# Romanian Citizenship By Descent



## laffs4sale (Nov 26, 2010)

Hello. My great-grandfather emigrated from Romania to the United States between 1900-1910. He married, and my grandmother was born in 1910 or so. My great-grandfather didn't become a fully naturalized citizen of the United States until the 1940's, long after she was born. I therefore assume she was born Romanian by the right of blood. And by the same right, my mother and I should also be Romanian. Is this correct? We are all U.S. citizens born in the United States, never applied for another citizenship, and never renounced our Romanian citizenship, if any.

Also, is a law firm necessary to apply for Romanian citizenship by descent or this something I can handle myself? I don't speak Romanian and I don't have my great-grandfather's Romanian birth certificate, but I can get official copies of his American naturalization records as well as his American death certificate listing Romania as his country of birth.

Thank you.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

If you google "citizenship by descent romania" you get lots and lots of private firms offering to help you (for a fee). I did find this: https://londra.mae.ro/en/node/2155 which is the Romanian Embassy in London. I didn't find a similar page on the website for the Romanian embassy in the US, but there is considerable information about contacting the embassy, which states each embassy/consulate handles, etc.

I would contact the embassy first and see if their list for "reclaiming" Romanian nationality is similar to the list posted on the London embassy site. There do appear to be a number of agencies out there to help you locate Romanian documents (birth certificates, etc.).


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## ALKB (Jan 20, 2012)

laffs4sale said:


> Hello. My great-grandfather emigrated from Romania to the United States between 1900-1910. He married, and my grandmother was born in 1910 or so. My great-grandfather didn't become a fully naturalized citizen of the United States until the 1940's, long after she was born. I therefore assume she was born Romanian by the right of blood. And by the same right, my mother and I should also be Romanian. Is this correct? We are all U.S. citizens born in the United States, never applied for another citizenship, and never renounced our Romanian citizenship, if any.
> 
> Also, is a law firm necessary to apply for Romanian citizenship by descent or this something I can handle myself? I don't speak Romanian and I don't have my great-grandfather's Romanian birth certificate, but I can get official copies of his American naturalization records as well as his American death certificate listing Romania as his country of birth.
> 
> Thank you.


You could try to join a Romanian genealogy group on FB or similar. If they are anything like the German ones, they'd probably be very helpful in finding paperwork and knowing how to obtain official copies.

Does his naturalization application state his place of birth in Romania?

EDIT: before anything else, you could also make a free account on familysearch and plug his name and any info you have (date of birth, etc.) into the search function. If you are lucky, the birth certificate will at least be transcribed.

Are your local libraries open? I hear that some US libraries have access to ancestry.com, which has a lot of images of original records. I never searched Romanian records, though.

If you feel comfortable, you could pm me the details and I can have a quick look whether there is anything easily located.


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## laffs4sale (Nov 26, 2010)

Thank you for your help. I emailed the Consular Section of the U.S. Romanian embassy asking them about the procedure for reacquiring Romanian citizenship by descent. I'll let you know what they say. I'm still unclear about whether I can apply as the great-grandson of a Romanian citizen, but hopefully they can clarify that as well. I believe we all inherited Romanian citizenship by right of blood (grandmother-mother-son). I'll post any updates.


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## laffs4sale (Nov 26, 2010)

ALKB said:


> You could try to join a Romanian genealogy group on FB or similar. If they are anything like the German ones, they'd probably be very helpful in finding paperwork and knowing how to obtain official copies.
> 
> Does his naturalization application state his place of birth in Romania?
> 
> ...


PM sent. Thank you.


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## oceanwave995 (May 20, 2021)

I don't know much about Romanian citizenship. I know Italian citizenship is multi-generational.


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