Easiest European Citizenship (Fastest EU Nationality and Requirements)

Easiest European citizenship: discover how to get European Union nationality through the fastest possible ways currently available.

Are you looking to immigrate to Europe? Let's discuss below which are the easiest European Union citizenship to acquire and how you can get them the fastest possible way.

What is the so called European citizenship?

Before we get to the list of the countries, we should understand what is the concept of European citizenship. European citizenship basically refers to having the citizenship of a country which is currently part of the European Union.

There is no European passport per se, one always has a passport from an EU country, such as Poland, and because of that, you are an EU citizen. If Poland were to leave the EU, your nationality wouldn't change, but you would be no longer be an European Union citizen.

This is exactly what happened to UK citizens. Once the UK left the European Union, its citizens became non-EU citizens, while keeping the British nationality. Currently, if a Brit decides to move to Belgium for example, it will be treated as a non-EU citizen just like Americans, Canadians, Japanese, etc.

01:20 Portugal 

Portugal is in my opinion the easiest European citizenship to acquire. There are a number of reasons making Portugal the easiest choice if you are a non-EU citizen and you want to become an European Union citizen.

The first advantage of Portugal is that you can apply for citizenship after 5 years of continuous residence in the country. This is the shortest time currently in the European Union, if you don't fall in an exceptional case (marriage, citizens of former colonies, refugees).

Moreover, Portugal has more relaxed residency laws than most other EU countries. It is one of the easiest places to immigrate if you are from outside the European Union and get your first residence permit. It is still possible to come to Portugal as a tourist, get an official job contract and change your status to a resident as of 2021 (for visa exempt countries).

You can read more about Portuguese citizenship here.

02:10 Malta

Malta is a good option if you have plenty of money, and don't want to wait too long to grab your European Union passport. To acquire Maltese citizenship, one should invest somewhere between 600.000 to 750.000 euros in a fund determined by the Maltese government. If you invest 600.000, you can acquire Maltese citizenship in 3 years. For those investing 750k, you can get your Maltese passport within one year.

There are a number of other requirements to get EU citizenship in Malta through this program. You still have to either own property in Malta for five years, or rent a residence in Malta for five years. There are also minimum requirements on the property price or rental per year. You need to keep the property for five years and also do the non-refundable investment to qualify.

03:02 Belgium

Belgium is another country you should consider, if you want to get an European passport relatively quickly. After 5 years of continuous residence in Belgium you will be eligible to apply for citizenship in Belgium.

One of the advantages of Belgium is that time studying in the country   will count towards citizenship. So in theory you can come to study in an university in Belgium, finish your degree, get a job, and once 5 years have passed, you will be able to apply for citizenship.

Getting a new citizenship is something relatively complex, and in some cases you can speed up your process:

EU Citizenship Through Marriage

There is a myth that if you marry a citizen of a given country, you can automatically apply for citizenship. While this used to be true some decades ago, it is not the case anymore for European Union countries.

However, marrying an EU citizen will oftentimes facilitate your naturalization process. In most countries, getting married to a national of a EU country will reduce the number of years you need to reside in a given country before you can apply for citizenship.

EU Citizenship Through Ancestry

Another option, which is pretty popular in North and South America as well as in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa is getting EU citizenship through ancestry. In many EU countries, you can get citizenship if you have a grandparent or even a great-grandparent was born in an EU country.

EU Citizenship by Birth

Most European countries determine the nationality of its citizens through jus sanguinis. That means, being born in any EU country will not give you citizenship right away as it does in the US or Canada.

[thebriz]

I’m British and just got my Belgian citizenship. The major benefit of getting any EU citizenship is that you can move to any of the 27 EU countries easily. Just needed 5 years of living and working in Belgium. Technically you need to speak some French or Dutch but via the 5 year work route they assume that you speak one of the languages due to the fact you’ve worked in Belgium for 5 years. I only speak English

[juanpiedrahita-garcia]

The easiest route is to get a masters in France. If you live for 2 years after doing your masters while working you get citizenship

[abdalaluis]

Hey, I was living in the states, and thanks to this video I started to thinking about it two months ago; today i'm writing this comment while waiting for tomorrow when I will be starting a job in construction here in Portugal. Minimum wage, but excited for the new life. Thanks.

[princedaniel]

It is easy as we hear from outside, but living in the country you will see that it's all a different story. The requirements to apply for citizenship in various countries are totally difficult to get them, and will finally cost you more years than as we hear in the air.

[eddymens]

Few things to note.
For the Netherlands and Spain, it's important to note that you may not be eligible for dual citizenship, Also Portugal has high taxes

[aldwindominicfernandez]

1. Portugal
2. Malta
3. Belgium
4. Netherlands
5. Luxembourg
6. Ireland
7. Spain
8. Cyprus

[thebriz]

I’m British and just got my Belgian citizenship. Just needed 5 years of living and working in Belgium. Technically you need to speak some French or Dutch but via the 5 year work route they assume that you speak one of the languages due to the fact you’ve worked in Belgium for 5 years. I only speak English

[omyyycool]

I think Belgium citizenship process will take long time 📝

[vsk]

Thanks for filling out the description!!

[Fariborz]

Thank you very much for your helpful review—greetings from Verona - Italy.

[marcusbrajic]

My grandfather is from croatia and left before 1991 which makes me able to apply for a citizenship based on lineage without knowing the language fully or living there. So i just started collecting the documents to apply for one, but its just for fun as I am already a Norwegian and Swedish citizen

[WhitRose]

Currently working on Polish citizenship through ancestry. My paternal grandfather was born in Poland and immigrated to the US after the war. Hoping it works out as I am going to be studying abroad in France starting in Jan and would like to stay in EU after.

[elintegral]

Nice video.... i went out of my country 10 years ago. lived in Spain all this time.. now i am waiting for spanish passport to go out of spain... crazy life...

[flyingtube]

Croatia isn't the Schengen area. Neither is Cyprus ... So you might become a EU citizen but won't get the Total Freedom of Movement ...

[cledwyncarvalho]

I got my portugese citizenship and before I was undian uta a big change since I could live, work, and travel to all eu countries visa free which is beneficial for people who have weak passports and need a strong one one of the options is portugal

[eduardooka]

You forgot to mention that time spent as a student in portugal will count for your residency time.

[ReinaldoRM]

Where can I find more info related to Belgium?
Is incredible to me the time this video mentions, it's almost as Canada for example, in case you enter as a postgraduate student.

[syedanupalam]

Please make video content of marriage law and divorce law about these countries.

[peterc.]

No mention of being fluent in the national language, or compulsory national service the moment you become a citizen (if you are a man).

[andrewjohnson]

There are some mythologies about Belgian citizenship. After five years of *paying taxes and social security* you can *begin* the process of applying. I have two friends here that got theirs after 10 and 12 years respectively. I have another friend who has not managed to do so after 21 years. I am 7 years here and I am giving up the process realizing that it is not worth the time, expense, and continuous frustration from the adversarial attitudes of the civil service. For some unknown reason, they treat you as an opponent or criminal that they need to outmaneuver.