Citizenship through Descent

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This topic has been featured many times on this site.
I have no idea if going back that far qualifies you or not.
I know my great -grandmother on my mom's side was born on the Mohawk reservation and was full blooded.
Makes me 1/8th Mohawk, not enough blood to even mention it to tribal leaders, they would laugh me off the res. Have to be at least 1/4th native in the Mohawk nation and even then have to have 4 people who live on the res. swear they know you are that much native before they will consider taking you in as a tribal member.
No language required, just blood line.Many natives were not registered with the US gov. as citizens so word of mouth was what qualified a person as a native.
So hard to know what each situation requires, either word of mouth or paperwork.
Seems you would be 16th Hungarian by blood, not allot but who knows.
My father was born in Po
land and is a full blooded Rusyn, I live in Hungary and also have relatives that have some Hungarian roots too.
Even through my fathers line from going back about 300 years into the family tree.
I live in Hungary now but not interested in seeking citizenship here.
I suppose if you are looking for some sort of EU citizenship to be able to work in the EU or go to school, it may be worth doing some research to get HU citizenship.
I am a US citizen and know my family went through allot to be US citizens in the past.
Good luck though,hope someone with more knowledge posts too.

Suggest you contact the Department of Citizenship and Native Registry directly. Contact info here:

http://www.bmbah.hu/index.php?option=co … mp;lang=en

Sort of makes me think on trying for my own HU citizenship through marriage.
I believe I have one more year residing in HU before I can apply.
I may also be eligible on my own merit.
I may need to look into that more.
As both my grandparents and father were Rusyn's it may fall under a special category. Rusyns are a ethnic minority in Hungary and my grandmother was born during the time when her part of Poland was Hungarian territory...
My grandfather was a US citizen as he parents were Ruysn's who came over to the uS just before he was born.
Still have a ton of relations over there who may be able to lead me in the right direction to find actual marriage, birth and death certificates.
Just seems like such a long process to go through.
Something to think about really, never know, the US does look a bit dreary these days.

Welcome to the Forum

Each country has different rules but as a whole, the grandparents are normally the cutoff point. I can't see any country allowing you to go back as far Great Great Grandparents.

I would suggest you follow klsallee advise, but I don't think you will be in much luck.

Good luck though.

SimCityAT wrote:

Welcome to the Forum

Each country has different rules but as a whole, the grandparents are normally the cutoff point. I can't see any country allowing you to go back as far Great Great Grandparents.

I would suggest you follow klsallee advise, but I don't think you will be in much luck.

Good luck though.

I tend to agree but one semi-relevant interjection.....

Ireland allows great grandparents (click here).

Recently I found out one of my great-great-great grandparents was probably from Northern Ireland.  With the Brexit thing I could have been lucky but unfortunately, too far back to be useful.

I could go back even further to Germany and France but no chance whatsoever there.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I could go back even further to Germany and France but no chance whatsoever there.

My Grandfather was a German citizen, who immigrated to the USA in the 1920's. By the then German law my mother, born in the USA in the 1930's, was also a German citizen. But when I was born, the then German law only recognized citizenship via the male line. Thus I can not claim any German citizenship today because of the law applies to when I was born. So it all gets complicated really fast. Which is why I suggested contacting the official agency. They, in theory..... should give the correct answers..... eventually.

Sad, that's exactly why I mentioned it could be a real hassle.
I am afraid to start a new paper trail and get things out of control. Hard enough to get my resident permit to Hungary years ago.
Not sure if opening up a can of worms at my age is worth the troubles.
The immigration officer at Ellis Island misspelled the name of the village in Poland, formerly Hungary where my family comes from.This was way back in the 1920's so who knows how that would work out.
That alone might be a real nightmare to straighten out on paper.
was odd though visiting the village where my dad was born in Poland. Went to a Ruysn axle grease museum, guess that was the way the villagers made money in the 1800's. Was shocked to see on the list of about 12 people that 5 of them had my last name as people running and operating the industry.
Rumors spread, just had contact with more of my many cousins. These ones are from the US too. Everyone for some lame reason thought my father as the eldest son had sold all right to land in Poland. Really crazy stuff, no he passed away before 1989 and no one i know came a knocking about buying lands in Poland for the Polish gov. Seems at one time in history my relations were large land holders in Poland... Always just so close to money but still out of reach!
Funny thing though, in the late 70's my ( by chance) Hungarian step-mom tossed away old papers from Poland that my granny had given to my father. Guess they were something to do with land.Oh well, they are in the LA city dump...
I wouldn't give up though if you. You may even just come here to go to school, fall in love and get married to a HU citizen and in time become a citizen that way.
Not sure what your home country is now but we Americans are  what they call Heinz 57, people who are a bit of this and a bit of that.
Not sure you have even been to Hungary, it may not really be all you think it is once you are here.
Poland when I visited made me feel great but only because I felt I had finally found my roots and people. Not so sure how living there long term would be for me without speaking Polish.
Hard enough here in Hungary with just my husband speaking the local language.
I do know Rusyns are people with no real country so being from a ethnic minority could open up different countries for citizenship. Ukraine, Poland, Hungary or Russia or SK.
If I were much younger I might try to see where this lead to .
Sort of afraid to start paperwork and then get tossed out of the EU in the long run for mixing up papers.
I would suggest visiting or going to college here and see what happens if you really want to live here in Hungary.
My son was so  excited to become a HU citizen through his father.
After living in HU for more then a year, getting to see how things went with his limited HU language skills and seeing his job options, he gave up on HU and returned to the US with his HU wife.
Now he is married to a Japanese national, thinking of going there to teach and having his wives family give them a lift up. Not sure he really needs to try for a 3rd citizenship now, not much gain and allot of paperwork.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....
Now he is married to a Japanese national, thinking of going there to teach and having his wives family give them a lift up. Not sure he really needs to try for a 3rd citizenship now, not much gain and allot of paperwork.

Chances of him becoming a Japanese citizen are very close to zero.  It's the same in Korea or even Switzerland.  Those countries really do not want imports however they come packaged. 

Someone I know is very directly Anglo/Swiss and even though his direct close relatives are there, and he's fluent in the language,  they still didn't want to give him his passport - took 10 years of arguing.  I've seen other British people with Swiss passports who are married to Swiss nationals.  I believe one could be waiting 10-20 years to become a citizen.

A great-grandparent is fine, so long as you have the usual proofs that 1) the ancestor was born on Hungarian territory and 2) you are descended from the ancestor. Getting all the documents together can be quite a challenge.

(The law on Simplified Naturalization doesn't limit how far back you can go. You simply need one antecedent who had Hungarian citizenship at some point.)

As to language, of course it depends on how you are studying. But if you're studying on your own, two to three years would not be unrealistic.

Or longer, even. It's very hard to keep up your motivation after a while. I know!

Thanks Zif.

I've heard from other sources as well that there is no limit to how far back you can go with your ancestors, as long as they were born in Hungary.

I've also heard that if they we're born in the Austrian-Hungarian empire they must have been born in the Hungarian controlled area. 

As far as language, I've learned Mandarin Chinese, so I'm not intimidated about learning Hungarian.

Do you know what the language requirements are for the simplified path?  I've heard lots of different accounts. Some say you just need basic conversational skills and the Consulate will ask you some questions in Hungarian.  Others say you need writing skills and higher level speaking skills.

Look at the long thread here for details on the language requirement. Note that it's apparently become more stringent over time, and that it's difficult to be precise since it's not a standard exam, simply an interview with the consul. But more of course is always better than less.

And yes, it's birth in the Hungarian half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that counts. (Essentially there were two separate empires, Austrian and Hungarian, not one, though they acted collectively for some purposes.)

Chinese and Hungarian are both very difficult languages, but very difficult in very different ways. Just take a look at the conjugation of the verb eszik "eat." It might convince you to stick with Chinese.

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/eszik#Hungarian

SimCityAT wrote:

Ireland allows great grandparents (click here).

Just a note...according to the link, it says Grandparents. No mention of great grandparents.