Thirty Years, or Ten With a Municipality’s Consent - and You Give Up What You Have
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Croatia on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
195 exceptions recorded across 74 countries · none match Croatia to Liechtenstein · Becoming a citizen
Liechtenstein naturalisation runs on two tracks and both are long. In the facilitated procedure a foreign national has a right to be admitted after thirty years of ordinary residence, with years before the age of twenty counted double, provided the last five years were continuous. A spouse of a Liechtenstein citizen has the same right after ten years of residence, with years after the marriage counted double, and at least five years of a subsisting marriage. In the ordinary procedure the requirement is ten years of ordinary residence plus something no amount of waiting supplies: proof that a Liechtenstein municipality has assured admission to its Heimatverband. Across both tracks three conditions recur - German, a civics test, and a declaration renouncing the existing nationality, or proof that renunciation would be ineffective under the law of the home state. A residence permit kept under a Beibehalt while living abroad does not count towards any of the periods.
At a glance
- Residence for the long-residence route
- 30 years, with years from birth to age 20 counted double
BüG § 5a(1)(a). This is a right on application, not a discretion.
- Continuity requirement on that route
- Permanent ordinary residence in Liechtenstein in the five years before the application
BüG § 5a(1)(b).
- Residence for the marriage route
- 10 years, with years after the marriage counted double
BüG § 5(1)(a).
- Marriage duration required
- At least five years of subsisting marriage with a Liechtenstein citizen
BüG § 5(1)(b). Under § 5(1)(d) the route is closed where the Liechtenstein spouse themselves acquired citizenship by marriage.
- Residence for the ordinary procedure
- 10 years of ordinary residence
BüG § 6(1)(d).
- What the ordinary procedure needs besides residence
- An assurance that a Liechtenstein municipality will admit the applicant to its Heimatverband
BüG § 6(1)(b). The Act makes this a precondition and leaves how a municipality decides to municipal law, which this record does not cover.
- Dual citizenship on naturalisation
- Not available - renunciation of the existing citizenship is required unless it would be ineffective under the home state’s law
BüG §§ 5(1)(c), 5a(1)(c) and 6(1)(c). § 5a(5)(f) requires proof of actual discharge before the procedure closes.
- Language and civics
- Knowledge of German and basic knowledge of the legal order and structure of the state, proved by a written examination
BüG § 4c(1) and the examination rules in § 4c. § 4c(2) exempts applicants naturalised in the national interest, stateless applicants, and applicants who are minors not yet of school age.
- Means test
- Fixed and regular own income over the last three years at the level of the social assistance guidelines
BüG § 4b(3).
- Time abroad under a Beibehalt
- Not counted towards the naturalisation periods
BüG § 4a(2), which disapplies it to the periods in §§ 5(1)(a), 5a(1)(a), 5b and 6(1)(d).
- Exceptional service
- The government may confirm that admission is in the special interest of the country, which removes the residence, language and civics conditions
BüG § 5a(1a).
- Oath
- Every adult naturalised person swears the citizen’s oath before the head of government
BüG § 14.
Requirements
- Facilitated procedure, long residence: thirty years of ordinary Liechtenstein residence, years from birth to the age of twenty counted double, and continuous ordinary residence in the last five years before the application
- Facilitated procedure, marriage: ten years of ordinary residence with years after the marriage counted double, five years of subsisting marriage with a Liechtenstein citizen, and that the Liechtenstein spouse did not themselves acquire citizenship by marriage
- Ordinary procedure: ten years of ordinary residence and a written assurance of admission to the Heimatverband of a Liechtenstein municipality
- All tracks: proof of knowledge of German and of basic knowledge of the legal order and structure of the state
- All tracks: a declaration or discharge confirmation renouncing the existing citizenship, or proof that such a renunciation would be ineffective under the applicant’s home law
- Secure subsistence: fixed and regular own income over the last three years, at the level of the social assistance guidelines, allowing life without social assistance in future
Country-level policy
Everything quoted in Liechtenstein’s records comes from Lilex, the consolidated law database of the government’s legal service at gesetze.li. Lilex says what it is: the consolidated provisions serve information only and have no legal effect. The authoritative text is elsewhere, and the Publication Act says exactly where - only the version of a provision published in the Landesgesetzblatt and electronically signed is massgebend, and for treaties and decisions of international organisations it is the texts designated authentic in them. That is a third answer to a question this corpus has now asked of three neighbours: Switzerland’s consolidations are themselves authoritative, Iceland’s gazette prevails over its code, and Liechtenstein separates the two the way Iceland does while publishing both at the same address.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Croatia
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«Ausländer haben auf Antrag Anspruch auf Aufnahme in das Landes- und Gemeindebürgerrecht, wenn: 79 a) ein ordentlicher liechtensteinischer Wohnsitz von 30 Jahren nachgewiesen wird, wobei die Jahre von der Geburt bis zum 20. Lebensjahr des Antragstellers doppelt gezählt werden; 80 b) der Bewerber in den letzten fünf Jahren vor Antragstellung dauernden ordentlichen Wohnsitz in Liechtenstein hatte; 81 c) der Bewerber eine Erklärung bzw. eine Entlassungsbestätigung abgibt, dass er auf seine bisherige Staatsbürgerschaft verzichtet bzw. bereits amtlich verzichtet hat oder der Nachweis beigebracht wird, dass eine solche Verzichtserklärung nach seinem Heimatrecht unwirksam ist;»Our translation - not official
Foreign nationals have on application a right to admission to national and municipal citizenship where: a) ordinary Liechtenstein residence of 30 years is shown, the years from birth to the applicant’s 20th year of age counting double; b) the applicant had permanent ordinary residence in Liechtenstein in the last five years before the application; c) the applicant gives a declaration or a discharge confirmation that he renounces his existing citizenship or has already officially renounced it, or proof is furnished that such a declaration of renunciation is ineffective under his home law;
Letters d and e of this list were repealed and the printed text says so.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Rechtsdienst der Regierung's consolidated law database for Liechtenstein, covering national law and treaty law (Staatsvertragsrecht) under LR numbers, and reached at gesetze.li. It is tagesaktuell by its own account - 'Hier finden Sie tagesaktuell das geltende Landes- und Staatsvertragsrecht in konsolidierter (bereinigter) Form' - and it carries the EEA Agreement and its annexes as Liechtenstein treaty law, which is how the sectoral adaptations limiting free movement can be read here at all. The quotable text is at /konso/html/<LGBlId>, where LGBlId is the year plus the three-digit LGBl number plus 000: /konso/<LGBlId> alone is a shell with an iframe. Search works only with the whole parameter set, /konso/suche?search_text=&search_loc=text&lrnr=<LR>&lgblid_von=&observe_date=DD.MM.YYYY; omitting any one of them returns the help page with no results.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It is informative only and must never be cited as the authentic text. Its own Rechtshinweis says 'Konsolidierte Rechtsvorschriften dienen ausschliesslich der Information und entfalten keine Rechtswirkung', and article 7(1) of the Kundmachungsgesetz says only the signed electronic version published in the Landesgesetzblatt is massgebend. For a treaty it is the texts designated authentic in the treaty that govern, under article 7(2). It also cannot be cited for Swiss law applied in Liechtenstein: it lists which Swiss instruments apply but publishes none of their text, which lives on fedlex.admin.ch. Fetch it with Firecrawl rather than the direct route: the direct extractor does not decode named HTML entities and stores 'ü' as the five characters of its entity.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Der ausländische Ehegatte eines liechtensteinischen Landesbürgers hat auf Antrag Anspruch auf Aufnahme in das Landes- und in das Gemeindebürgerrecht seines Ehegatten, wenn: 53 a) der Bewerber einen ordentlichen liechtensteinischen Wohnsitz von zehn Jahren nachweisen kann, wobei die Jahre nach der Eheschliessung doppelt zählen; 54 b) der Bewerber mit einem liechtensteinischen Landesbürger seit mindestens fünf Jahren in aufrechter Ehe lebt; 55 c) der Bewerber eine Erklärung bzw. eine Entlassungsbestätigung abgibt, dass er auf seine bisherige Staatsbürgerschaft verzichtet bzw. bereits amtlich verzichtet hat oder der Nachweis beigebracht wird, dass eine solche Verzichtserklärung nach seinem Heimatrecht unwirksam ist; 56 d) der liechtensteinische Ehegatte das Landesbürgerrecht nicht durch Aufnahme infolge Eheschliessung erworben hat.»Our translation - not official
The foreign spouse of a Liechtenstein citizen has on application a right to admission to the national and the municipal citizenship of their spouse where: a) the applicant can show ordinary Liechtenstein residence of ten years, the years after the marriage counting double; b) the applicant has lived in a subsisting marriage with a Liechtenstein citizen for at least five years; c) the applicant gives a declaration or a discharge confirmation that he renounces his existing citizenship or has already officially renounced it, or proof is furnished that such a declaration of renunciation is ineffective under his home law; d) the Liechtenstein spouse did not acquire national citizenship by admission as a result of marriage.
About this source
The Rechtsdienst der Regierung's consolidated law database for Liechtenstein, covering national law and treaty law (Staatsvertragsrecht) under LR numbers, and reached at gesetze.li. It is tagesaktuell by its own account - 'Hier finden Sie tagesaktuell das geltende Landes- und Staatsvertragsrecht in konsolidierter (bereinigter) Form' - and it carries the EEA Agreement and its annexes as Liechtenstein treaty law, which is how the sectoral adaptations limiting free movement can be read here at all. The quotable text is at /konso/html/<LGBlId>, where LGBlId is the year plus the three-digit LGBl number plus 000: /konso/<LGBlId> alone is a shell with an iframe. Search works only with the whole parameter set, /konso/suche?search_text=&search_loc=text&lrnr=<LR>&lgblid_von=&observe_date=DD.MM.YYYY; omitting any one of them returns the help page with no results.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It is informative only and must never be cited as the authentic text. Its own Rechtshinweis says 'Konsolidierte Rechtsvorschriften dienen ausschliesslich der Information und entfalten keine Rechtswirkung', and article 7(1) of the Kundmachungsgesetz says only the signed electronic version published in the Landesgesetzblatt is massgebend. For a treaty it is the texts designated authentic in the treaty that govern, under article 7(2). It also cannot be cited for Swiss law applied in Liechtenstein: it lists which Swiss instruments apply but publishes none of their text, which lives on fedlex.admin.ch. Fetch it with Firecrawl rather than the direct route: the direct extractor does not decode named HTML entities and stores 'ü' as the five characters of its entity.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Die Verleihung des Landesbürgerrechtes darf nur an Ausländer erfolgen, welche: a) nach den Gesetzen ihres bisherigen Heimatstaates handlungsfähig sind; der Mangel der Handlungsfähigkeit kann durch die Zustimmung des Vaters oder des gesetzlichen Vertreters ersetzt werden; b) nachweisen, dass ihnen die Aufnahme in den Heimatverband einer liechtensteinischen Gemeinde für den Fall der Erwerbung des Landesbürgerrechtes zugesichert ist; c) eine Erklärung bzw. eine Entlassungsbestätigung abgeben, dass auf die bisherige Staatsbürgerschaft verzichtet wird bzw. bereits amtlich verzichtet wurde oder der Nachweis beigebracht wird, dass eine solche Verzichtserklärung nach deren Heimatrecht unwirksam ist; 107 d) den Nachweis erbringen, dass sie wenigstens seit zehn Jahren ihren ordentlichen Wohnsitz im Fürstentum Liechtenstein haben.»Our translation - not official
The conferral of national citizenship may be made only on foreign nationals who: a) have legal capacity under the laws of their previous home state; the lack of legal capacity may be replaced by the consent of the father or the legal representative; b) show that admission to the Heimatverband of a Liechtenstein municipality is assured to them in the event of acquiring national citizenship; c) give a declaration or a discharge confirmation that the existing citizenship is renounced or has already been officially renounced, or proof is furnished that such a declaration of renunciation is ineffective under their home law; d) furnish proof that they have had their ordinary residence in the Principality of Liechtenstein for at least ten years.
The ordinary procedure is a conferral rather than a right, and letter b is the condition that makes it a municipal decision in substance.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Rechtsdienst der Regierung's consolidated law database for Liechtenstein, covering national law and treaty law (Staatsvertragsrecht) under LR numbers, and reached at gesetze.li. It is tagesaktuell by its own account - 'Hier finden Sie tagesaktuell das geltende Landes- und Staatsvertragsrecht in konsolidierter (bereinigter) Form' - and it carries the EEA Agreement and its annexes as Liechtenstein treaty law, which is how the sectoral adaptations limiting free movement can be read here at all. The quotable text is at /konso/html/<LGBlId>, where LGBlId is the year plus the three-digit LGBl number plus 000: /konso/<LGBlId> alone is a shell with an iframe. Search works only with the whole parameter set, /konso/suche?search_text=&search_loc=text&lrnr=<LR>&lgblid_von=&observe_date=DD.MM.YYYY; omitting any one of them returns the help page with no results.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It is informative only and must never be cited as the authentic text. Its own Rechtshinweis says 'Konsolidierte Rechtsvorschriften dienen ausschliesslich der Information und entfalten keine Rechtswirkung', and article 7(1) of the Kundmachungsgesetz says only the signed electronic version published in the Landesgesetzblatt is massgebend. For a treaty it is the texts designated authentic in the treaty that govern, under article 7(2). It also cannot be cited for Swiss law applied in Liechtenstein: it lists which Swiss instruments apply but publishes none of their text, which lives on fedlex.admin.ch. Fetch it with Firecrawl rather than the direct route: the direct extractor does not decode named HTML entities and stores 'ü' as the five characters of its entity.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Allgemeine Voraussetzung für die Aufnahme ins Landesbürgerrecht ist der Nachweis: a) der Kenntnis der deutschen Sprache; und b) von Grundkenntnissen der Rechtsordnung sowie des staatlichen Aufbaus (Staatskunde) Liechtensteins.»Our translation - not official
A general condition for admission to national citizenship is proof: a) of knowledge of the German language; and b) of basic knowledge of the legal order and of the structure of the state (civics) of Liechtenstein.
About this source
The Rechtsdienst der Regierung's consolidated law database for Liechtenstein, covering national law and treaty law (Staatsvertragsrecht) under LR numbers, and reached at gesetze.li. It is tagesaktuell by its own account - 'Hier finden Sie tagesaktuell das geltende Landes- und Staatsvertragsrecht in konsolidierter (bereinigter) Form' - and it carries the EEA Agreement and its annexes as Liechtenstein treaty law, which is how the sectoral adaptations limiting free movement can be read here at all. The quotable text is at /konso/html/<LGBlId>, where LGBlId is the year plus the three-digit LGBl number plus 000: /konso/<LGBlId> alone is a shell with an iframe. Search works only with the whole parameter set, /konso/suche?search_text=&search_loc=text&lrnr=<LR>&lgblid_von=&observe_date=DD.MM.YYYY; omitting any one of them returns the help page with no results.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It is informative only and must never be cited as the authentic text. Its own Rechtshinweis says 'Konsolidierte Rechtsvorschriften dienen ausschliesslich der Information und entfalten keine Rechtswirkung', and article 7(1) of the Kundmachungsgesetz says only the signed electronic version published in the Landesgesetzblatt is massgebend. For a treaty it is the texts designated authentic in the treaty that govern, under article 7(2). It also cannot be cited for Swiss law applied in Liechtenstein: it lists which Swiss instruments apply but publishes none of their text, which lives on fedlex.admin.ch. Fetch it with Firecrawl rather than the direct route: the direct extractor does not decode named HTML entities and stores 'ü' as the five characters of its entity.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Der Lebensunterhalt gemäss Abs. 1 Bst. e ist dann hinreichend gesichert, wenn feste und regelmässige eigene Einkünfte aus Erwerb, Einkommen, gesetzlichen Unterhaltsansprüchen oder Versicherungsleistungen zum Entscheidungszeitpunkt für die letzten drei Jahre nachgewiesen werden, die eine Lebensführung ohne Inanspruchnahme von Sozialhilfeleistungen der Behörden für die Zukunft ermöglichen und der Höhe nach den Richtsätzen der Sozialhilfegesetzgebung entsprechen.»Our translation - not official
Subsistence under paragraph 1(e) is sufficiently secured where fixed and regular own receipts from work, income, statutory maintenance claims or insurance benefits are shown, at the time of the decision, for the last three years, which allow a way of life without recourse to social assistance benefits of the authorities in future and which correspond in amount to the guidelines of the social assistance legislation.
About this source
The Rechtsdienst der Regierung's consolidated law database for Liechtenstein, covering national law and treaty law (Staatsvertragsrecht) under LR numbers, and reached at gesetze.li. It is tagesaktuell by its own account - 'Hier finden Sie tagesaktuell das geltende Landes- und Staatsvertragsrecht in konsolidierter (bereinigter) Form' - and it carries the EEA Agreement and its annexes as Liechtenstein treaty law, which is how the sectoral adaptations limiting free movement can be read here at all. The quotable text is at /konso/html/<LGBlId>, where LGBlId is the year plus the three-digit LGBl number plus 000: /konso/<LGBlId> alone is a shell with an iframe. Search works only with the whole parameter set, /konso/suche?search_text=&search_loc=text&lrnr=<LR>&lgblid_von=&observe_date=DD.MM.YYYY; omitting any one of them returns the help page with no results.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It is informative only and must never be cited as the authentic text. Its own Rechtshinweis says 'Konsolidierte Rechtsvorschriften dienen ausschliesslich der Information und entfalten keine Rechtswirkung', and article 7(1) of the Kundmachungsgesetz says only the signed electronic version published in the Landesgesetzblatt is massgebend. For a treaty it is the texts designated authentic in the treaty that govern, under article 7(2). It also cannot be cited for Swiss law applied in Liechtenstein: it lists which Swiss instruments apply but publishes none of their text, which lives on fedlex.admin.ch. Fetch it with Firecrawl rather than the direct route: the direct extractor does not decode named HTML entities and stores 'ü' as the five characters of its entity.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
Renunciation is the condition most likely to decide the question in practice, and the Act states it three times over - once on each route.
How a municipality decides whether to assure admission to its Heimatverband is not in the Bürgerrechtsgesetz. We did not read municipal law, so this record does not say what that decision involves.
This record rests on the Bürgerrechtsgesetz as consolidated on LiLEX. We did not read the Bürgerrechts-Nachweisverordnung, which governs the language and civics proofs in detail.
- consolidatesBürgerrechtsgesetz (BüG), LGBl. 1960 Nr. 023
Lilex - Gesetzesdatenbank des Fürstentums Liechtenstein · consolidated to 2024-01-01
About this source
The Rechtsdienst der Regierung's consolidated law database for Liechtenstein, covering national law and treaty law (Staatsvertragsrecht) under LR numbers, and reached at gesetze.li. It is tagesaktuell by its own account - 'Hier finden Sie tagesaktuell das geltende Landes- und Staatsvertragsrecht in konsolidierter (bereinigter) Form' - and it carries the EEA Agreement and its annexes as Liechtenstein treaty law, which is how the sectoral adaptations limiting free movement can be read here at all. The quotable text is at /konso/html/<LGBlId>, where LGBlId is the year plus the three-digit LGBl number plus 000: /konso/<LGBlId> alone is a shell with an iframe. Search works only with the whole parameter set, /konso/suche?search_text=&search_loc=text&lrnr=<LR>&lgblid_von=&observe_date=DD.MM.YYYY; omitting any one of them returns the help page with no results.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It is informative only and must never be cited as the authentic text. Its own Rechtshinweis says 'Konsolidierte Rechtsvorschriften dienen ausschliesslich der Information und entfalten keine Rechtswirkung', and article 7(1) of the Kundmachungsgesetz says only the signed electronic version published in the Landesgesetzblatt is massgebend. For a treaty it is the texts designated authentic in the treaty that govern, under article 7(2). It also cannot be cited for Swiss law applied in Liechtenstein: it lists which Swiss instruments apply but publishes none of their text, which lives on fedlex.admin.ch. Fetch it with Firecrawl rather than the direct route: the direct extractor does not decode named HTML entities and stores 'ü' as the five characters of its entity.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source