Slovenian Citizenship - Legal Representation and Assistance in 2023
Citizenship in Slovenia
Updated on Wednesday 29th March 2023 Rate this article
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Foreigners who want to permanently relocate to Slovenia can have the right of becoming Slovenian citizens, if specific conditions are met. There are few legal options to acquire Slovenian citizenship and the most common refers to the naturalization process, through a foreigner who is not related to other Slovenian individuals opts to become a citizen, after becoming a permanent resident and after showing evidence that he or she is accustomed with the Slovenian culture. If you want to know the legal steps that you have to follow in order to obtain Slovenia citizenship, you can always rely on our team of Slovenian lawyers. Our law firm in Slovenia is prepared to offer legal assistance and to present to you all the legal requirements you must fulfill, depending on the characteristics of your case.
When can an individual obtain Slovenian citizenship in 2023?
The legislation in Slovenia prescribes few ways through which an individual is entitled to the Slovene citizenship – thus, one can become a citizen by birth or through naturalization, after living in Slovenia for a given period of time and after meeting other requirements that are of importance for this process.
With regards to the process of naturalization, the pathway to citizenship by becoming first a permanent resident, you must know that the law als provides the possibility of extraordinary naturalization.
Thus, you can apply for citizenship in 2023 under this procedure if your situation is considered to be of national interest for the country. It can apply to persons involved in academic life, cultural, scientific, etc.
Here, the residency requirements are far less strigent. If you want to apply in 2023, you have to make the proof of living in Slovenia for minimum 1 year. In very limited situations, the person does not even have to comply with any residency requirements if their activity has brought a certain level of international reputation to Slovenia.
When we refer to citizenship by birth, Slovenia applies the principle of blood ties, which implies that if a baby is born out of Slovenian citizens (or the child has at least one biological parent who is a Slovenian citizen), then he or she will obtain Slovenian citizenship regardless if the birth took place in Slovenia or on the national territory of another country.
In 2020, according to the data of the Statistical Office, a total of 1,725 persons received the Slovenian citizenship. In the same year, 43 persons lost their citizenship.
We invite you to watch a short presentation on obtaining citizenship in Slovenia:
Then, with regards to the process of naturalization, the list of possibilities of acquiring citizenship is far more extensive, as it takes into consideration more scenarios that can apply to foreigners who relocated in this country. In the list below, our team of Slovenian lawyers will present the main options applicable to foreigners:
- according to the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Slovenia, a foreigner is generally entitled to citizenship if he or she has lived in this country for a period of 10 years and has been a permanent resident for at least 5;
- foreigners who are married with Slovenian citizens are entitled to apply for the Slovene citizenship if the couple has been married for at least 3 years;
- those who have previously held Slovenian citizenship and lost or renounced it and they want to apply for it again and have been living in Slovenia for at least 6 months prior to the date of the application;
- they are a Slovenian descendent or expatriate and have been living in Slovenia for at least 1 year before the application is made;
- the foreigner is a stateless person and has been living in Slovenia for at least 5 years on a continuous basis.
What is the law for Slovenian dual citizenship?
Numerous European countries grant the right to have dual citizenship, which refers to the fact that when applying for the new citizenship of the country where the person resides, he or she will be allowed to maintain the first citizenship, of the country from where the person relocated. Slovenia is one of the country that recognizes dual citizenship.
However, the Slovenian dual citizenship is limited by specific regulations. For instance, in the case of a Slovenian national who is relocated to a foreign country where he or she wants to acquire citizenship, the Slovenian citizenship may be lost due to the national law of the said country.
Given that all countries have sovereignty on their national territories, if the law of a country imposes to a foreigner to give up his or her previous citizenship, then the Slovenian dual citizenship will not apply. However, in Slovenia, the national law does not require a foreigner to automatically renounce his or her nationality when obtaining Slovenian citizenship.
The rules applicable in this case are highly influenced by the first citizenship of the foreigner and the acts and regulations that can be recognized in each particular case. Due to this, if you are interested in Slovenian dual citizenship, we highly recommend you to request legal advice from our law firm in Slovenia.
For the citizens of the EU, the rules on immigration to Slovenia are rather simple, as EU citizens benefit from the free movement of persons in the EU.
This means that an EU citizen can relocate to this country without having to go through complicated immigration procedures. However, even if EU citizens can relocate here without any visa requirements, they will need to apply for a residence permit if necessary.
In Slovenia, persons who arrive from the European Union (EU) and who are citizens of EU member states do not have to provide any evidence on the fact that they have renounced their first citizenship when acquiring Slovenian citizenship, which means that they can easily benefit from the Slovenian dual citizenship.
The same rule can apply to other categories of foreigners arriving from outside the EU, but also to minors, as they can’t legally decide on what citizenship they prefer. Please contact our law firm in Slovenia if you want to know more details regarding the ways in which a person can obtain citizenship.
