Romania
Your family left.
The records stayed.
Family from Bessarabia or Bukovina? You may qualify for Romanian citizenship.
From 1918 to 1940, these lands were Romania.
The records survive. We find them and build the case.
An EU passport your family already earned.
What a Romanian passport actually gives you
Romania is a member of the European Union. A Romanian citizen is a citizen of the Union, and that status is not about one country.
Live and work anywhere in the EU
No visa, no work permit, no sponsorship. Twenty-seven countries, plus Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.
Study on the same terms as locals
European universities charge EU citizens domestic fees, which in several countries are a fraction of the international rate.
It passes to your children
Citizenship acquired by descent is inherited further. You are not solving this only for yourself.
Romania permits dual citizenship. You give up nothing you already hold, and you are not required to move.
Three different positions — and people confuse them
Before asking how to obtain citizenship, it is worth asking whether you already hold it. Which of the three describes you is decided by documents, not by family memory.
Possibly already a citizen
The chain never broke
Under Romanian law a child is Romanian if at least one parent was Romanian at the time of birth — wherever that birth took place. If that held in every generation, nothing is being granted to you. It is confirmed.
Article 10 — to grandchildren
The ancestor gave it up
Where Romanian citizenship was renounced — often as the price of leaving — the law reaches descendants to the second degree.
Article 11 — to great-grandchildren
It was taken away
Where citizenship was lost through no fault of the person — borders moving, or a decree stripping it — the law reaches the third degree. This is the route for most families from Bessarabia and Bukovina.
Whether an ancestor renounced citizenship or had it withdrawn is not something a website can tell you. It is written in a file in an archive, and that is where the answer comes from.
Where these claims actually stall
Almost never on eligibility. Nearly always on a document.
Your own birth certificate proves one link in the chain. Every link above it was registered in a place your family no longer lives: a civil registry in Moldova, a regional archive in Ukraine, a parish register in Romania. For anyone who died, or for entries older than seventy-five years, an ordinary birth extract does not exist at all — only an archival certificate does, and it is a different document requested a different way.
Then there is the spelling. A surname written one way in a 1930s Romanian register, another way on arrival in New York, a third way on an Israeli identity card. Those differences have to be reconciled on paper, not explained in a covering letter.
The requests go out in Ukrainian, Romanian or Russian, and they have to ask for the right document by its right name. This is the part we do ourselves.
How a case runs
First
We establish what is true
Where the ancestor was born, what the borders were then, what their status was under the law of that time. We locate the records, obtain them under power of attorney, and assemble the line of descent.
Then
The cost of the full process is set
Not before. Until the archives have answered, the real scope of a case is unknown, and a single all-in figure quoted at the start is a guess dressed up as a price.
Then
A Romanian lawyer takes the case
Filing with the National Authority for Citizenship in Bucharest, and conducting the case from there. What the Romanian citizenship lawyer does at each stage.
If needed
The decision is challenged in court
Representation before the courts in Bucharest is part of this practice, not a service bought in from elsewhere when something goes wrong.
Who qualifies, which records the file needs and how filing works: Romanian citizenship by descent.
How pricing works
There is no single figure for a case, and anyone who gives you one before seeing the documents is guessing. Every archive is different, so we quote each record search once we know the region and the archive — always before any work starts.
We quote the current price — apostille included — once we know which specific records your case needs. Nothing is added to it afterwards.
How many records a case needs is the whole variable. Some lines close with two documents. Others need six, across two countries, plus corrections where names were spelled differently in each. That is why the cost of the full process is set once the line of descent is assembled, and why the lawyer stage is a separate engagement of its own.
What this asks of you
Worth knowing before you start, not after.
Romanian at B1
Applications under Articles 10 and 11 require a certificate of Romanian at B1 level. The deadline for filing that certificate now runs to 15 March 2027. Former Romanian citizens, applicants over 65 and children included in a parent's application are exempt — descendants are not.
Appearing in person
Preparation is done remotely. Filing is not: it happens either in Romania by appointment, or at a Romanian consulate in your country of citizenship, where a lawyer can travel to accompany the filing. Presence is required — only its location is a choice.
Years, not months
These cases run for years. That is the market reality of 2026, not our estimate, and it is the same for everyone — the difference is only whether you were told in advance.
Where to start reading
Bulgaria
Proving Bulgarian origin: the records that support Bulgarian citizenship by descent
Which documents prove Bulgarian ancestry for citizenship: what the law requires, where Bulgarian birth records and parish registers are kept, what to do when no record says 'Bulgarian', and how translations and apostilles work.
Bulgaria
EU citizenship by descent: Bulgarian or Romanian — which route fits your family
Two EU passports by descent from the same region. How Bulgarian and Romanian citizenship by descent differ: who qualifies, language, how far back the line goes, timelines, and when one family can use both.
Eligibility
Romanian citizenship for Jewish descendants: the 1938 citizenship review, Bessarabia, and your passport
Romania has no special law for Jewish descendants, but its general law covers people whose citizenship was taken without their consent, and their great-grandchildren. What the 1938 review did, what applies to families who left after the war, and how a claim works today.
Bulgaria
How to get a Bulgarian passport and identity card after citizenship: certificate, EGN and one visit
The steps from the presidential decree to a Bulgarian passport: the citizenship certificate, address registration and the EGN personal number, then the identity card and passport applied for in a single visit. Documents, timing and what the passport gives you.
Eligibility
Does Romania allow dual citizenship? Keeping your US, UK or Israeli passport alongside a Romanian one
Yes. Romanian citizenship by descent is granted with the right to keep your current citizenship, and there is no limit on how many you hold. What your other country says, what changes for you as a Romanian citizen, and what happens after approval.
Procedure
Romanian ID card (buletin): how to get a Romanian electronic identity card
Since 2025, Romanian citizens who live abroad can get an electronic ID card without a Romanian address. Where to apply, what you need, and passport first.