Czech Citizenship by Descent – Verification
So, were you born a citizen?
The key question is whether one of your parents (or both if you were born before 1969) were citizens at the time of your birth. If you’re unsure, then you need to figure out, whether their parents were citizens at the time of their birth.
Here are some more specific cases:
All you need is 1 Czech parent. If your parent(s) emigrated between 1993(~1997 for those in the US) and 2013, then they remained citizens, unless they explicitly asked the Czech government to rescind their citizenship or naturalized abroad (before you were born).
Those who naturalized (acquired foreign citizenship) between 1993 and 2013, lost their Czech citizenship – this is only relevant to you, if you were born after they naturalized.
Again, all that is required is 1 Czech/Czechoslovak parent. There are no provisions for automatic loss of citizenship(but there are exceptions, especially for emigrants to the United States), although citizenship could have been rescinded by an act of the Interior Ministry – this was quite rare nevertheless.
Citizenship was only passed automatically to children born abroad if they had 2 Czech/Czechoslovak parents. Again, there were no automatic loss provisions, but the Interior Ministry had the power to rescind citizenship and certain exceptions apply. In certain circumstances, until 1958, women would lose their citizenship by marrying a foreigner.
This topic is extremely complicated and involves Austro-Hungarian legislation from as far back as 1834. Anyone who left Czechoslovakia (or the Austro-Hungarian Empire) for good before 1922 lost their citizenship automatically. People who left between 1922 and 1949 generally preserved their citizenship, with a couple of exceptions. Most notably, women would lose their citizenship by marrying a foreigner.
Contrary to what you may have heard, immigrating before Czechoslovakia became a state, ie. before 1918, does not necessarily mean the emigrant wasn’t a Czechoslovak citizen.
I am trying to get some advice as I am interested in applying for Czech citizenship, to re-establish contacts with my ancestry.
My father was born in Prague in 1928. He immigrated to Australia in 1951 and then married my mother in 1962. My mother was born in Australia. I was born in 1963 in Australia. Is there any possibility of me gaining Czech citizenship?
Please see https://www.mzv.cz/file/191559/Application_for_the_Certificate_of_Czech_citizenship.pdf.
I have just completed the tediosly long process based on my grandfather who never even visited Czechoslovakia having left the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the 19th century.