Czech Citizenship by Declaration (2026): Who Qualifies

You can acquire Czech citizenship by declaration if at least one parent or grandparent held Czech or Czechoslovak citizenship and lost it before 1 January 2014, and you are not a Slovak citizen on the day you declare. It is an entitlement under Section 31(3) of Act No. 186/2013 Coll., not a discretionary grant: no language test, no residence, no oath, and you keep your current citizenship. Great-grandchildren are not covered.

Who can make the declaration

Section 31 of the Citizenship Act has three groups that matter to descendants abroad:

Former citizens themselves (Section 31(1)): anyone who lost Czech or Czechoslovak citizenship before the Act took effect on 1 January 2014.
Adult children and grandchildren (Section 31(3)): anyone with at least one parent or grandparent who is or was such a former citizen. This was added by Act No. 207/2019 Coll., in force since 6 September 2019. Before that, descendants of emigrants had no declaration route of their own.
Minor children (Section 31(5)): a parent can make a separate declaration for a child under 18 who is the child or grandchild of a former citizen.

How your ancestor lost citizenship does not matter. For most American, Canadian and Australian families, it was by naturalising abroad, since Czechoslovak and Czech law generally did not allow dual citizenship before 2014. It also does not matter whether the former citizen is still alive.

Who is excluded

You hold Slovak citizenship on the day you declare. Every version of the Section 31 declaration is closed to Slovak citizens, and the embassies ask you to sign a separate statement that you are not one.
Your ancestor lost citizenship under the 1945 decree on people of German and Hungarian nationality, or under the 1945 treaty with the USSR on Transcarpathian Ukraine.
Your ancestor was on the Slovak side. The law excludes a Czechoslovak citizen who became, or would have become, a citizen of the Slovak Socialist Republic on 1 January 1969, or who later acquired Slovak citizenship and still holds it. If your ancestor came from present-day Slovakia, the Slovak route is usually the one to look at.
Your parent only became Czech under Section 33 (the one-year window in 2014 for people born abroad between 1949 and 1969). The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says such a person does not count as a former citizen for Section 31(3).
Your ancestor emigrated and naturalised before 28 October 1918. Czechoslovakia did not exist yet, so they were an Austro-Hungarian subject and never held Czechoslovak citizenship to lose.

Can a great-grandchild get Czech citizenship by descent?

Not by declaration. Section 31(3) stops at parents and grandparents, and the consolidated text of the Act in force since 1 October 2025 has no wider wording. A 2023 bill to extend it to great-grandchildren lapsed when the Chamber’s term ended in October 2025 and has not been refiled. Be wary of websites that say otherwise. The full story, and what the bill would have covered, is in our guide to Czech citizenship for great-grandchildren.

What a great-grandchild can still do:

Your parent declares first. If your parent is the former citizen’s grandchild, your parent can declare. That doesn’t extend to you, even if you’re under 18: the separate declaration for children only covers the former citizen’s own children and grandchildren. Once your parent is Czech, any child born to them afterwards is Czech by birth.
Permanent residence for people of Czech origin. This has no generation limit. It is a residence permit, not citizenship, and leads to naturalisation only after years of living in the country and Czech language and civics exams. See Czech permanent residence for people of Czech origin.

More on how other countries treat great-grandchildren is in citizenship through great-grandparents.

Documents you need

Section 31(4) lists what goes with the declaration, and the embassies add a few practical items:

Your birth certificate, and your marriage, divorce or partnership documents if you have them.
Your parents’ birth and marriage certificates (and divorce or death certificates where relevant).
Your grandparents’ birth and marriage certificates, if you are claiming through a grandparent.
Proof of the date and manner in which your ancestor lost Czech or Czechoslovak citizenship. Usually this is the original US Certificate of Naturalization, a Canadian citizenship certificate, or a release from Czechoslovak citizenship. If you don’t have the naturalisation record, see our guide to USCIS genealogy and naturalisation records.
Evidence of the ancestor’s Czech roots: their Czech birth or marriage record, and copies of old Czechoslovak documents such as a passport or a domovský list (a certificate of domicile right in a municipality, which was the basis for Czechoslovak citizenship in its early years). The Washington embassy also asks for a family tree and the ancestor’s last Czechoslovak address and year of emigration.
Valid ID. A US passport or driver’s licence is fine if you have no Czech ID.
The declaration form (for Section 31(3) or 31(5)), a personal data form and the Slovak non-citizenship statement.

The law does not ask for a criminal record certificate for this declaration, and none of the embassy pages we checked list one.

Apostilles and translations. Foreign documents need an apostille and a translation into Czech by a translator registered with the Czech Ministry of Justice. Documents in Slovak need no translation. The forms themselves must be filled in in Czech. The embassies disagree on one point: Los Angeles says a US Certificate of Naturalization needs neither an apostille nor a translation, while Washington says it needs both (the apostille comes from the US Department of State). Ask your own consulate, and if in doubt, prepare it with both. See our apostille guide and certified translation guide.

If your name has no Czech diacritics and you want to keep it that way, the Washington embassy says you need a separate declaration on the right to use your current name.

Where to file

Under Section 37 of the Act, the declaration is decided by the regional office (krajský úřad) for your, or your family’s, last permanent residence in the Czech Republic. If you never had permanent residence there, which is the usual case for descendants abroad, the Prague 1 Municipal District Office decides. In Prague, the city district offices handle it.

From abroad, you make the declaration at a Czech embassy or consulate, which has 30 days to send it with your documents to the deciding office. The US and Canadian missions require you to come in person by appointment:

United States: the Embassy in Washington and the Consulates General in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Washington says filing is in person only and incomplete files are not processed.
Canada: the Embassy in Ottawa or the Consulate General in Toronto. Ottawa also lets an honorary consulate verify your identity and signature and post the file.

Bring a prepaid, trackable return envelope if you want your original documents posted back.

Fees

The fees are set in the Administrative Fees Act (No. 634/2004 Coll.), checked in the version in force from 1 September 2026:

Declaration filed at an embassy or consulate: CZK 1,000 (item 159b), charged in local currency at the current rate.
Declaration filed at an office in the Czech Republic: CZK 500 (item 8, point 16).
Registering your birth with the Special Registry in Brno through an embassy: CZK 200 (item 163).
First Czech passport at an embassy: CZK 2,400 from age 15, CZK 400 under 15 (item 157).

Washington takes card or cash for Section 31 declarations, not checks. Your real costs will mostly be documents: certified copies, apostilles and Czech translations for every generation.

How long it takes

The Ministry of the Interior says a decision is made within 60 days of the declaration, on top of up to 30 days for the embassy to forward it. If your ancestor emigrated before 1953, the Washington embassy warns that archive research takes at least six more months. If the conditions aren’t met, the office issues a decision that you did not acquire citizenship, which you can appeal.

When you actually become Czech

Not on approval. Under Section 37(3), you become a Czech citizen on the day you receive the certificate of acquisition of citizenship (listina o nabytí státního občanství). If you receive it abroad, you must sign a confirmation of receipt at the embassy or post it back; until you do, the procedure is not complete.

After the declaration: Czech birth certificate and passport

Register your birth in Brno. Births and marriages of Czech citizens abroad are recorded in the Special Registry (Zvláštní matrika) at the Brno-střed Municipal District Office, including after citizenship by declaration. You can apply through any Czech embassy or directly in Brno, with your apostilled and translated foreign birth certificate and proof of Czech citizenship. The Brno office keeps the original, so order a spare copy first. Register a marriage the same way if you have one.
Apply for a passport. In Los Angeles, a first passport needs your Czech birth certificate, proof of citizenship (a citizenship document not older than 12 months if you have no Czech passport or ID), and an in-person appointment. The consulate gives a deadline of 120 days, currently about two months. Adult passports are valid for 10 years.

Czech declaration vs. the Slovak route

Czechoslovakia split on 1 January 1993, and the two countries treat descendants very differently:

Czech declaration: any former Czech or Czechoslovak citizen (apart from the exclusions above), children and grandchildren only, and it is an entitlement.
Slovak route: a grant of citizenship that the Ministry of Interior decides, for descendants up to great-grandchildren of a Czechoslovak citizen born in present-day Slovakia. See Slovak citizenship by descent. The Slovak living abroad certificate recognises heritage but is not citizenship.

You usually can’t hold both through these routes. The Czech declaration is closed to anyone who is already a Slovak citizen, and Slovak law can take away Slovak citizenship from someone who voluntarily acquires another one later. If you might qualify for both, decide which one you want before filing either.

Czech declaration vs. permanent residence for people of Czech origin

The compatriot residence route is for people with ethnic Czech roots who don’t qualify for the declaration, for example great-grandchildren or descendants of pre-1918 emigrants. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirms that you belong to the Czech compatriot community, which takes your Czech language and cultural ties into account, and you then apply for permanent residence, which is decided case by case. Citizenship comes later by naturalisation. If you qualify for the declaration, it is far quicker and simpler. Full details are in Czech permanent residence for people of Czech origin.

For the parent route and the wider picture, see the Czech citizenship by descent guide, and to plan your paperwork, the documents checklist.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get Czech citizenship through a great-grandparent?

Not by declaration. Section 31(3) covers people whose parent or grandparent was a former Czech or Czechoslovak citizen, and nothing further back. Extending it to great-grandchildren has been proposed, but no such amendment is in the law as of October 2026. Your parent can declare if they are the grandchild, but that doesn't extend to you at any age: the separate declaration for children under section 31(5) only covers children and grandchildren of the former citizen. Look at permanent residence for people of Czech origin, and check whether your ancestor ever actually lost Czechoslovak citizenship (see our guide for great-grandchildren).

Is there a Czech language test or an oath?

No. The declaration has no language test, no residence requirement and no interview in the law. The citizenship oath in the Act applies to people who are granted citizenship by naturalisation, not to declarations.

Do I have to give up my US, Canadian or Australian citizenship?

No. The Czech Republic has allowed dual citizenship since the current Citizenship Act took effect on 1 January 2014, and the declaration does not require you to renounce anything.

How much does the declaration cost?

The fee schedule sets CZK 1,000 for accepting the declaration at a Czech embassy or consulate (item 159b), and CZK 500 if you file at an office inside the Czech Republic. Consulates abroad charge the CZK amount in local currency at the current rate. Translations, apostilles and certified copies cost extra.

How long does it take?

The embassy has 30 days to send your declaration to the deciding office, and the Ministry of the Interior says a decision is made within 60 days of the declaration. The Washington embassy warns that if your ancestor emigrated before 1953, archive research adds at least six months.

Does it matter if my grandparent is no longer alive?

No. The Los Angeles consulate states that it is irrelevant whether the former citizen is still alive. You still need their records.

I live in Canada. Is the process different?

The rules are the same. You file in person at the Embassy in Ottawa or the Consulate General in Toronto, or through an honorary consulate that verifies your identity and posts the file. The Ottawa embassy says Canadian civil documents need an apostille plus a Czech translation, and that a Canadian citizenship certificate can serve as proof that your ancestor lost Czechoslovak citizenship. If you only have a commemorative citizenship certificate, email the embassy first.

Official sources

Checked against these sources on 24 October 2026. Rules, forms and fees change; confirm with your Czech embassy or consulate before you book an appointment.