Luxembourg passports in demand

(CS) Luxembourg has recovered 136 citizens in the first nine months of this year. Almost 2,500 further applications were received over the same period of time.

The citizenship law from 2008 allows persons with Luxembourg ancestors to obtain Luxembourg citizenship. The link to Luxembourg can date as far back as 1900.

This recovery process is in high demand across the border in Belgium, with 72 of the 136 new Luxembourgers being from Belgium. This is due in part to the Belgian media heavily publicising this way of becoming a Lëtzebuerger.

In total 7,327 people have become Luxembourg citizens by naturalisation, 102 of them via the process of recovery, in the two years since new citizenship laws came into effect. Part of the popularity lies in the fact that double citizenship is possible through the 2008 law.

There were 8,333 demands for citizenship for the years 2009 and 2010. No application for citizenship via recovery was refused.

A justice ministry report on the law from 28 October 2008 and the Luxembourg nationality is due the first trimester of 2012.