Austrian citizenship by descent

In 2020/2022, two amendments to the Austrian Citizenship Act were enacted, which deal with Austria's historic responsibility during World War II, and which make it possible for certain individuals to obtain Austrian citizenship in an extremely easy manner. The relevant provisions are contained in sec. 58c of the Austrian Citizenship Act and are very casuistic. They allow the granting of Austrian citizenship to two groups of applicants:

• Nazi victims; and
• their descendants in direct line.

There are six cases of Nazi victims. Some of these apply only to Austrian citizens, some only to citizens of one of the successor states of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (Hungary; Czechoslovakia; the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes; Poland; Romania; Italy; and the Ukraine) and some only to stateless persons. The six cases are:

• Case #1 involves an individual who had his/her primary residence in Austria before 15 May 1955 and had to leave Austria because he/she had reason to fear, or had suffered, persecution by organs of the NSDAP or the authorities of the German Reich; or had reason to fear, or had suffered, persecution because of his/her advocacy for the democratic Republic of Austria.
• Case #2 involves an individual who had his/her primary residence outside of Austria between 30 January 1933 and 9 May 1945 and who would, in case of an entry (or a re-entry) into Austria for the purpose of setting up a primary residence, have had reason to fear persecution by organs of the NSDAP or the authorities of the German Reich; or because of his/her advocacy for the democratic Republic of Austria.
• Case #3 involves an individual who was deported out of Austria before 9 May 1945 by organs of the NSDAP or the authorities of the German Reich; or because of his/her advocacy for the democratic Republic of Austria.
• Case #4 involves an individual who had his/her primary residence in Austria before 9 May 1945 and was deported out of Austria by organs of the NSDAP or the authorities of the German Reich; or because of his/her advocacy for the democratic Republic of Austria.
• Case #5 involves an individual who perished (in Austria or abroad) before 9 May 1945 due to persecution by organs of the NSDAP or the authorities of the German Reich; or because of his/her advocacy for the democratic Republic of Austria.
• Case #6 involves an individual who had his/her primary residence in Austria before 9 May 1945 and perished (in Austria or abroad) due to persecution by organs of the NSDAP or the authorities of the German Reich; or because of his/her advocacy for the democratic Republic of Austria.

The term descendant in direct line comprises a son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter, great-grandson, great-granddaughter etc., but also an adoptive child (who was adopted when he/she was still a minor). There is no limit in terms of the number of generations between a Nazi victim and the descendant.

• Austria is one of the most attractive countries to live in, due to economic and political stability, a high standard of living, a clean and safe environment, excellent infrastructure, famous skiing resorts, good schools and a reliable healthcare system.
• Even if you don't want to live there, Austria is a member state of the European Union (EU). As an Austrian citizen you can: travel to any EU country; work in any EU country; acquire a business in any EU country; or invest in real estate in any EU country.
• Finally, the Austrian passport is one of the top ten passports worldwide and allows visa-free travel to approx. 190 destinations.

An applicant for citizenship under sec. 58c of the Austrian Citizenship Act does not need to have had his/her residence in Austria for a minimum number of years, as would normally be the case.

An applicant for citizenship under sec. 58c of the Austrian Citizenship Act does not have to give up his/her non-Austrian citizenship, as would normally be the case.

An applicant for citizenship under sec. 58c of the Austrian Citizenship Act does not have to provide proof of sufficient German language skills, as would normally be the case.

An applicant for citizenship under sec. 58c of the Austrian Citizenship Act does not have to provide proof of a basic knowledge of the democratic system and the history of Austria, as would normally be the case.

Obtaining Austrian citizenship as such does not lead to Austrian comprehensive income tax liability. Only by establishing a physical nexus to Austria would you become a tax resident.

While Austria has compulsory military service for males, this normally does not apply to a person who habitually resides in, and is a citizen of, another country.

There is no deadline written into sec. 58c itself. What applies is the general rule of Austrian administrative procedure: the authority has to decide without unnecessary delay, and at the latest six months after the declaration is received. The Foreign Ministry declines to give a figure of its own, saying the duration depends on which documents were submitted and how much research the authority has to do.

That is worth reading precisely, because the six months only start once the declaration is filed. Assembling the file that goes with it is the part that takes months — how many depends entirely on which archives hold your family’s records and how much survived.

Filing under sec. 58c(1a) of the Austrian Citizenship Act has been exempted from all federal fees by law.

What the exemption does not cover is everything you pay somebody else for: archive retrieval, certified copies, sworn translation into German, apostilles, and our legal fees. Those are the real costs, and they vary with how much of your family’s paper trail survives.

Not automatically, and the dividing line is the date citizenship is (retroactively) declared.

A child already born before that date needs a separate declaration of his/her own. A child born afterwards is an Austrian citizen by descent without any further step. Children who need their own declaration can be entered on the same questionnaire and notification form as yours, so the family details and the shared documents do not have to be submitted twice.

No. A declaration under sec. 58c is not available to a spouse or partner who is not himself/herself a descendant in direct line of a persecuted ancestor within the meaning of the Austrian Citizenship Act.

The provision follows descent, not marriage. It reaches your children and their children without limit of generation, and it does not reach sideways.

A missing certificate is the ordinary case for this audience, not the exception, and it is rarely the end of a file.

Austrian civil registration is duplicated more than people expect — a birth may sit in a municipal register, in a religious community’s register, and again in a registration record or a school file. The persecution archives are indexed and searchable: the deportation and victims’ databases of the DÖW, the Arolsen Archives, and Yad Vashem’s Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names between them cover a very large share of the events the Austrian Citizenship Act turns on. And a death that was never registered has a legal substitute in a declaration of death (Todeserklärung).

Where a fact genuinely cannot be documented, the question becomes whether another of the six cases reaches the same family through a fact that can be. What each document proves, and what to do when one is missing.

German or English are both accepted. A document in any other language has to be translated into German by a sworn and judicially certified translator — which is a legal standing, not a description of fluency, so a relative who speaks perfect German cannot do it.

Separately, a foreign original document may need authenticating before an Austrian authority will accept it: an apostille where the issuing country is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, consular legalisation where it is not. We will let you know which of your documents need it, so you won’t have to pay for something nobody will be asking for.

For anyone who was neither born in Austria nor lives there, the competent authority is the Vienna Provincial Government — Municipal Department 35.

The procedure, step by step.

Very possibly, and this is worth checking rather than assuming.

Sec. 58c was amended twice — in September 2020 and again in May 2022 — and the amendments widened who counts as a persecuted person. A family refused under the older, narrower provision may now fall squarely inside the widened provision.

A refusal is a decision on the law as it stood. Compare the six cases as they stand now.

Not knowing is not a disqualification. It leaves a statutory element open, and an open element is settled by a document rather than by a memory.

The questionnaire is built around this. “I’m not sure” is never a failing answer there: it cannot trigger a dead end, and it comes back on the result as a named open point with the records that would settle it. What you get is a list of what to look for, not a verdict.