people benefited from Luxembourgish citizenship last year, according to the recent figures provided by the country’s Ministry of Justice.
The figures provided by the same Ministry confirmed that while a total of 10,499 people obtained the nationality of Luxembourg last year, one national from Hungary opted to renounce their Luxembourg citizenship, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
Citizens from the following countries benefited the most from the citizenship of Luxembourg last year:
- Brazil – 3,275
- Portugal – 1,227
- France- 1,191
- The United States – 889
- Belgium- 551
- Germany- 289
- Italy- 273
- Cape Verde – 186
- Russia – 175
- Montenegro -172
- Syria -172
According to the figures provided by the same source, a total of 5,193 people obtained Luxembourgish nationality by option, a total of 4,273 through reclamation and 1,033 by naturalisation.
Through a statement, the Ministry noted that the deadline for completing all formalities of the declaration as well as reclamation has been prolonged until December 31, 2025.
In this regard, the Ministry noted that all applicant is required to follow the same procedure, regardless of their origins. Therefore, about 175 nationals from Russia were eligible to acquire a Luxembourg passport last year.
Last year’s figures are higher compared to 2021 data. A previous report provided by the Luxembourg Times noted that the number of people who planned to become Luxembourg citizens decreased significantly in 2021 or by more than a quarter in comparison to 202.
According to the report, the main reason for the decrease was after people qualifying for nationality through family ties were ineligible to travel to Luxembourg due to the spread of the Coronavirus and its new variants.
The recent figures provided by the Ministry of Justice revealed that just over 6,800 people became citizens of Luxembourg last year, however, this was a decrease of over 25 per cent compared to 2020 figures during which year 9,400 people acquired nationality.
“Because of restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic lots of candidates [wanting citizenship] living abroad were unable to travel to the Grand Duchy to do the formal citizenship process. These are principally [citizenship] candidates from Brazil and the United States,” the Ministry of Justice pointed out in this regard through a statement.
Luxembourgish nationality can be obtained acquired through naturalisation. Soon after applying the requests are reviewed by the Ministry of Justice’s Nationality Office.
After the applicant’s approval, the Ministry will urge the issuance of record number two of the criminal record from the office of the public prosecutor. It has been clarified that if the applicants don’t give the authorisation the application will not be considered.