Lithuanian lawmakers have registered three amendments to the Citizenship Law in the Seimas, the country's parliament, seeking new ways to let more people retain Lithuanian citizenship after two referendums failed to deliver the constitutional changes needed to expand dual citizenship.

The proposals would tighten the procedure for stripping people of Lithuanian citizenship, expand eligibility for people whose relatives suffered under occupation and repression, and allow some Lithuanians who acquire citizenship in other "friendly countries" to keep their Lithuanian passport. The Seimas is expected to consider the proposals during its autumn session.

What the current rules say

Lithuania does not allow multiple citizenships. Exceptions apply to people who left the country before 1990 and to children of mixed families, but most Lithuanians who take another nationality automatically lose their Lithuanian passport. Because the regulation rests on an article of the constitution, the Constitutional Court has so far maintained that any change requires a referendum.

Voters have gone to the polls on the issue twice. In the latest vote, in 2024, nearly 74% of voters supported changing the rules, but the result fell short of the constitutional threshold required to amend the constitution. The restriction has been a sore point for the new diaspora that swelled during the 1990s and 2000s.

Amendment 1: broader definition of deportation victims

One proposal would broaden the legal definition of a person deported or persecuted during the Soviet occupations and repressions. Current rules grant certain citizenship exceptions to people who were deported from Lithuania. The changes would also cover people who appeared on deportation lists but avoided deportation by going into hiding, as well as people imprisoned in Lithuania without being deported.

Conservative lawmaker Dalia Asanavičiūtė-Gružauskienė, one of the proposal's initiators, said the changes would align the Citizenship Law with legislation that expands the definition of people considered victims of deportation and repression.

Gediminas Ramanauskas, a member of the Lithuanian-American community in New York, described how the change could affect families like his. His grandparents were on a list of people scheduled for deportation to Siberia but left their home after a neighbour warned them.

"They hid for more than 10 years, changing where they lived, staying on different farms and sometimes in forests and remote homesteads," Ramanauskas said. He added that his grandparents stayed in Lithuania because they wanted to raise their family there rather than emigrate.

Amendment 2: stricter revocation procedure

A second proposal targets how authorities revoke citizenship. Officials would have to conduct a more extensive assessment of the consequences for both the state and the individual, and the person whose citizenship is at issue would take part in the process.

Asanavičiūtė-Gružauskienė noted that some people currently learn their citizenship has been revoked through an email notification.

Amendment 3: NATO and 'friendly countries'

The third amendment would allow Lithuanians who acquire citizenship in NATO countries to retain their Lithuanian citizenship. The text also names Malta and Ireland — non-NATO countries that "closely cooperate" with the alliance.

Social Democrat Kęstutis Vilkauskas said lawmakers could consider extending the arrangement to other friendly countries with which Lithuania maintains normal diplomatic relations.

Emigration backdrop

The debate unfolds amid renewed concern about emigration. Lithuania has recorded more returning citizens than departures since 2020, but preliminary data for this year suggest that trend may be shifting. During the first eight months of the year, about 3,500 more Lithuanians left the country than during the same period last year.

Anyone following the amendments should track Seimas proceedings and official announcements from Lithuania's Migration Department, which administers citizenship decisions, for authoritative guidance on eligibility and procedures.