Table of Contents
Two Routes, One Word Apart
There are two ways into Lithuanian citizenship through your family, and they are constantly mistaken for each other. The mistake is expensive, because one of them lets you keep the passport you already hold and the other does not.
Restoration sits in Article 9 of the Law on Citizenship. It asks a documentary question: did an ancestor hold citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania before 15 June 1940?
The simplified procedure for persons of Lithuanian descent sits in Article 10. It asks an ethnic question: were your parents or grandparents Lithuanians?
That is the whole difference, and everything else follows from it. Article 10 wants no citizenship paper trail at all — no interwar passport, no military file, no population register entry. For a family whose documents were destroyed, that is the difference between a case and no case. What it costs is the other passport.
The citizenry Article 9 restores
An ancestor who held citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania before this date puts you on the restoration route, and Article 2(7) reaches 3 generations down from them: child, grandchild, great-grandchild.
Occupation, and the register that stops here
The interwar citizenship record ends. Where a family’s citizenship paperwork did not survive the half-century that follows, Article 10 is what is left: it asks whether an ancestor was Lithuanian rather than whether they held a legal status, which is why it needs no interwar document at all.
The departure that carries the dual-citizenship relief
Article 7 points 2 and 3 cover those deported from occupied Lithuania and those who left before independence was restored, and their descendants. Article 9(2) writes that relief into restoration. Article 10(2) states the same condition and adds no exception, which is the whole of what this route costs.
2 generations, or 3
Article 2(6) reaches a parent or a grandparent and stops. Article 2(7) reaches a great-grandchild. A Lithuanian great-grandparent therefore closes this route and can still open the other one — which is why the two dates above are worth checking against your own family before either.
If you can prove interwar citizenship, stop reading and use the other route
Restoration under Article 9 gives you the same result with no residence requirement and no exams — and, under Article 9(2) read with Article 7, it can leave your current citizenship intact. Article 10(2) contains no such carve-out. Anyone with a documented pre-1940 citizen in the family should be on the restoration page, not this one. Article 10 is what you fall back to when the citizenship record is gone.
The statute is short. Article 10(1): persons of Lithuanian descent who have never held Lithuanian citizenship have the right to acquire it by simplified procedure, irrespective of the state in which they live. Article 10(2): they may do so if they are not citizens of another state, and if none of the refusal grounds in Article 22 applies.
The Comparison
This is the table to read twice. Every row is a line of the statute, and the rows that decide most cases are the last three.
| Restoration (Art. 9) | Simplified, Lithuanian descent (Art. 10) | |
|---|---|---|
| What you prove | An ancestor held citizenship before 15 June 1940 | An ancestor was Lithuanian (ethnicity) |
| How far back | Child, grandchild, great-grandchild | Parent or grandparent |
| Residence in Lithuania | None | None |
| Language exam | No | No |
| Constitution exam | No | No |
| Keep your current passport | ✓ Yes, if Art. 7(2), (3) or (4) fits | ✗ No — Art. 10(2) has no such carve-out |
| Oath | Not listed in Art. 23(1) | Yes — Art. 23(1) names the simplified procedure |
| Times available | Once (Art. 9(4)) | — |
What you prove. Restoration is an evidence problem: you must produce documents indicating that a specific person held Lithuanian citizenship in the interwar state. Article 10 asks instead whether that person was Lithuanian, which is a question about ethnicity rather than about a legal status.
How far back. Article 2(7) defines a descendant as the child, grandchild or great-grandchild of the pre-1940 citizen; Article 2(6) names parents and grandparents only. The descent route is the narrower of the two on generations, as the rail above shows.
Residence. Neither route requires you to live in Lithuania. Article 10(1) says the right applies irrespective of the state in which the person lives, in the same terms Article 9(1) uses.
The two exams. Neither route requires the state language exam or the Constitution exam. Those belong to naturalisation under Article 18, which also carries a ten-year residence clock. Nothing on this page requires either.
Your current passport. Article 9(2) makes restoration conditional on not being a citizen of another state, but then disapplies that condition for people covered by Article 7 points 2, 3 and 4 — the deported, those who left Lithuania before 11 March 1990, and their descendants. Article 10(2) states the same condition and adds no exception. This is the single most consequential difference between the routes.
The oath. Article 23(1) requires an oath from persons granted citizenship by simplified procedure, by naturalisation, by way of exception and by return. Restoration is not in that list.
Times available. Article 9(4) says citizenship may be restored only once. Article 10 carries no equivalent sentence, and nothing published settles the point either way.
Who Counts as a Person of Lithuanian Descent
The definition is one sentence, in Article 2(6):
Lietuvių kilmės asmuo – asmuo, kurio tėvai ar seneliai arba vienas iš tėvų ar senelių yra ar buvo lietuviai ir kuris pats laiko save lietuviu ir deklaruoja tai rašytiniu pareiškimu.
"A person of Lithuanian descent — a person whose parents or grandparents, or one of them, are or were Lithuanians, and who considers himself Lithuanian and declares this in a written statement."
Three things are packed into it.
Parents or grandparents — and nobody further back. One of the four grandparents is enough; you do not need a Lithuanian line on both sides. But the definition stops there. A great-grandparent is not in the sentence, and no quantity of family evidence puts one there.
"Are or were Lithuanians." The tense covers a living parent and a dead grandparent equally. The word being used is lietuviai — Lithuanians as a people — not Lietuvos piliečiai, citizens of Lithuania. That is precisely why this route survives the loss of the interwar archives.
The written self-declaration. The definition has a subjective limb: you must consider yourself Lithuanian and say so in a written statement. It is part of the legal test, not a formality bolted on afterwards.
Is at least one of your parents or grandparents Lithuanian, or were they?
Article 2(6) reaches two generations. Count up from yourself: parents, then grandparents. If the Lithuanian ancestor is further back than that, this route is closed, whatever the evidence shows.
Do you consider yourself Lithuanian, and will you declare it in a written statement?
The second half of Article 2(6). Without the written declaration the definition is not satisfied, however Lithuanian the family is.
Is it true that you have never held Lithuanian citizenship?
Article 10(1) gives the simplified right to persons of Lithuanian descent who have never held Lithuanian citizenship. If you held it once, this is not your article.
Are you willing to stop being a citizen of every other state?
Article 10(2) permits acquisition if they are not citizens of another state. There is no exception in it. Read the next section before you answer this one.
Are you clear of the Article 22 bars?
Article 10(2) makes the Article 22 refusal grounds part of the test. See refusal.
Have you checked whether restoration is open to you instead?
Not fatal — but a case that could go through Article 9 should. Restoration reaches a generation further back and can leave your existing citizenship intact.
If every answer above was yes
You are within Article 10 as the statute defines it, and the remaining questions are evidential rather than legal: what you can show about your parent or grandparent, and what the Migration Department accepts as showing it.
If you stopped at question one because the ancestor is a great-grandparent, read the restoration route — Article 2(7) reaches great-grandchildren, so a case that fails here can still succeed there.
The Price: Your Other Passport
Article 10(2) has no dual-citizenship exception. Persons of Lithuanian descent may acquire citizenship by simplified procedure if they are not citizens of another state. That is the whole condition. It has no proviso, no cross-reference and no carve-out.
Compare Article 9(2), which imposes the same condition on restoration and then removes it for people covered by Article 7 points 2, 3 and 4 — those deported from occupied Lithuania before 11 March 1990, those who left Lithuania before that date, and their descendants. Article 10(2) borrows the condition without the relief.
Article 7 is the article that makes dual citizenship possible at all. It lists the situations in which a Lithuanian citizen may also hold another citizenship: acquiring both at birth; deportation from occupied Lithuania before 11 March 1990; leaving Lithuania before 11 March 1990; being a descendant of someone in either of those two groups; acquiring the other citizenship automatically by marriage; adoption cases in both directions. Those carve-outs are written into Article 9(2) for restoration. They are not written into Article 10(2).
So the honest way to put it is this. If your family history fits Article 7 — and emigrant families very often do — the restoration route may let you hold both. This route will not. An American, British, Canadian, South African or Australian citizen who takes the Article 10 path is choosing between passports, not collecting one.
The oath, and the clock that follows it
Article 23(1) requires a person granted citizenship by simplified procedure to swear an oath publicly and solemnly, alongside those granted it by naturalisation, by way of exception and by return. Restoration is absent from that list. Article 23(2) sets the text. The requirement does not apply to persons found legally incapable in the relevant field, nor to children under 18.
Article 23(4) sets the deadlines, and they run from the entry into force of the President's decree:
- Six months for stateless persons, for people whose other citizenship lapses automatically, and for grants by way of exception.
- Two years for a person who declared in writing that they will renounce another citizenship.
Which limb applies to a given Article 10 applicant depends on the applicant's own situation, and the Migration Department publishes no statement mapping the simplified-descent route onto one of them. Take that question to the Department or a lawyer rather than assuming.
Check the other side too. Renouncing a citizenship is governed by the law of the state that issued it, not by Lithuania. Some renunciations are slow, some cost money, and some are conditional. Establish what losing your present citizenship actually involves before you commit to a route that requires it.
What Proves Ethnicity
There is a statutory standard, and it is short. Article 39(4) of the Law on Citizenship:
Lietuvių kilmę patvirtina dokumentai, kuriuose nurodyta, kad asmens tėvai ar seneliai arba vienas iš tėvų ar senelių yra ar buvo lietuviai, taip pat asmens rašytinis pareiškimas, kuriuo jis deklaruoja, kad laiko save lietuviu.
"Lithuanian descent is confirmed by documents stating that a person's parents or grandparents, or one of the parents or grandparents, are or were Lithuanians, and also by the person's written declaration that he considers himself Lithuanian."
The test has three parts, and only the third is a form you fill in.
(a) A document that states the ancestor was Lithuanian. The wording is dokumentai, kuriuose nurodyta — documents in which it is stated. The article names a content, not a form. What matters is that some document records the ethnicity of a parent or grandparent. It does not have to be a Lithuanian document, and it does not have to be about citizenship.
(b) Documents proving your kinship to that person. Point 11.2 of the Government procedure description (Resolution No. 280) requires documents establishing the relationship. A record naming a Lithuanian grandparent proves nothing about you until the chain of births and marriages connects you to them.
(c) Your own written declaration. The same sentence in Article 39(4), and the same declaration the definition in Article 2(6) demands: you state in writing that you consider yourself Lithuanian.
No fixed checklist exists — and that is the useful part
Neither the statute nor the Migration Department publishes an enumerated list of acceptable document types. The consolidated Law on Citizenship on e-seimas and the Migration Department's citizenship state-fee page, dated 24 November 2025, confirms that a certificate of Lithuanian descent exists and costs €50 but does not say what you file for it.
The absence is worth knowing, because it tells you what to hunt for. You are not looking for one named paper. You are looking for any document that records a parent or grandparent as Lithuanian — and then for the birth and marriage records that tie you to them. Confirm your own candidate documents with the Migration Department before you pay an archive.
Note how different this search is from restoration. Restoration needs a document indicating a legal status: an interwar passport, a military file, a population register entry. Article 10 needs material about who a person was. Evidence assembled for one route is not automatically evidence for the other.
The Two Certificates
The Migration Department issues two separate certificates that sound almost identical, cost exactly the same, and belong to different routes. They are mixed up constantly.
| Certificate | What it establishes | Route | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Certificate confirming Lithuanian descent | That you are a person of Lithuanian descent within Article 2(6) — a Lithuanian parent or grandparent | Article 10, simplified procedure | €50 · amendment €25 |
| Certificate of the right to restore citizenship | That you hold the right under Article 9 — an ancestor who held citizenship before 15 June 1940 | Article 9, restoration | €50 · amendment €25 |
Both fees come from the Migration Department fee list, updated 24 November 2025. Read the table by its middle column: descent is about ethnicity, the right to restore is about a citizenship record. Ordering the wrong one costs €50 and answers a question you were not asking.
Note also that neither certificate is citizenship. A certificate records a finding about your position; the grant itself is a separate application, with its own fee, decided at the end of the process described below.
The Benefit Short of Citizenship
There is one concrete advantage that arrives before any citizenship decision, and it applies to people who have submitted documents proving Lithuanian descent, or the right to restore citizenship: they are exempt from the state fee for administering a residence permit. Under-16s and asylum holders share the exemption. If you are moving to Lithuania while your case runs, that is worth knowing — see the residence permit guide.
The permit itself has its own article. Article 42 of the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens, in full:
1. Lietuvių kilmės užsieniečiui gali būti išduotas leidimas laikinai gyventi, jeigu jis pateikia lietuvių kilmę patvirtinantį dokumentą.
2. Lietuvių kilmės užsieniečiui leidimas laikinai gyventi išduodamas 5 metams.
"1. A foreigner of Lithuanian descent may be issued a temporary residence permit if he submits a document confirming Lithuanian descent. 2. A temporary residence permit is issued to a foreigner of Lithuanian descent for 5 years."
Five years, on one document. A work-based permit is tied to an employer and a contract. This one is tied to who your grandparents were, and it runs five years from issue.
The quota does not reach this permit
There is no exemption because there is nothing to be exempt from. Article 57¹(3) says the annual quota is exhausted when the number of foreigners issued temporary residence permits under Article 44(1)(2) and (3) reaches the figure set for that year. Those two points are the employment-contract grounds. Article 42 is not referenced.
So the quota counts a different population from the start. It does not apply to the Lithuanian-descent permit and then release it; it never reaches it. Article 57¹(2) caps the quota itself at 1.4% of the resident population.
You will read elsewhere that Lithuanian descent "exempts" you from the quota. The statute is cleaner than that: the quota is written as a count of employment-ground permits, and Article 42 is not one of them.
Cost and Time
The state fee for a grant of citizenship by simplified procedure is €120 — the same figure the Migration Department charges for restoration, naturalisation, a grant by way of exception and the return of citizenship. The certificate confirming Lithuanian descent, if you obtain one, is a further €50. Both figures come from the fee list dated 24 November 2025.
Everything beyond those two numbers — translation, legalisation, records, legal help — depends on your family. The restoration page carries the published rates for archive searches, certified translation and apostilles: the same bodies charge the same prices on this route.
This is the shape of the timetable.
Before you file — no official timescale
Establishing what you can show about a parent or grandparent, and confirming with the Migration Department what it accepts. No official timescale exists for this, because it is your work rather than theirs. Do not open an application until it is done.
Preparation and submission to the Commission — 3 months
The Government's procedure description gives 3 months for a simplified-procedure case to be prepared and submitted to the Citizenship Affairs Commission — the same period it sets for naturalisation, return and renunciation. Restoration cases get 6 months under the same instrument.
Commission to Presidential decree — no published period
No published period covers what happens after the submission to the Commission. The Migration Department publishes a 12-month examination period, but that figure is for restoration cases, and it does not transfer to this route.
After the decree — the oath, 6 months or 2 years
Article 23(4) counts from the entry into force of the President's decree: 6 months for stateless persons, people whose other citizenship lapses automatically and grants by way of exception; 2 years for someone who declared in writing that they will renounce another citizenship. This is the one deadline you control.
Refusal
Article 22 is short and it is absolute. Citizenship is not granted by naturalisation, by simplified procedure or by way of exception, and it is not restored, to a person who prepared, attempted or committed international crimes or crimes against Lithuania, or who was convicted of a serious or grave intentional crime in Lithuania or abroad.
Article 10(2) imports that article by reference, so an Article 22 bar ends an Article 10 case regardless of how strong the descent evidence is. It ends a restoration case too. There is no route around it on this page.
Not sure which route is yours?
Restoration and the simplified descent procedure look alike and cost different things — one of them may let you keep your current passport. Get matched with a Lithuanian immigration specialist who can read your family history against both articles. Free, in English or Russian.
Why Applications Fail
Six ways an Article 10 case goes wrong. The first is the costly one.
Taking this route when restoration was available. If an ancestor held citizenship before 15 June 1940 and your family fits Article 7, restoration under Article 9 can leave your existing citizenship intact. Article 10(2) cannot. Test Article 9 first — always.
Assuming dual citizenship comes with it. Article 10(2) permits acquisition only if you are not a citizen of another state, and unlike Article 9(2) it disapplies nothing. People discover this after filing, which is the worst moment to discover it.
Counting to a great-grandparent. Article 2(6) says parents or grandparents. Two generations. Article 2(7)'s three-generation reach belongs to restoration, not here — the two definitions do not borrow from each other.
Skipping the written declaration. Article 2(6) requires that you consider yourself Lithuanian and declare it in a written statement. It is half the definition, not a formality.
Applying after already holding citizenship. Article 10(1) is confined to persons of Lithuanian descent who have never held Lithuanian citizenship. A previous holding puts you outside the article entirely.
Collecting citizenship evidence for an ethnicity test. Interwar passports and military files answer the Article 9 question. Article 10 asks whether a parent or grandparent was Lithuanian. Confirm with the Migration Department what it accepts before paying an archive.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between this and restoration of citizenship?
Restoration under Article 9 asks whether an ancestor held citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania before 15 June 1940 — a documentary question about legal status. The simplified procedure under Article 10 asks whether your parents or grandparents were Lithuanians — a question about ethnicity. Restoration reaches three generations and can leave your current citizenship intact if Article 7 points 2, 3 or 4 fit your family. Article 10 reaches two generations and has no such exception.
Can I keep my American passport?
Not on this route. Article 10(2) permits acquisition by simplified procedure only if you are not a citizen of another state, and it contains no exception. Article 9(2), which governs restoration, imposes the same condition and then removes it for people covered by Article 7 points 2, 3 and 4 — the deported, those who left Lithuania before 11 March 1990, and their descendants. If your family fits one of those, restoration is the route to look at. The same answer applies to a British, Canadian, Australian or South African passport.
Is a great-grandparent enough?
No. Article 2(6) defines a person of Lithuanian descent by reference to parents or grandparents, or one of them. Two generations. The three-generation definition that includes great-grandchildren is Article 2(7), and it belongs to restoration under Article 9, not to this route. If your Lithuanian ancestor is a great-grandparent, check whether they held citizenship before 15 June 1940 and read the restoration page instead.
What if I qualify for both routes?
Then look hard at restoration first. Restoration under Article 9 has the same absence of residence and exam requirements, and under Article 9(2) read with Article 7 it may let you keep the citizenship you already hold. Article 10 will not. The only reason to prefer Article 10 when Article 9 is genuinely open is if you cannot produce the documents that Article 9 requires.
What documents prove that my grandparent was Lithuanian?
Article 39(4) of the Law on Citizenship sets the standard in one sentence: Lithuanian descent is confirmed by documents stating that a person's parents or grandparents, or one of them, are or were Lithuanians, together with the person's written declaration that they consider themselves Lithuanian. Point 11.2 of the Government procedure description adds documents proving your kinship to that ancestor. What nobody publishes is an enumerated list of acceptable document types, so you are looking for any document that records a parent or grandparent as Lithuanian, plus the birth and marriage records that connect you to them. Confirm your candidates with the Migration Department before paying for archive work.
What does it cost?
The state fee for a grant of citizenship by simplified procedure is 120 euros. A certificate confirming Lithuanian descent, if you obtain one, is a further 50 euros, and 25 euros to amend. Both figures are from the Migration Department fee list, updated 24 November 2025. Translation, legalisation and any legal help are extra and depend on your case; no sourced estimate for this route exists to print.
How long does it take?
The Government procedure description gives 3 months for a simplified-procedure case to be prepared and submitted to the Citizenship Affairs Commission. Nothing published covers what happens after that. The Migration Department publishes a 12-month examination period, but that figure is for restoration cases and does not transfer here. The research you do before filing has no published timescale at all.
Do I need to speak Lithuanian?
No. The state language exam belongs to naturalisation under Article 18, along with the Constitution exam and a ten-year residence requirement. Neither exam applies to the simplified procedure for persons of Lithuanian descent, and neither applies to restoration.
Do I have to move to Lithuania?
No. Article 10(1) gives the right irrespective of the state in which the person lives, in the same terms Article 9(1) uses for restoration. There is no residence requirement on this route.
Do I have to swear an oath?
Yes. Article 23(1) requires an oath from persons granted citizenship by simplified procedure, along with naturalisation, grants by way of exception and return of citizenship. Restoration is not in that list. Article 23(2) sets the text of the oath. The requirement does not apply to persons found legally incapable in the relevant field, nor to children under 18. Article 23(4) sets deadlines running from entry into force of the President's decree: 6 months for stateless persons, people whose other citizenship lapses automatically and grants by way of exception, and 2 years for a person who declared in writing that they will renounce another citizenship.
Can my children come with me?
Article 27(1) says that where a parent acquires or restores citizenship, a child under 14 also acquires it — but only if the child is not a citizen of another state. A child aged 14 to 18 acquires it only with their own consent, and under the same condition. So a child who already holds another passport is not carried across by the parent's application. Article 23(1) exempts children under 18 from the oath.
I was refused restoration. Can I use this route instead?
Possibly, and it is the situation Article 10 is most useful for — a family that cannot document interwar citizenship but can show that a parent or grandparent was Lithuanian. Two conditions decide it. Your Lithuanian ancestor must be a parent or grandparent, not a great-grandparent, because Article 2(6) reaches only two generations. And you must be willing to give up any other citizenship, because Article 10(2) has no exception. If the refusal was under Article 22, neither route is open.
Does the certificate of Lithuanian descent make me a citizen?
No. It is a separate document from the grant of citizenship, with its own 50 euro fee, and it records a finding about your position rather than conferring status. It is also a different document from the certificate of the right to restore citizenship, which costs the same 50 euros but belongs to the restoration route under Article 9.
Next Steps
Tell us the family history once. A specialist can read it against Article 9 and Article 10 and tell you which one you are actually in.
Rule out restoration before you trade a passport
This route asks for ethnicity and takes the citizenship you hold now. Restoration asks for interwar paperwork instead and in most cases lets you keep both, so it is the one to test first.
Disclaimer
General guidance, not legal advice. Citizenship cases turn on individual facts and on how the Migration Department applies the statute, and this route can require you to give up a citizenship you already hold. Always confirm current requirements with the Migration Department or a Lithuanian consulate, and take professional advice before filing. Nothing on this page is paid placement, and what a link pays never affects the ordering.