A new report released today has revealed that since the adoption of the Grand Duchy's nationality law on 23 October 2008, nearly 26,000 people applied for voluntary Luxembourgish nationality.
According to statistics portal STATEC, since the law allowing for dual nationality entered into force on 1 January 2009, 25,820 people carried out the application, of which 75% consisted of Belgian, French, Portuguese, Italians and Germans. In the case of the former two, a significant majority were found to have acquired Luxembourgish nationality despite not being a resident of the Grand Duchy, with many instead living across the border in their home country. 22.0%, or 5,684, of the total applications, were submitted by non-residents of Luxembourg.
2014 represented the highest number of voluntary Luxembourgish nationality acquisitions, standing at 4,991 individuals. This indicated a growth of 969 applications compared with 2009, the year the law first came into effect. A third of people who acquired Luxembourgish nationality were born in the Grand Duchy.
The most common foreign nationalities in the Grand Duchy were reported to be citizens of former Yugoslavia, who represented the highest rate of applications for Luxembourgish nationality.
An individual applying to become a Luxembourg national must be over the age of 18, and those aged 18-34 were found by STATEC to have represented half of all applications, whilst applicants over the age of 65 comprised only 7.5% of applications. Female applicants held an average age of 37.6, whilst men were only slightly younger on average at 37.4. However, a notable difference was found between the ages of non-residents and residents receiving the nationality, with the latter found to be an average 8.4 years younger than the former.
Applying for Luxembourgish nationality also requires proof of residence in Luxembourg for a minimum seven consecutive years; the passing of a spoken Luxembourgish evaluation test; sufficient knowledge of at least one of Luxembourg's three offical languages (German, French and Luxembourgish); the taking of citizenship courses; and the provision of necessary character references and guarantees of good repute.
Graph by STATEC
