Descent Gives Citizenship at Birth and Nothing Afterwards
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Denmark 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 Denmark to Liechtenstein · Residency through ancestry
Liechtenstein has no residence route based on having a Liechtenstein ancestor. Descent operates once, at birth: a child has national citizenship by birth where the father or the mother is a Liechtenstein citizen, and an adopted child under ten acquires it on adoption by a Liechtenstein parent. After that the citizenship law offers nothing to a descendant, and neither residence statute has an ancestry category - the free-movement act grants its five permits for work, self-employment, study, tourism, family or residence without work, and the aliens act admits a third-country national for employment, education, family reunification, cross-border work or special interest. The route that does exist for a relative is family reunification, and it depends on a relative who lives in Liechtenstein now rather than on one who did.
At a glance
- Residence route by descent
- None in the Personenfreizügigkeitsgesetz or the Ausländergesetz
The permit list in PFZG article 9 and the grounds in PFZG articles 14 to 28 and AuG articles 13 to 22 contain no ancestry category.
- Citizenship by descent
- By birth, where the father or the mother is a Liechtenstein citizen
BüG § 4(1). There is no generational extension and no registration route for a more distant descendant.
- Adoption
- An adopted foreign child acquires citizenship where the adoptive father or mother is a citizen, provided the child is under ten at the adoption
BüG § 4(3). Where the adoption is revoked or annulled the acquisition is treated as not having occurred, unless the child would unavoidably become stateless.
- Stepchild adoption
- A spouse’s own child adopted by the other spouse acquires citizenship if still a minor at the adoption
BüG § 4(4).
- Found children
- A child of unknown nationality found in Liechtenstein is a Liechtenstein citizen
BüG § 4a(1), which also assigns the municipal citizenship of the place where the child was found.
Requirements
- There is no ancestry-based residence route to meet requirements for
- Citizenship by descent arises at birth where either parent is a Liechtenstein citizen, and on adoption before the age of ten by a Liechtenstein parent
- A living relative resident in Liechtenstein is what the family reunification route needs - see the record on family and marriage
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Denmark
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
«Das Landesbürgerrecht ist Kindern durch Geburt eigen, wenn der Vater oder die Mutter liechtensteinische Landesbürger sind. 16 2) Aufgehoben 17 3) Durch Annahme an Kindesstatt erwirbt ein ausländisches Wahlkind, sofern es zum Zeitpunkt der Annahme das 10. Lebensjahr noch nicht vollendet hat, das Landesbürgerrecht, wenn der Wahlvater oder die Wahlmutter Landesbürger sind. Wird die Annahme widerrufen oder aufgehoben, so gilt der Erwerb des Landesbürgerrechtes als nicht eingetreten, es sei denn, das Wahlkind würde dadurch unvermeidlich staatenlos. 18 4) Wird das leibliche Kind eines Ehegatten durch den anderen Ehegatten angenommen, so erwirbt es das Landesbürgerrecht, sofern es zum Zeitpunkt der Annahme noch nicht mündig ist.»Our translation - not official
National citizenship belongs to children by birth where the father or the mother is a Liechtenstein citizen. 2) Repealed 3) By adoption a foreign adopted child acquires national citizenship, provided it has not yet completed its 10th year of age at the time of the adoption, where the adoptive father or the adoptive mother is a citizen. Where the adoption is revoked or annulled, the acquisition of national citizenship counts as not having occurred, unless the adopted child would thereby unavoidably become stateless. 4) Where a spouse’s own child is adopted by the other spouse, it acquires national citizenship provided it is not yet of age at the time of the adoption.
Paragraph 2 was 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
«Es können folgende Bewilligungen erteilt werden: a) Bewilligung in Briefform (BiB); b) Kurzaufenthaltsbewilligung (L); c) Aufenthaltsbewilligung (B); d) Daueraufenthaltsbewilligung (D); e) Niederlassungsbewilligung (C).»Our translation - not official
The following permits may be granted: a) permit in letter form (BiB); b) short-stay permit (L); c) residence permit (B); d) permanent residence permit (D); e) settlement permit (C).
The closed list of permits. None of them is granted on the basis of descent.
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
Practical notes
This is a recorded absence. It rests on reading the permit list and the grounds for each permit in both residence statutes, and the acquisition provisions of the citizenship Act.
A person descended from a Liechtenstein citizen who did not acquire citizenship at birth is, for residence purposes, in the same position as any other applicant of their nationality.
- 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
- consolidatesPersonenfreizügigkeitsgesetz (PFZG), LGBl. 2009 Nr. 348
Lilex - Gesetzesdatenbank des Fürstentums Liechtenstein · consolidated to 2026-01-01
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
- consolidatesAusländergesetz (AuG), LGBl. 2008 Nr. 311
Lilex - Gesetzesdatenbank des Fürstentums Liechtenstein · consolidated to 2026-06-12
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