How to get Romanian citizenship through ancestry
Degree 31 is the limit: your parent, grandparent or great-grandparent must have held Romanian citizenship and lost it for reasons not of their own choosing. Border changes after 1940, forced emigration and administrative deprivation are the typical cases.
You file with ANC in Bucharest or through a Romanian consulate. There is no residence requirement. Citizenship takes effect when you take the oath; after that you apply for a Romanian birth certificate and then a passport.
Article 10 is a different door. It covers people who were Romanian themselves and ask to have it back. Article 11 is the one that reaches descendants.
Company owners changing tax residency
A Romanian passport makes you an EU citizen. You can live and run a business anywhere in the EU without a permit — but citizenship does not move your tax residency. Where you pay tax depends on where you live and manage the business; see the Romanian tax system and the micro-enterprise regime.
Owners without a qualifying ancestor use shareholder residence instead: a permit up to 1 year24, renewed for as long as the company trades.
Moldovans, Bukovina families and Jewish descendants
The ancestor is the case. If the record of their Romanian citizenship cannot be found, no form will fix it.
Most Article 11 files come from the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, where Romanian citizenship was lost with the 1940 territorial changes. Descendants of Romanian Jews who were stripped of citizenship or left under pressure fall under the same article; the archive trail simply looks different.
Who this route is not for
- Great-great-grandchildren: the law stops at degree 31.
- Descendants of people who gave up Romanian citizenship voluntarily.
- Anyone hoping to buy citizenship: Romania has no investment route. Look at the work permit instead.