Liechtenstein citizenship: one of Europe's rarest passports and how to get it

Liechtenstein is one of the countries most sparing with its passport. There is nothing arbitrary about it. It rests on a law from 1934 that has been amended again and again since: the Act on the Acquisition and Loss of Liechtenstein Citizenship (Gesetz über den Erwerb und Verlust des Landesbürgerrechtes), known for short as the Citizenship Act (Bürgerrechtsgesetz). One principle in it explains a great deal: every Liechtenstein citizen is also a citizen of a municipality. So if you want to become a Liechtensteiner, you often have to win over not only the state but also the people in the village. For the big picture of the countries where naturalisation through residence works well, read Naturalisation abroad. For Liechtenstein, it pays to look closely at the law itself.

How do you get Liechtenstein citizenship?

The Citizenship Act distinguishes two broad groups: acquisition by operation of law and acquisition by admission. By operation of law you are a Liechtenstein citizen if your father or mother is one when you are born, and also if you are adopted as a child under ten. Everyone else has to be admitted, and these are the routes:

Only ordinary residence counts towards the years, and the law defines it precisely: you need a residence permit, a permanent residence permit or a settlement permit, and there must be no grounds for withdrawing it. Periods in which you merely keep the permit while temporarily living abroad do not count. If you work in Liechtenstein and drive home across the Rhine to Switzerland or over to Vorarlberg in the evening, you collect not a single day towards the passport.

The same basic conditions apply on every route by admission. You must not have a final prison sentence for an intentional offence that has not yet been expunged, and no criminal proceedings for such an offence may be pending. You must support yourself: the law requires steady and regular income of your own over the last three years, from work, other income, statutory maintenance or insurance benefits, without social assistance. And you must speak German and pass a civics test; more on that below. How residence periods are counted and documented in practice is explained for every country in Proving your years of residence.

Naturalisation after ten years: the ordinary procedure

For anyone who is not marrying a Liechtensteiner and does not want to wait thirty years, the ordinary procedure is the shortest route. § 6 of the Citizenship Act sets out the conditions: at least ten years of ordinary residence in the country, a declaration that you will renounce your current nationality and, above all, a municipality's promise to admit you as a citizen.

The municipality votes

This promise is the real bottleneck. The Municipalities Act (Gemeindegesetz) governs it in Article 21: the municipal citizens living in the municipality decide on admission. It is not an office that reviews your file; your neighbours decide whether you belong. The municipality charges an administrative fee for the admission.

Parliament and the Prince

Once the municipality has agreed, the Government examines the application and puts it before Parliament (the Landtag). If Parliament agrees as well, the Government submits the application to the Reigning Prince, who alone has the right to grant citizenship. § 12 leaves no room for doubt: nobody has a right to be granted citizenship.

With the application you submit, among other things, your birth certificate, passport, criminal record extract, proof of residence, assets and income, and a certificate of your religious affiliation. The Government sets the fee for the grant: it amounts to at least half of the buy-in fee you pay to the municipality and is due before the certificate of citizenship is handed over. Finally, as an adult you take the citizenship oath before the Head of Government. If you are married, your minor children acquire citizenship with you unless they are expressly excluded. Your spouse is included if they meet the conditions for naturalisation by marriage themselves and apply for it.

Naturalisation after 30 years: the entitlement in the facilitated procedure

If you would rather not let the village vote on you, there is a second route with a firm entitlement; it is just long. § 5a requires 30 years of ordinary residence in Liechtenstein, with the years from birth to your 20th birthday counting double. You must have lived in the country without interruption for the last five years before applying, and here too you declare that you will renounce your current nationality.

The double counting makes this route attractive above all for families. A child who arrives in Liechtenstein at the age of five has already collected 30 counted years by their 20th birthday. If you only immigrate as an adult, on the other hand, you really do need thirty years.

The Government decides on the application after hearing the municipality. If the municipality objects, it has to give its reasons in writing. Minor children are included if the other parent agrees and the renunciation of their current nationality is declared for them as well. Young people aged 15 and over declare for themselves whether they want to be included. You receive the citizenship of the municipality where you last lived.

Citizenship by marriage to a Liechtenstein citizen

If you marry a Liechtenstein citizen, § 5 gives you an entitlement to naturalisation, but not straight away. The law requires ten years of ordinary residence in Liechtenstein, with the years after the wedding counting double, and a marriage that has lasted at least five years. On paper, then, five years of marriage spent together in the country are enough. If you lived in Liechtenstein before the wedding, you get there correspondingly sooner.

One restriction surprises many people: your Liechtenstein spouse must not have acquired citizenship through marriage themselves. If your spouse dies during the qualifying period, you are still admitted once it has run, provided you have not married a foreign national in the meantime. The same applies to a separation or divorce during the period if a Liechtenstein court separated or dissolved the marriage. The rules apply accordingly to registered partnerships. Here too you renounce your current nationality. Which countries naturalise spouses fastest is compared in Citizenship by marriage.

German at B1 and the civics test

§ 4c makes two kinds of evidence a condition of every naturalisation, except for stateless persons and naturalisation for extraordinary achievements: knowledge of German and basic knowledge of Liechtenstein's legal order and system of government.

Language

For you as a German, the language is the easy part. If German is your mother tongue, the law treats the evidence as provided. Everyone else proves German at level B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference, for example with a certificate from the Goethe-Institut or TELC, or with a pass in German at the level of the 9th school year.

Civics

You have to sit the civics test even as a native speaker, unless you attended compulsory school in Liechtenstein for at least three years and successfully completed the 9th school year, or completed basic vocational training in the country. The Citizenship Evidence Ordinance (Bürgerrechts-Nachweis-Verordnung) sets out the test in detail:

• Topics: structure and organisation of the Principality; the Reigning Prince, Parliament, Government, courts and parties; fundamental rights and freedoms including the right to vote; history of the Principality.
• Format: written, at least 27 multiple choice questions with at least three answers each, 90 minutes, no aids.
• Pass mark: two thirds of the answers correct. Retakes are allowed.
• Dates: at least once a quarter at the Immigration and Passport Office (Ausländer- und Passamt), publicly announced at least three weeks in advance. The office provides the study materials.

What language requirements, tests and oaths look like in other countries is shown in Language, test, oath of allegiance.

The Liechtenstein lottery: residence permits, not passports

If you search for a lottery for Liechtenstein citizenship, you come across something else: Liechtenstein draws residence permits by lot. For Germans this is still the most important starting point, because without residence none of the qualifying periods starts to run.

The background: Liechtenstein belongs to the EEA but has a special arrangement for the free movement of persons. That is why the Government can set maximum numbers of permits even for EEA citizens. Alongside the ordinary permit procedure, residence permits are also drawn by lot under Article 37 of the Free Movement of Persons Act (Personenfreizügigkeitsgesetz).

This is how the draw works under the Act and its Ordinance:

1. Who can take part: only EEA nationals without a right of permanent residence in Liechtenstein, which includes you as a German.
2. Two groups: people in work, employed or self-employed, and people not in work, meaning those who want to live in the country without working, retirees for example. The Government sets separate quotas for each group.
3. Deadlines: with one draw a year, you apply from 1 to 31 January; with two draws, from 1 to 28 February and from 1 to 31 August. The Government announces each year how many draws there will be.
4. Preliminary draw: twice as many names are drawn as there are permits to award. If you are drawn, you submit your complete documents.
5. Final draw: anyone who meets the conditions takes part. People in work need an employment contract for more than one year or must meet the conditions for self-employment; people not in work need enough money to live on without social assistance and health insurance covering all risks in Liechtenstein. A judge of the Princely Court supervises the draw.
6. Afterwards: the right you win is strictly personal and cannot be transferred. Within five months at the latest you give the Immigration and Passport Office your date of entry, and if you do not use the right within six months of being notified, it lapses.

After five years of uninterrupted residence, EEA citizens are entitled to a permanent residence permit. From there, the ordinary procedure takes at least another five years to the passport. What awaits you in Liechtenstein as an expat in terms of residence, taxes and lump-sum taxation is explained by Wohnsitz Ausland in its country profile Moving to Liechtenstein. If you want to move to the Principality as a retiree without working, you will find the details under Retiring in Liechtenstein.

Can you buy Liechtenstein citizenship?

No. Liechtenstein has no programme that grants the passport in return for an investment or a donation, and the Citizenship Act does not provide for one. There are two exceptions in the law that are occasionally misunderstood.

The first is in § 5a(1a). If the Government confirms that naturalisation is in the particular interest of the country because of extraordinary achievements the applicant has made and can be expected to make, the years of residence, the renunciation of the current nationality, proof of means of support and the language and civics tests are all waived. This is a decision on an individual case, not a procedure you can qualify for with a sum of money.

The second is honorary citizenship under § 16. On a proposal from the Government, the Reigning Prince can grant it to foreign nationals who have rendered outstanding service to the cultural and economic interests of the country or of a municipality, or who contribute in a special way to the revenues of the country and the municipalities, and he does so without municipal citizenship. Under a 1958 resolution of Parliament interpreting this provision, honorary citizenship is conferred on a specific person as an honour, free of charge and not hereditary. A distinction, not a product.

If you are looking for a second passport you can hold in your hand without waiting ten or thirty years, you will find it among the programmes for citizenship by investment.

Dual citizenship: Liechtenstein requires renunciation

This is the real hurdle for Germans. On all three naturalisation routes, the Citizenship Act requires a declaration that you renounce your current nationality. Only those naturalised for extraordinary achievements are exempt. Before the procedure is completed, you must prove that you have been released from your current nationality. The one exception: you prove that such a declaration of renunciation is ineffective under the law of your home country. For countries in which the old nationality is lost automatically with the declaration of renunciation, the Government can issue an advance assurance of admission.

On the German side, nothing stands in the way any more. With the 2024 Act to Modernise Nationality Law (Gesetz zur Modernisierung des Staatsangehörigkeitsrechts), § 25 of the German Nationality Act (Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz, StAG) was repealed: if you voluntarily acquire a foreign nationality, you no longer automatically lose your German one. You now only give up your German passport if you renounce it yourself. § 26 allows this renunciation if you hold several nationalities; it requires the approval of the nationality authority and takes effect when the certificate of renunciation is handed over. The obstacle therefore lies solely in Vaduz. What dual citizenship means for your family, your taxes and your travel is covered in Dual citizenship for Germans.

If you are already a Liechtensteiner, you may hold other passports

Things look different for those born Liechtenstein citizens. Citizenship is only lost through express renunciation, annulment of the marriage, deprivation or, for children, adoption by foreign nationals. Liechtenstein abolished the tacit loss of citizenship in 2010. If you are born to a Liechtenstein parent and hold another nationality as well, you remain a Liechtensteiner. One rule you should know as a dual citizen: towards the other state whose citizen you also are, you have no claim to protection by Liechtenstein.

What are the benefits of Liechtenstein citizenship?

The greatest benefit is the one Liechtenstein itself rations most tightly: the right to live in the country. EEA citizens need a permit that the Government can limit and partly draws by lot; Liechtenstein citizens need none. Municipal citizenship also gives you the right of domicile in your municipality (Heimatrecht), including the right to a certificate of origin (Heimatschein).

On top of that come the rights of an EEA national in the other EEA states, the right to vote and stand for election in national matters for as long as you live in the country, a say as a municipal citizen whenever your municipality votes on admitting new citizens, and a passport you pass on to your children, whether it is the father or the mother who is a Liechtensteiner. Where the Liechtenstein passport stands on travel freedom, and why rankings say little about how strong a passport really is, is explained in Passport ranking.

On its own, the passport is not a tax strategy. How the Principality taxes income and wealth, and who becomes liable to tax there, is shown by Steueratlas under Taxes in Liechtenstein.

There is a catch. If you are German today, naturalising in Liechtenstein means trading one strong passport for another strong passport instead of gaining a second one. If you want to live in the country, the permanent residence permit already takes you a long way, and you get your second passport by another route. How the neighbours handle it is shown in Switzerland: naturalisation for Germans and Monaco citizenship, which is granted just as rarely.

The faster second passport alongside the road to Vaduz

A passport is a right, not a permission. A residence permit you win in a draw can come to an end; a nationality stays. That is exactly why the timeline deserves a close look: ten years of residence are the minimum, a municipal vote comes on top, and at the end you give up your German passport.

Naturalisation and citizenship by investment do not exclude each other; they complement each other. Naturalisation is the route without an investment and, in the end, the deeper one; the investment buys you the time until you get there. Why you should pursue both in parallel is explained in CBI and naturalisation. Which countries naturalise after just a few years is compared in The fastest naturalisations.

The difference in pace is clear:

For Grenada, the responsible authority states approval within 60 working days of submission, and no visit to the island is required. Dominica starts at 200,000 USD in the fund for a single applicant and, according to the authority, requires no residence on the island either before or after naturalisation. Which programmes are open today and how they differ on cost, family and travel freedom is shown in the comparison; what applies to partners, children and parents is set out under Family. If you move to Liechtenstein and stay, you travel on two passports in the years before naturalisation and decide calmly at the end whether to trade them for the Liechtenstein one.

Frequently asked questions