Have you been granted Romanian citizenship? Important information on what to do next!

The 2025 Romanian citizenship law has brought some important changes even for persons who have been granted or re-granted Romanian citizenship. Click here for the main post regarding other changes.

Specifically, there are now legal deadlines for taking the Oath, requesting your registration of civil status, and requesting a passport or ID card.

Here is what you need to do, based on where you are on the citizenship path:

1. Order to receive citizenship issued, but no Oath taken:

You have exactly one year from the issuance of the citizenship Order to take the Oath, otherwise you risk losing citizenship. Contact your nearest Embassy or Consulate and insist on receiving an appointment to take the Oath.

2. Oath taken, registrations of vital records not done:

You have 6 months from the day you took the Oath, to request the registration of any vital events that took place abroad until then. For example, if you were born in Romania, and then lost citizenship, you do not need to register your birth, but you would need to register a marriage that took place abroad.

If you were born abroad, then you must start with the birth registration, and build up from there.

We can help with having any divorce from abroad recognized in Romania, because this must be done in the courts first. Contact us here (non-form request). The registration of vital records for persons who have been (re-)granted citizenship must however be done personally.

Important! There are few and far between appointment slots for these registrations. Start early.

Penalty: if you do not register all your vital records, you cannot receive an ID or passport, particularly not within the timeline set by the law. You can also be fined an administrative fee (around 100 USD).

3. Registrations of vital records done, passport not requested:

You have 3 years from 15 March 2025, which is 15 March 2028, to apply for your first passport. This applies even if you have received citizenship before 2025! If you obtain citizenship in the future, the 3 years start from the date you took the Oath.

Penalty: if you do not request a passport on time, two things happen. On the one hand, you will have to pay an administrative fine (around 100 USD), and on the other hand it will become harder, because the authorities are constantly adding new documents for such later passport requests.