you act.
  • Section 58c(5) closes the descendant route in some cases. A person who lost Austrian citizenship under section 27 can’t use subsections (3) and (4), unless they didn’t know at the time that they were Austrian. It also excludes people who lost it under sections 32 to 34 or 37. Section 64a(35) applies this bar to losses from the entry into force of the 2022 amendment, which the database gives as 1 May 2022.
  • The usual conduct conditions apply to you. Parts of section 10 apply to the applicant, but they aren’t checked for the ancestor.

The full process is in our guide on Austrian citizenship for descendants of Nazi victims.

What other descendants need to know

  1. Was a parent Austrian on the day you were born? Whether you became Austrian at birth depends on the law in force at the time. For married parents the portal gives one date: on or after 1 September 1983, either parent counts; before that, only the father.
  2. Were your parents unmarried? Then the mother’s citizenship counted. Born on or after 1 August 2013, the father’s counts too, if he acknowledged paternity within eight weeks. If the parents later married while you were a minor, section 7a can apply.
  3. Did your Austrian parent naturalise abroad before your birth? Then they weren’t Austrian when you were born, unless they had a permit. Find the date in their naturalisation record. Our guide on USCIS naturalisation records explains how.
  4. Did your parent naturalise while you were a minor? Section 29 may have reached you, even though you were already Austrian.
  5. Has Austria treated you as a citizen for years? Under section 57, someone wrongly treated as a citizen by an Austrian authority for at least 15 years, through no fault of their own, can acquire citizenship by notification within six months of learning the truth, with retroactive effect.

If your status is unclear, section 42 allows a formal decision (Feststellungsbescheid) where you have a legal interest in it. Citizens living abroad get proof of citizenship from an Austrian embassy or consulate.

If you lost Austrian citizenship

There’s no general way back from abroad. Section 10(4) drops the ten-year residence requirement for someone who held citizenship for at least ten years without a break and lost it other than by withdrawal, but they must have a stay in Austria, and the rule that requires giving up other citizenship still applies. Section 12(1)(2) helps people who lost it while lacking full legal capacity, for example as children, and who live lawfully in Austria, if they apply within two years of gaining capacity. Section 13 covers some losses through marriage.

Americans naturalising in Austria

The ordinary rule in section 10(1) is ten years’ lawful, uninterrupted residence, five of them with settled status. Section 10(3) bars a grant to anyone who could leave their previous nationality and doesn’t, or who deliberately keeps it. The oesterreich.gv.at portal says citizenship is usually promised first, then you have two years to give up the old one, if that’s possible and reasonable. Austria drops the requirement only where the grant is in the Republic’s special interest because of extraordinary achievements (section 10(6)).

Is Austria changing the rules?

Not so far. We found no bill to change section 27. Citizens’ initiative 15/BI, “Clear and achievable criteria for keeping citizenship”, is before the National Council’s petitions committee. It follows an initiative filed in the previous parliament. Parliament says it seeks a change in the law to lower the hurdles for Austrians abroad, and at the hearing its supporter said the aim is a clear catalogue of criteria, not blanket approval. The committee last took it up on 22 October 2026 and adjourned it. An initiative isn’t a bill.

Separately, ministerial draft 152/ME, out for comment until 12 November 2026, would amend the Citizenship Act. The change we found in it concerns German language proof in section 11a(6), planned for 1 January 2027. It doesn’t touch sections 27 to 29.

The US side

The State Department’s Foreign Affairs Manual says US citizens who naturalise abroad don’t automatically lose US citizenship, and that an intent to keep it is presumed. Under 8 U.S.C. 1481, US citizenship ends only through a voluntary act done with the intention of giving it up. So the problem for an American naturalising in Austria is Austria’s requirement, and giving up US citizenship would be a formal, deliberate step. The Manual also says the US doesn’t encourage dual nationality, that the other country has a predominant claim on you while you’re there, and that you must leave and enter the US on a US passport, with limited exceptions. See European citizenship by descent for Americans.

Practical steps

  1. Build the timeline. List births, marriages and any naturalisation, and compare them with the 1983 and 2013 dates. Our document chain guide covers the paperwork.
  2. If you’re Austrian and want another citizenship, apply for retention first, and don’t start the foreign application until you have the written decision.
  3. If you’re dual from birth, don’t apply for a third citizenship, or volunteer for a foreign military, without advice.
  4. If you have minor children, check section 29 before you naturalise, and ask whether they need a retention permit of their own.
  5. If persecution is in your family history, look at section 58c first.

To check whether you have a claim at all, use our free citizenship by descent checker and the Austrian citizenship by descent guide. For other countries, see dual citizenship by descent, country by country, including German dual citizenship.

Frequently asked questions

Does Austria allow dual citizenship with the USA?

As a general rule, no. The Foreign Ministry says Austrian citizenship law doesn’t permit dual or multiple citizenship. There are exceptions: a child born with both citizenships keeps both, a person who claims under section 58c doesn’t have to give up their other citizenship, and an Austrian who gets a retention permit before naturalising stays Austrian. An Austrian who becomes American without a permit loses Austrian citizenship automatically.

I was born in the US to an Austrian parent. Do I have to choose at 18?

No. If you got both citizenships automatically at birth, the Foreign Ministry says you never have to choose under Austrian law, even on reaching adulthood. You stay Austrian as long as you don’t trigger a loss. Watch out for voluntarily joining a foreign military, and for later applying for or declaring a third citizenship, which section 27 treats like any other acquisition.

Can I become a US citizen and stay Austrian?

Only with a retention permit granted before you naturalise. Section 28 has three grounds: an interest of the Republic because of your achievements or a special reason, the welfare of a minor, or, for people Austrian by descent, an especially significant reason in private and family life. The Foreign Ministry says the assessment is strict. You then have two years to take the new citizenship.

Do I have to give up US citizenship to claim Austrian citizenship under section 58c?

No. Section 58c doesn’t apply section 10(3), the rule that requires giving up a previous citizenship, and the Austrian Embassy in Washington says descendants can acquire citizenship without having to give up their current citizenship or nationality. The procedure is free. Once you’re Austrian, though, section 27 applies to you like anyone else if you take another citizenship later.

If I naturalise abroad, do my children lose Austrian citizenship too?

They can. Section 29 extends the loss to unmarried minor children who follow you into the new citizenship by law, or would if they didn’t already have it, unless the other parent remains Austrian. The Foreign Ministry says this applies even to children who are dual citizens from birth. A child aged 14 or over must have expressly agreed for the loss to apply.

Can a dual Austrian-American join the US military?

Voluntarily joining the military of a foreign state means Austrian citizenship has to be withdrawn under section 32, even if that leaves the person stateless. It’s done through a proceeding, not automatically. The Foreign Ministry says compulsory service in a state of which you’re also a national doesn’t cost you citizenship, but any voluntary extension, even of a day, does.

My grandfather left Austria and became American. Can I claim citizenship?

Usually not by ordinary descent. Under section 7 what counts is a parent who was Austrian at your birth, so a grandparent only helps if the line stayed unbroken, and taking US citizenship by application generally broke it. Section 58c is the exception: if he was persecuted by the Nazi regime or fled for fear of it, direct descendants of every generation can claim by notification.

Official sources

Checked against these sources on 6 November 2026. The Act was read in German, in the version in force that day, and the translations are ours. The main legal database website showed a security check that day, so we used its open data service. Only the Austrian authorities can decide your case; confirm with your provincial government, an embassy or a consulate before you rely on this.