Iceland · Citizenship by naturalisation
Icelandic Citizenship by Naturalisation
Open
Last verified July 2026
Open. Dual citizenship permitted since 2003. A backlog has pushed processing to 18+ months on top of the residence requirement.
Iceland allows dual citizenship and asks only A2 Icelandic, which is gentler than Estonia's B1 plus renunciation. But the practical timeline — seven years of residence with a 90-day-per-year absence cap, then an 18-month backlog — makes it an eight-to-nine-year project for a passport ranked below Ireland's or Sweden's.
Qualifying routes
60k ISK
Standard naturalisation
7 years' continuous legal residence plus a permanent residence permit; fee from 1 January 2026
The facts
- Qualifying figure
- 60k ISK
- Total landed cost
- ISK 60,000 fee plus ISK 40,000 for the language test, plus criminal record certificates from every country of residence since age 15.
- Timeline
- 96–108 months — 7 years' residence plus an 18+ month backlog — realistically 8-9 years from arrival to passport
- Physical presence
- 7 years' continuous legal residence, with absences capped at 90 days per 12 months
- Family
- minor children may be included
- Permanent residency
- Prerequisite — a permanent residence permit is required before applying
- Citizenship
- 7 years standard; shorter routes exist for Nordic citizens, spouses and cohabiting partners
- Language test
- Icelandic language test at roughly A2 level, covering speaking, listening, reading and writing; held about twice a year at ISK 40,000
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- 7 years' continuous legal residence with a permanent residence permitabsences no more than 90 days per 12 monthsIcelandic language test (approximately A2)criminal record certificates from every country of residence since age 15self-sufficiency and no outstanding tax or maintenance debts
What can go wrong
- The 90-day-per-12-month absence cap is severe and effectively rules out globally mobile clients for the full 7 years.
- Processing has slipped from 6-12 months historically to 18+ months. Realistic arrival-to-passport is 8-9 years.
- Applications go through island.is and require an Icelandic electronic ID (rafræn skilríki), which is itself a chicken-and-egg hurdle for new arrivals.
- Criminal record certificates are required from EVERY country you have resided in since age 15 — a real burden for mobile families.
- The language test is held only about twice a year, so missing a sitting costs six months.
- Sources conflict on the shortened routes: some say spouses 4 years and cohabiting partners 5, Nordic citizens 3 or 4. We could not resolve this — verify with Útlendingastofnun.