Romanian citizenship: residence, family and ancestry

Identify the legal basis before collecting documents

Romanian citizenship can arise by descent at birth, adoption or a successful grant/restoration application. A Romanian ancestor, a Romanian spouse and residence in Romania lead to different tests. A residence permit, property purchase or company investment does not itself confer nationality. The citizenship authority verifies the statutory route and supporting history.

The current substantive rules reflect the March 2025 reform. Older descriptions that halve the residence period for a large investment should not be reused as current eligibility advice. Article 8 now specifies an ordinary eight-year qualifying residence route and a five-year marriage/cohabitation route, with tightly defined possible reductions for certain applicants.

Residence means a documented history

The ordinary applicant must hold long-term residence or permanent residence when applying, as well as satisfy the required lawful-residence period. The two requirements are not interchangeable. Under article 8(4), spending more than six months outside Romania during a year means that year is not counted for this citizenship residence calculation. Keep a travel log rather than reconstructing several years from memory.

A possible reduction of up to three years is discretionary and conditional. EU/EEA/Swiss nationality is not, by itself, an automatic five-year citizenship entitlement: the statute also looks for the specified active economic, educational, cultural, human-rights, social or voluntary contribution. Refugee applicants have a separate integration formulation. We would document the particular category rather than quote the shortest possible number as everyone’s timeline.

Spouses, children and dual nationality

Marriage does not automatically change either spouse’s citizenship. Under the ordinary parent-application route, an under 18 child domiciled in Romania can be included with the parent or parents under article 9, subject to the required parental agreement. Consent is required once the child has reached 14. A child who becomes an adult during processing creates additional procedural questions, including oath/security checks; disclose ages and dates at the outset.

The law recognises retention of foreign citizenship expressly in the restoration/descendant routes, and acquiring another nationality is not listed as automatic loss of Romanian nationality. Loss has its own statutory procedures. Nevertheless, the other country’s rules can restrict dual nationality or impose notification/renunciation consequences. Check those separately before applying.

A foreign same-sex marriage and its recognition for EU-derived residence should not be treated as a guaranteed shortcut to article 8 spousal naturalisation. Coman addresses free-movement residence; the exact national civil-status and citizenship treatment requires case-specific advice. An unmarried partner is not a spouse for the citizenship clock.

Ancestry work begins with the loss and the document chain

Article 10 and article 11 are not interchangeable. The former covers former citizens and descendants through the second degree under its conditions; article 11 addresses loss for reasons not attributable to the person or deprivation against their will, and descendants through the third degree. Establish what nationality the ancestor actually held and why it ended before ordering a large set of records.

Build a generation-by-generation chain of birth, marriage, name-change and citizenship evidence. Borders, spelling changes and translated names can create discrepancies that need to be resolved through official records. A family story or a commercial genealogy report is a lead, not a substitute for evidence accepted by the authority.

The revised article 15¹ generally requires Romanian-language evidence for article 10/11 applicants: at least B1 through an authorised certificate, or the specified evidence of at least three years of Romanian-language secondary/higher study. Former Romanian citizens restoring their own nationality and applicants aged 65 or over at application have stated exceptions. The current statutory note records a March 2026 extension of the transitional certificate-submission period to two years from the 2025 law’s entry into force. That transition is not an indefinite language waiver; check the precise deadline and applicability for the file.

Application, checks, interview and oath

The application is made in Romanian with the required identity, civil-status, residence, criminal-record, means and route-specific evidence. Foreign public documents may need apostille/legalisation and certified translation, subject to applicable conventions. Article 8 applications and restoration applications have different submission and review arrangements; a consular route should not be assumed available for every application.

The 2025 law gives the Commission a two-year report framework, with a possible extension of up to six months for authenticity/factual checks, while individual document requests and interviews have their own periods. This is not a guaranteed date for a passport. A favourable order, the required oath, citizenship documentation, civil-register updates and a passport application are distinct stages. Keep valid residence while waiting where your route requires it.

A dated change: the electronic file starts 30 November 2026

Law 104 of 24 June 2026 schedules the citizenship electronic file’s operational date for 30 November 2026. At this guide’s 12 October 2026 review date, that is a future change. The law provides account-validation and electronic correspondence arrangements, including separate 90-day or 180-day enrolment/access periods for specified consular, existing and previously scheduled files.

The practical consequence is to plan for both the current submission process and the transition rather than declaring that every applicant must already use a fully operational new system. Monitor the authority’s implementation instructions near filing, keep contact details current and do not ignore electronic notices once the rules apply. The commencement provision does not itself change the ordinary eight/five-year eligibility tests.