Hi All,
I’m an American expat looking to get EU citizenship.
Best,
high_elbow
Spain and France technically both have 2 year naturalisation routes, however there are strings attached. The French route requires 2 years of study in France plus the paperwork takes a long time. The Spanish route requires you to have one of a select number of passports.
Otherwise, there are a number of countries with 5 year routes as standard.
Or you could join the foreign legion 🤣
they also require a long time of service, or you could get injured in combat and become French through ‘blood shed’
Is it less than 10 years though, because in the time it’d take to get PR, then citizenship, you’d probably already have it, that said I’d rather just go through that than go in the legion
And things might change in France as they’re about to discuss the new Law of Immigration to require ten years of residency instead of five.
The French route still requires three years of pay stubs and tax returns and getting a job (and showing stability and integration, particularly professionally) after those two years of study, meaning it comes back to the standard five years of residency (plus the time to submit everything, go in for an interview, and get a response).
I think Malta has the fastest with investment.
Ireland, 5 years I believe.
For investment, Donno, Malta?
Many options at 5 years without investment. Malta is fastest at 1 year with investment.
Austria 6 years
Belgium 5 years
Bulgaria 5 years
Croatia 5 years
Cyprus 6 years
Czech Republic 10 years
Denmark 6 years
Estonia 5 years
Finland 5 years
France 5 years
Germany 8 years
Greece 12 years
Hungary 5 years
Ireland 5 years
Italy 10 years
Latvia 5 years
Lithuania 5 years
Luxembourg 5 years
Malta 1 year (investment)
Netherlands 5 years
Poland 6 years
Portugal 5 years
Romania 5 years
Slovakia 5 years
Slovenia 10 years
Spain 5 years
Sweden 5 years
Not fact checking all of these, but at the very least Spain is 5 years after achieving permanent residency, which takes five years. So it’s 10 years total living in Spain on a non-temporary visa (years spent on temp visas, like a student visa, only count for half a year when it comes to achieving permanent residency).
These are mostly for years of permanent residency AFAIA, not simple residency
Any that don’t require physical presence?
They often do. Netherlands allows you to leave for 6month per year.
I’m going to speak for France because it’s the one I know. 5 years is the time you can start sending your application, and then it takes some time for them to review it, invite you for an interview, and decide whether naturalization can be granted.
So it’s not just those 5 years (during which you pay taxes, you usually need at least three years of tax receipts to be considered for citizenship), but also the time during which you wait for a decision.
I’d say you need at least 6 years. You also should use that time to learn French to at least B1 level.
Do you know which don’t have a language requirement (beyond A1, which I assume is doable, B1 is for Poland and tough)
There are low-effort posts, then there’s this post lol