Keep me posted as I have all my dad’s documents ready!!

Sveks!

Edvardas Petras Krisiunas

The bulk of the pressure now is to allow people who left *since* 1990 to keep their Lithuanian citizenship. That’s why requirements like “NATO nation” and “EU nation” keep coming up, as they are both sets of states that Lithuanians have been emigrating to since 1990.

Given that the current law considers as citizens everyone who is a descendant of a citizen of the first republic, it would follow that that should make up the pool of potential candidates for dual citizenship, even though that would go against the “rare” requirement in the constitution (as would, I would argue, expanding it in the other direction). So while it would make sense, and while it would be what I want, I’ve not actually, from what little I’ve read, seen anything suggesting that it will.

Have you caught wind that this possibility is under consideration at all?

Or is it actually the post 1990 immigrants that are mainly being considered for inclusion at this point in the political debate?

Thanks again
Bronwyn

My family I suppose, fits into the crypto-racist category you speak of.

Something is not so clear to me though: I thought from the articles I have read that the extension of dual citizenship that is in debate, surrounds the topic of pulling the clock back to include pre-1940 immigrants.

Is this not the actual issue in question?

Hope this is not one of those frustrating questions already answered somewhere…

Thanks
Bronwyn

I honestly don’t have any sort of insider information, nor do I particularly feel like I can gauge trends. I do feel, however, that the Lithuanian government is trying to figure out how to make dual citizenship available to more, rather than to fewer, people. They are under tremendous pressure from Lithuanians living abroad–this has turned PLB almost into a single-issue organization!

But while that may sound like good news, what is keeping the pressure from throwing the doors of dual citizenship wide open is precisely the business I called “crypto-racist” above. I do believe that the same sources of pressure to open dual citizenship to people who have acquired citizenship in a NATO nation are also sources that are disinclined to advocate for the rights of descendents of citizens who left before 1940–that is to say, they might not advocate for, as an example, the descendents of Jewish citizens who fled the increasingly toxic atmosphere in late Smetona-era Lithuania.

In other words, because the current efforts to widen dual citizenship are done in an effort to maintain the ethnic Lithuanian hegemony over the state, means of widening the citizenship to increase the likelihood of non-ethnic Lithuanians’ gaining dual citizenship seem to find less favor in the halls of power.

So whether your specific family is ethnically Lithuanian or not, because pulling the clock back to 1918 would dilute the concentration of ethnic Lithuanians in the pool of eligible dual citizens, your chances seem slim for the forseeable future.

That’s how I read the pressure for changing the dual citizenship law when I try to read between the lines.

I currently fit into the category where I would have to renounce my South African citizenship to get the Lithuanian one.

It seems to make sense to wait until the changes are announced in July 2010. Am I right in understanding that the trend seems to be towards extending dual citizenship in the case of those who left before 1940 as well? Or am I misunderstanding this?

My one fear is that if I wait till July 2010, the rights to ancestral citizenship would be taken away completely. Any chance of this in your opinion? That would mean getting applications in pronto…but then have to give up S.A passport, which is undesirable.

Thanks!