Have you heard the recent updates regarding applying for Austrian citizenship<\/a> or a German passport<\/a>? Your great-grandmother or a different ancestor may have been Austrian, but you are not sure about your eligibility? Your Grandfather (or father) already applied for Austrian citizenship and was rejected decades ago, so you think you don’t stand a chance? The Austrian citizenship law has undergone several changes in recent years. Many descendants of Austrians in Israel and abroad who were not entitled to a European passport in the past will now be able to receive one. With that said, the question – who is entitled to Austrian citizenship?<\/p>\n

The answer is – a descendant of any person whose center of life was within the borders of modern day Austria between 1933 and 1955, and who was forced to leave Austria due to persecution. These are citizens, residents and subjects of Austria, but also citizens of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire<\/a> who lived in Austria without receiving citizenship. In the past, the Austrian citizenship law limited the issue of obtaining citizenship based on origin (for example, for descendants of Austrians who married non-Austrians, for those born out of wedlock, etc.), but today most of these restrictions are lifted. For Jewish descendants there is no need to prove specific persecution, as all Jews were persecuted by the Nazis.<\/p>\n

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