Glossary
The terms you'll meet pursuing citizenship by descent, defined plainly and tagged by country.
- 1948 caselegal🇮🇹
- A judicial route for lineages passing through a woman whose child was born before January 1, 1948, when maternal transmission was restricted.
- AIREprocess🇮🇹
- Anagrafe degli Italiani Residenti all'Estero — the registry of Italian citizens resident abroad.
- Apostilledocument
- An international certification (Hague Convention) that authenticates a public document for legal use in another country.
- Asseveratadocument🇮🇹
- A sworn translation performed before an Italian court official, required for the 1948 judicial route.
- Bill C-3legal🇨🇦
- Canadian law (in force Dec 15, 2025) that removed the first-generation limit on citizenship by descent.
- Bundesverwaltungsamt (BVA)authority🇩🇪
- Germany's Federal Office of Administration in Cologne — the sole authority that determines citizenship by descent.
- Chain breaklegal
- When an ancestor lost or renounced citizenship before the next generation was born, severing the line of descent.
- CIPLE A2document🇵🇹
- The Portuguese A2-level language exam required for some descent applicants (e.g., the grandparent path).
- Foreign Birth Registration (FBR)process🇮🇪
- Ireland's register through the Department of Foreign Affairs for claiming citizenship by descent via a grandparent.
- Honosításprocess🇭🇺
- Hungary's simplified naturalization pathway for descendants, requiring a conversational Hungarian interview.
- Jure sanguinislegal🇮🇹
- Latin for “by right of blood” — citizenship inherited from an ancestor rather than granted by birthplace or naturalization.
- Jus sanguinislegal
- The general principle of citizenship by descent (right of blood), used across most descent programs.
- Masovian Voivodeauthority🇵🇱
- The Warsaw provincial office that issues confirmations of Polish citizenship for applicants abroad.
- Naturalizationlegal
- Acquiring citizenship of a new country. Its timing matters: naturalizing before the next ancestor's birth can break a descent chain.
- OFFIauthority🇭🇺
- Hungary's official translation and attestation office, whose translations are required for naturalization.