Lithuanian dual citizenship: who can hold it, and who has to choose

Lithuania allows dual citizenship only in the cases its Law on Citizenship lists. For most descendants in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia the one that matters is simple: if your ancestor held Lithuanian citizenship before 15 June 1940 and left Lithuania, or was exiled, before 11 March 1990, you can restore Lithuanian citizenship and keep your current one. If you don’t fit a listed case, you have to choose. Referendums in 2019 and 2024 tried to widen the rules and both failed.

The short answer

• Descendants of pre-1990 emigrants, refugees and deportees: dual citizenship is allowed. This covers children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of a person who held Lithuanian citizenship before 15 June 1940.
• People whose family moved to the Soviet Union after 15 June 1940: they don’t count as having “left Lithuania”. Restoration is still possible, but only by renouncing other citizenship (unless the move was a forced exile).
• Lithuanians who emigrated after 11 March 1990 and naturalised abroad: they generally lost Lithuanian citizenship on the day they took the other one, unless another Article 7 case applies.
• The Lithuanian-descent route (certificate of Lithuanian descent): no dual citizenship. It is only for people who are not nationals of another state.

Who can hold Lithuanian and another citizenship: the Article 7 list

Lithuania’s Constitution says no one may be a citizen of Lithuania and another state at the same time, except in individual cases provided for by law. Those cases are in Article 7 of the Law on Citizenship. As reproduced by the Migration Department, a Lithuanian citizen may also be a citizen of another state if they:

1. acquired Lithuanian and another citizenship at birth;
2. were exiled from occupied Lithuania before 11 March 1990;
3. left Lithuania before 11 March 1990;
4. are a descendant of a person in point 2 or 3;
5. automatically (by operation of law) acquired a spouse’s citizenship by marrying a foreign citizen;
6. were adopted by Lithuanian citizens before age 18 and acquired Lithuanian citizenship that way;
7. were a Lithuanian citizen adopted by foreign citizens before age 18, and acquired that other citizenship through the adoption;
8. were granted Lithuanian citizenship by way of exception while already a citizen of another state;
9. kept Lithuanian citizenship, or had it returned, for special merit to the State of Lithuania;
10. acquired Lithuanian citizenship while holding refugee status in Lithuania;
11. acquired Lithuanian citizenship at birth and then, before turning 18, acquired another citizenship other than at birth.

The Migration Department also lists a narrow transitional group: people who acquired another citizenship between 1 January 2003 and 15 November 2006 and can prove their own, a parent’s, grandparent’s or great-grandparent’s Lithuanian citizenship before 15 June 1940, or their Lithuanian descent.

There is no exception for EU, NATO or any other group of countries. That idea comes from the 2019 referendum, which failed.

What “left Lithuania before 11 March 1990” means

11 March 1990 is the day Lithuania restored its independence. The Migration Department defines a person who left Lithuania before that date as someone who:

• held Lithuanian citizenship before 15 June 1940, or is a descendant of such a person; and
• before 11 March 1990 left the present territory of Lithuania to live permanently in another state, and was not living in Lithuania on 11 March 1990.

The definition excludes people who, after 15 June 1940, moved from Lithuania to the territory of the former Soviet Union. For them, restoration is possible only by renouncing other citizenship.

Exiles are a separate category. A person exiled from occupied Lithuania is someone who held citizenship before 15 June 1940 (or descends from such a person) and was forcibly removed from Lithuania between 15 June 1940 and 11 March 1990 by decision of the occupying regimes’ institutions or courts, on grounds of resistance or for political, social or origin reasons. So a family deported to Siberia is covered by the exile exception even though it went to Soviet territory. Exile can be proved with a certificate from the Lithuanian Special Archives, the Prosecutor’s Office or the Supreme Court of Lithuania.

A descendant means a child, grandchild or great-grandchild of the person who held citizenship before 15 June 1940. That is the same generational limit as restoration itself.

How restoration applicants keep their US, UK or other citizenship

Restoration doesn’t need a separate dual-citizenship application. The Migration Department says people who held citizenship before 15 June 1940 and their descendants must normally not be nationals of another state, and that this requirement does not apply to people who left or were exiled before 11 March 1990, or to their descendants. You show this in the restoration application itself, by attaching proof of departure.

Documents the Migration Department gives as examples of proof of departure before 11 March 1990:

• travel contracts made before 15 June 1940 (held at the Lithuanian Central State Archives);
• ship passenger lists and immigrant lists;
• archive documents on stays in displaced-persons camps;
• immigration certificates;
• data from foreign registers;
• visas issued for leaving Lithuania (post-1940 Soviet exit visas are in the Lithuanian Special Archives).

The list isn’t exhaustive. For a US family, an arrival manifest plus a naturalization file often does the job; our USCIS genealogy records guide explains how to order those. Watch the naturalization date, though. An ancestor who naturalised abroad before 15 June 1940 can break the line entirely, as the Lithuania guide explains.

If you’re not covered: renounce or lose

Two rules apply, depending on which side of the process you’re on.

• Getting citizenship without an exception: you must give up your other citizenship. For restoration, the Migration Department can first issue a certificate confirming that you have the right to restore Lithuanian citizenship by renouncing the other one, so you aren’t left with neither. It also says restoration can go ahead when the other country has no procedure for renouncing or losing citizenship, or its procedure is unreasonable.
• Already Lithuanian and acquiring another citizenship: you lose Lithuanian citizenship from the day you acquire the other one, unless you fall under points 1 to 5, 7, 9 or 11 of Article 7. You must notify the Migration Department or a Lithuanian embassy or consulate in writing within 2 months. The notification is free; not notifying can bring a fine of €300 to €850. The Minister of the Interior makes loss-of-citizenship decisions.

Restored citizenship sits under the same rule. If you restore Lithuanian citizenship through a pre-1990 emigrant and later take a third citizenship, check that you still fit Article 7 before you do.

The 2019 and 2024 dual citizenship referendums

Lithuania’s Constitutional Court has held that dual citizenship can’t be widened by ordinary law to cover people who took another citizenship after independence; it needs a constitutional change by referendum. A change to the citizenship article passes only if more than half of all registered voters vote yes, not just half of those who turn up.

• May 2019: the proposal would have allowed Lithuanians to keep their citizenship on taking the citizenship of a country meeting “European and transatlantic integration” criteria, with the list to be set by a separate constitutional law. Over 70% of those voting said yes, but that fell well short of half the electorate.
• 12 May 2024: the proposal would have removed the ban from the Constitution more broadly. LRT, citing the Central Electoral Commission, reported 1,014,304 yes votes (73.9% of those voting) on a turnout of about 59%. With 2,385,234 people on the electoral roll, 1,192,617 yes votes were needed.

Both failures leave the Article 7 list as it is. The exception for families who left before 1990 was never at stake in either vote; it already exists.

The certificate of Lithuanian descent: an alternative, but not for dual citizens

The certificate of Lithuanian descent (lietuvių kilmės pažymėjimas) confirms that you are a person of Lithuanian descent: someone with at least one parent or grandparent who is or was Lithuanian by nationality (ethnicity), who considers themselves Lithuanian and declares it in writing. Proof can include birth and marriage records, census or residence-registration data, and passports that state nationality. The certificate is issued for an indefinite period; the Migration Department lists a state fee of €116 and a decision within 12 months.

It supports the simplified procedure, which grants citizenship without the usual naturalisation conditions to a person of Lithuanian descent who has never been a Lithuanian citizen. But the Migration Department is explicit: people of Lithuanian descent can acquire citizenship this way only if they are not nationals of another state. It suits people whose ancestor left before 1918 and never held Lithuanian citizenship, and who are willing to give up their current one. See Lithuanian citizenship when your ancestor left before 1918 for how the two routes compare.

Practical steps

1. Confirm the 1940 citizenship. Find an interwar Lithuanian passport, an archive certificate from the Lithuanian Central State Archives (or Kaunas Regional State Archives for Kaunas), military or civil service records, or other documents stating citizenship.
2. Pin down how and when the family left. Emigration before 11 March 1990 to a country outside the USSR, or a forced exile, is what keeps your other citizenship. Collect passenger lists, DP-camp records, immigration papers, or an exile certificate from the Lithuanian Special Archives.
3. Build the generation chain. Birth and marriage records linking you to that person, plus proof of any name changes. Foreign documents need an apostille, and translations into Lithuanian certified by a qualified translator or translation office. Our document chain guide and apostille guide cover the mechanics.
4. Apply through MIGRIS. You complete the restoration application online yourself, then present the originals at the Migration Department or a Lithuanian consular post within 4 months. The Migration Department gives a decision period of 12 months.
5. If you don’t fit an exception, don’t renounce first. Ask for the certificate of the right to restore citizenship, and only then deal with your other citizenship.

On the fee: the Migration Department’s restoration pages currently show two different figures. The fee summary lists €159, while the application-procedure section on the same pages still says €120, and applications made at a consulate pay only the consular fee. Expect €159 and confirm with the Migration Department or your embassy when you apply.

For how Lithuania compares with other countries that restrict dual citizenship, see dual citizenship by descent, country by country.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

• Migration Department of Lithuania (MIGRIS): Services for citizens, citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania (“A person may be a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania and another state together”: the Article 7 list, definitions, loss of citizenship, notification, fine)
• Migration Department of Lithuania (MIGRIS): Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania, restore (restoration for those who left or were exiled before 11 March 1990, restoration by renouncing, proof of departure, documents, fees, time limits; simplified procedure; certificate of Lithuanian descent)
• Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania, No. XI-1196 (e-seimas, consolidated) (Article 7)
• LRT (Lithuanian National Radio and Television): 2024 citizenship referendum result (Central Electoral Commission figures)
• LRT: the 2019 citizenship referendum proposal (“European and transatlantic integration” criteria)

Checked against these sources on 24 October 2026. The Migration Department pages were read directly; the e-seimas law text and the Central Electoral Commission site (vrk.lt) could not be opened on that date, so the Article 7 wording is as the Migration Department reproduces it and the referendum figures are as LRT reported them. Only the Migration Department can decide your case; confirm with it or your Lithuanian embassy before you apply or renounce anything.