Ius Sanguinis at Birth (Article 14)

LT-BTH-01 documents automatic acquisition of Lithuanian citizenship at birth for any child at least one of whose parents is a Lithuanian citizen, irrespective of the child's place of birth. The right arises by operation of law under Article 14(1) of Law No. XI-1196 (consolidated edition in force 2024-01-01) the moment the child is born — no application, no fee, no examination, and no oath is required. Citizenship is recorded in the birth-registration document (Art 14(3)). Article 14(2) extends the rule to posthumous acquisition where a parent who was a citizen died before the child's birth. The route is a straightforward administrative registration event; the Migration Department or a consular post records the citizenship status. Dual-nationality interaction is governed by Art 7(11): a child who acquires Lithuanian citizenship at birth but subsequently acquires a foreign citizenship before age 18 other than by birth may retain both (as of 2024-01-01, per amendment XIV-64, adopted 2020-12-10, in force 2021-01-01).

No parent holds Lithuanian citizenship at the time of the child's birth — the Art 14(1) condition is not met; a child of two non-citizen parents does not acquire citizenship under Art 14. A posthumous Art 14(2) claim fails if the deceased parent was not a Lithuanian citizen at the time of death. Note: the Article 22 disqualification bars (international crimes, crimes against Lithuania, serious criminal record, no permanent-residence right) that apply to naturalisation, reinstatement, and restoration do NOT apply to automatic at-birth acquisition under Art 14 — Art 22 is expressly cross-referenced from Arts 9(3), 18(1)(7), 19, 20, and 21, not from Art 14. If the child on reaching adulthood voluntarily acquires a further foreign citizenship (outside an Art 7 exception), Art 24(2) loss of Lithuanian citizenship applies, and Art 26(2) imposes a 2-month written-notification duty.

The sole operative requirement for Art 14(1) acquisition is that at least one parent holds Lithuanian citizenship at the time of the child's birth. No language examination, Constitution examination, residency period, financial threshold, or renunciation obligation applies to at-birth acquisition. The child's place of birth is irrelevant. For posthumous Art 14(2) acquisition: the deceased parent must have been a Lithuanian citizen at the time of death. The Article 22 disqualification bars — which apply to naturalisation (Art 18), reinstatement (Art 9(3)), restoration (Art 21), and other grant-based routes — do NOT apply to automatic at-birth acquisition under Art 14; Art 22 is expressly cross-referenced from Arts 9(3), 18(1)(7), 19, 20, and 21, not from Art 14. No oath of allegiance is required; Art 23 oath requirements apply to naturalisation, restoration, exception, and simplified-procedure grants, not to at-birth acquisitions. For the administrative step of obtaining documentation, a completed application via MIGRIS portal and physical originals submitted within 4 months of MIGRIS submission are required (Government Resolution No. 761/2021).

Required documentation for Art 14 citizenship registration: child's birth certificate (issued by Lithuanian civil registry or by the foreign jurisdiction where the birth occurred); proof of Lithuanian citizenship of the citizen parent (Lithuanian passport, national identity card, or citizenship certificate — 'pilietybės pažymėjimas'); if parents are married: marriage certificate (for civil-registry linking of the parent-child relationship); if the child is born abroad: apostille or legalisation of the foreign birth certificate (where required by the issuing jurisdiction's treaty status with Lithuania), plus certified Lithuanian translation if the document is not in Lithuanian; completed application form via MIGRIS portal if formally applying for a citizenship document or identity document rather than only recording the birth in the civil registry.

Art 14 jus sanguinis acquisition is the primary mechanism by which Lithuanian citizenship propagates across generations. The route is unconditional in the transmission sense — one Lithuanian-citizen parent suffices, place of birth is irrelevant, and no examination or fee applies. The key practical complexity is the dual-nationality interaction governed by Art 7(11) (added by amendment XIV-64, in force 2021-01-01): a child who acquires Lithuanian citizenship at birth but subsequently acquires a foreign citizenship BEFORE AGE 18 other than by birth (i.e. not automatically at birth from the other parent, but through registration, naturalisation, or option) may retain both citizenships. Where both citizenships are acquired at birth (e.g. from parents of two different nationalities), the child need not renounce either at birth. However, Art 7(11) does NOT apply to adults voluntarily acquiring foreign citizenship after age 18 — Art 24(2) loss applies in that scenario. Overseas Lithuanian families should register children born abroad promptly at a Lithuanian diplomatic mission or consular post to create the civil-registry record. The single overlap is with LT-DSC-02 (descent-based registration), with which BTH-01 may interact where descent documentation from a prior generation is part of the parent's citizenship claim.

Primary law: Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania No. XI-1196 (adopted 2010-12-02, in force 2011-04-01), consolidated edition in force 2024-01-01 (e-seimas TAIS.387811 / EN render TAIS.395555). Key articles: Art 14(1) — child of at least one Lithuanian-citizen parent acquires citizenship at birth, irrespective of birthplace; Art 14(2) — acquisition where the citizen-parent died before the child's birth; Art 14(3) — citizenship entered in the birth-registration document; Art 7(11) — dual retention where at-birth Lithuanian citizenship is combined with another state's citizenship acquired before age 18 other than by birth (added by amendment XIV-64, 2020-12-10, in force 2021-01-01); Art 29 — five competent institutions (President, Citizenship Commission, Minister of the Interior, Migration Department, Vilnius Regional Administrative Court); Art 37 — general procedural rules. Government Resolution No. 761 (2021-09-22) designates the MIGRIS electronic portal as the mandatory filing channel for citizenship-document applications. Constitution Art 12(1): citizenship acquired by birth or other grounds established by law; Art 12(2): single-nationality default ('with the exception of individual cases provided for by law, no one may be a citizen of both Lithuania and another state at the same time') — Art 7(11) is one statutory exception permitting dual retention in the specific at-birth plus subsequent-acquisition-before-18 scenario. Lithuania is NON-party and NON-signatory to the ECN (CETS 166), ETS 043, and CETS 200; the jus sanguinis rule is a wholly domestic statutory rule with no treaty dependency.