19.06.2025

How do you become a Romanian citizen?

Law no. 21/1991 (hereinafter also referred to as the "Romanian Citizenship Law") entered into force on 5 April 1991 and has undergone a series of amendments over time. The most recent amendments are those made by Law no. 14/2025, with some of the amendments to the Romanian Citizenship Law coming into force on 15 March 2025, and a number of additions - concerning the introduction of the applicant's electronic file - coming into force on 30 June 2026.

Ways of acquiring Romanian citizenship. In essence, Law No 21/1991 regulates the three ways of acquiring Romanian citizenship, namely by (1) birth, (2) adoption and (3) granting Romanian citizenship upon application.

Acquiring Romanian citizenship by birth. The acquisition of Romanian citizenship by birth is regulated by Article 5 of Law no. 21/1991, in the sense that children born in Romania to Romanian citizen parents are Romanian citizens. Also, according to the legal provisions, Romanian citizens include (i) children who were born on the territory of the Romanian State, even if only one of the parents is a Romanian citizen, respectively (ii) children who were born abroad and both parents are Romanian citizens or only one of the parents has Romanian citizenship. In other words, the Romanian state has adopted the ius sangvinis system, which essentially means that the child will acquire Romanian citizenship if at least one of the parents is a Romanian citizen, regardless of the place of birth.

Acquiring Romanian citizenship through adoption. As a rule, according to Art. 6 of Law no. 21/1991, Romanian citizenship is acquired by a child who is a foreign citizen or without citizenship through adoption, if the adopters are Romanian citizens. If only one of the adopters is a Romanian citizen, the nationality of the adopted minor will be decided, by mutual agreement, by the adopters and, in the absence of a consensus, by the court, taking into account the interests of the minor.

The law also regulates the issue of the citizenship of the adopted child in the situation where, for example, a court of law declares the adoption null and void, all these legal provisions having been recently reconfigured by the amendments to the Romanian Citizenship Law by Law 14/2025.

Thus, in the event of the adoption being declared null and void or annulled, a child who has not reached the age of 18 is considered never to have been a Romanian citizen. However, according to the amendments introduced by Law No 14/2025, the declaration of nullity of the adoption or the annulment of the adoption has no effect on the child's nationality if the child has resided, under the conditions provided by law, on Romanian territory for a period of more than 5 years or if, as a result of the declaration of nullity or annulment of the adoption, the child becomes stateless.

Romanian citizenship on request. Art. 8 of Law no. 21/1991 - which regulates the hypothesis of granting Romanian citizenship on request - has also undergone a series of amendments introduced by Law no. 14/2025.

Thus, the new regulation provides that Romanian citizenship may be granted, upon application, to a person without citizenship or to a foreign citizen if he/she fulfils a number of conditions, including (i) at the date of application, he/she is the holder of the right of long-term residence or the right of permanent residence in Romania, under the conditions of the law, and has been legally residing in Romania for at least 8 years or, if he/she is married to a Romanian citizen and has been cohabiting with him/her for at least 5 years from the date of marriage, (ii) proves, through his/her behaviour, actions and attitude, loyalty to the Romanian State and attachment to its supreme values, does not undertake or support actions against the rule of law or national security and declares that he/she has not undertaken or supported such actions in the past, (iii) has reached the age of 18 years, (iv) has legal means for a decent existence in Romania, (v) is known to be of good behaviour and has not been convicted in the country or abroad for an offence that makes him/her unworthy to be a Romanian citizen, (vi) knows the Romanian language, the provisions of the Romanian Constitution and the national anthem.

According to the amendments introduced by Law no. 14/2025, the term of 8 years may be reduced by up to 3 years if the applicant who fulfils the conditions for obtaining Romanian citizenship proves his/her active participation in the economic life of the Romanian society or, as the case may be, relevant educational achievements or a particular contribution in the cultural field, the promotion of human rights, social commitment or voluntary work and is in one of the following situations:(i) is a citizen of a Member State of the European Union or of the European Economic Area or is a citizen of the Swiss Confederation or (ii) was born on Romanian territory and at the date of his/her birth his/her parents or, as the case may be, one of them was legally residing on Romanian territory.

Regaining Romanian citizenship by persons who have lost Romanian citizenship. Law No 21/1991 also regulates the situation of persons who have lost their Romanian citizenship, clarifying that, in essence, Romanian citizenship may also be granted to persons who have lost their Romanian citizenship, as well as to their descendants up to the second degree inclusive and who apply for the regaining of their Romanian citizenship, while retaining their foreign citizenship and establishing their domicile in the country or maintaining it abroad, if they fulfil the conditions provided for by law and provide proof of knowledge of the Romanian language. Thus, following the amendment made by Law no. 14/2025, the condition that the persons who apply for the regaining of Romanian citizenship must prove their knowledge of the Romanian language was added, in contrast to the old regulation.

Also, under the same conditions, persons who were Romanian citizens, but lost their Romanian citizenship for reasons beyond their control or whose Romanian citizenship was taken away without their will, as well as their descendants up to the third degree, may apply for Romanian citizenship, upon request, with the possibility of keeping the foreign citizenship and establishing their domicile in the country or maintaining it abroad.

Collection of the applicant's biometric data. By way of novelty, Law No 14/2025 introduced the procedure for taking the applicant's biometric data, in essence, there are two categories of biometric data to be taken at the time of submitting the application for granting or regaining Romanian citizenship, namely (i) the facial image and (ii) the fingerprint of two fingers. The procedure is also applicable to children who have reached the age of 14 on the date of application and for whom their parents apply for Romanian citizenship, but minors under the age of 14 and persons for whom fingerprinting is physically impossible are not obliged to provide fingerprints.

In any case, the law provides that the biometric data collected shall be used only to verify (i) the identity of the applicant, when taking the oath of allegiance, (ii) the identity of the child who has reached the age of 14 years at the time of application, when taking the oath of allegiance by the parents or the applicant parent, respectively (iii) the identity of the holder of the Romanian citizenship card on the basis of directly available comparable elements when the card is required by law to be presented.

The law also regulates the retention period of biometric data. By way of example, without being an exhaustive list, the law stipulates that fingerprints shall be irreversibly erased from the databases of the competent authority within 10 days from (i) the date of the Romanian citizenship card being picked up or, if it has not been picked up by the holder, at the latest 3 months after the date scheduled for its issuance, (ii) the expiry of the term prescribed by law for taking the oath of allegiance, if the oath has not been taken within the term prescribed by law or, for example, from (iii) the expiry of 6 months from the date of the communication of the order rejecting the application for granting or regaining Romanian citizenship, if the order has not been appealed before the administrative court.

Form of documents submitted in support of the application for acquiring or regaining citizenship.The amendments made to the Romanian Citizenship Law by Law no 14/2025 also clarify the requirements for the documents submitted in support of the application for acquiring or regaining Romanian citizenship.

Thus, as a rule, the documents drawn up or legalised by a foreign authority or a foreign public agent proving the fulfilment of the conditions provided by law for the granting or, as the case may be, the regaining of Romanian citizenship may be taken into consideration only if they are apostilled by the authorities of the respective state or, as the case may be, super-certified by the Romanian diplomatic mission or consular office in that state or by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in order to certify the authenticity of the signatures and seal affixed thereon. Proof of the marital status of the applicant, his/her ascendants and descendants, as the case may be, shall be provided by original extracts from the civil status records issued by the competent authority no more than 2 years prior to the submission of the application for granting/regaining Romanian citizenship, accompanied by legalised copies of the civil status certificates or, where applicable, by original multilingual extracts issued in accordance with Convention no. 16 of the International Commission on Civil Status concerning the issuance of multilingual extracts of civil status documents, no later than 2 years prior to the submission of the application for granting/regaining Romanian citizenship.

The competent commission of the National Authority for Citizenship may also ask the person who wishes to acquire or regain Romanian citizenship for any information and documents necessary for the processing of the application, including the submission of the original civil status certificates or other documents submitted by the person. If there are no legal impediments, the documents submitted in original will be returned to the petitioner at the latest upon finalisation of the procedure for granting Romanian citizenship.

If there is reason to doubt the authenticity of the documents submitted by the applicant or the veracity of the data contained therein, the Citizenship Committee may order any necessary checks to be carried out and may reject the application if the endeavours to obtain confirmation from the authorities of the foreign state issuing the documents as to the authenticity of the documents are unsuccessful.

The order in which applications to acquire or regain Romanian citizenship are processed. In order to streamline the procedure for acquiring or regaining Romanian citizenship, Law no. 14/2025 introduced a number of provisions on the order of processing of applications.

Thus, as a general rule, applications for granting or regaining Romanian citizenship are submitted to the Citizenship Commission for consideration, according to their legal basis, in the order of registration at the Commission's technical secretariat. By way of exception, priority is given to (i) files submitted on the basis of applications made by former Romanian citizens and (ii)files submitted on the basis of applications made by stateless persons.

Also, with the approval of the President of the National Authority for Citizenship, other applications may be prioritised in duly justified cases. Among the duly justified cases are the existence of imperative reasons of public interest or the serious state of health of the applicant or of the minor children for whom Romanian citizenship is requested, if the situation is certified by their Romanian attending physician, and the priority decision is likely to have a direct and positive impact on the situation of the applicant or his/her minor children.

The applicant's electronic file. As of 30 June 2026, Law no. 14/2025 will also bring a series of changes regarding the digitisation of the procedure for acquiring or regaining Romanian citizenship. Thus, at the level of the National Authority for Citizenship will be implemented the electronic citizenship applicant's file, which contains records of applicants' personal data and provides applicants with access to information on the status of the processing of their files.

The electronic applicant file will also be designed to enable the electronic communication to applicants of correspondence from the National Authority for Citizenship, including requests and summonses addressed to them by the Citizenship Commission. Thus, the law stipulates that from the date of operationalisation of the electronic file of the applicant for citizenship, the correspondence of the National Authority for Citizenship (including requests, summonses or orders issued) will be communicated to applicants exclusively through this computer system, the enrolment of applicants in the electronic communication system being mandatory.

As regards access to the file, the law provides that the applicant's access to the electronic citizenship file will be realised by creating an access account, within 30 days from the date of submitting the application for granting, regaining or renouncing Romanian citizenship.

Also, as a general rule, the documents and correspondence of the National Authority for Citizenship will be deemed to have been communicated at the moment the addressee accesses the document uploaded in the electronic file. By way of exception, if the electronic file is not accessed by the addressee, the documents and correspondence will be deemed to have been communicated upon expiry of a period of 30 days from the moment of uploading the document in the electronic citizenship file. If the addressee has not created an access account, the documents will be deemed to have been communicated 30 days after the date on which the document is registered in the records of the National Authority for Citizenship.

In conclusion, the amendments made to the Citizenship Law by Law no. 14/2025 are welcome, the main purpose of these amendments being to transpose certain objectives undertaken by Romania in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) and also to digitise the process of obtaining Romanian citizenship.

An article signed by Andreea Gurică, Senior Associate -agurica@stroica-asociatii.ro - STOICA & ASSOCIATES