Luxembourg · Citizenship by naturalisation
Luxembourgish Naturalisation and the Option Procedure
Open. Five years' residence is among the shortest in the EU, and dual citizenship has been permitted since 2009. The Luxembourgish language test is the real filter.
Luxembourg offers a five-year path to one of the world's strongest passports while permitting dual citizenship — an unusually clean combination in the EU. The obstacle is Luxembourgish itself: a language with roughly 400,000 speakers, no realistic self-study path, and no substitute (French and German do not count).
Qualifying routes
5 years' residence with the last year continuous, plus the Sproochentest and the civics course
For adult descendants of a Luxembourgish parent, adoptive parent or grandparent where nationality did not pass down. This is what remains after the 1900 route closed.
The facts
- Total landed cost
- Modest official fees plus language tuition — realistically under EUR 5,000 excluding the cost of five years' residence
- Timeline
- 60–84 months — 5 years' residence then roughly 6–12 months' processing; the option procedure can be far faster where the descent link is clean
- Physical presence
- Genuine residence for 5 years, with the final year continuous
- Family
- spouse (via their own residence)minor children may be included with a naturalising parent
- Permanent residency
- 5 years
- Citizenship
- 5 years
- Language test
- Sproochentest in Luxembourgish — A2 spoken production, B1 listening comprehension
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- 5 years' legal residence, the last year continuous (ordinary route)Sproochentest pass (A2 spoken / B1 listening) in Luxembourgishcompletion of the 'Living Together in the Grand Duchy' courseclean criminal recordfor the option route, a qualifying Luxembourgish parent, adoptive parent or grandparent
- The Sproochentest is in Luxembourgish, not French or German. This is the binding constraint and is routinely underestimated.
- Five years means five years of actual residence — and Luxembourg tax residence at up to 45.78%.
- The option procedure requires a specific parental or grandparental link; more distant ancestry no longer qualifies now that the 1900 route has expired.
- The 'Living Together in the Grand Duchy' civics course is a separate mandatory requirement.