Albanian Citizenship by Descent: How to Claim It From the US

You may already be an Albanian citizen and not know it. If an Albanian parent, grandparent, or great-grandparent is in your direct line, the 2020 law already counts you. You have simply never proven it on paper. This guide is about closing that gap — the practical, document-by-document version for people in the United States.

If you are not sure you qualify in the first place, start with the overview: are you still an Albanian citizen? It answers the who. This page answers the how.

First, understand what you are doing

Two things get confused constantly, so it is worth separating them before you spend a dollar.

Citizenship is a legal status. Under Law 113/2020, citizenship passes by descent through three generations — a parent, a grandparent, or a great-grandparent who was an Albanian citizen or an ethnic Albanian born in Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, or Çamëria. If that describes your line, you are a citizen already. Nobody grants it to you. Naturalizing in the US did not remove it — Albania permits dual citizenship without restriction under Article 7, with no renunciation required.

A passport is a document. It is separate, and it is the easier half. What most of the diaspora needs is not to become a citizen but to prove the citizenship they already hold, get it confirmed in writing, and then collect the passport that follows.

So the work splits into two stages: first you document the status, then you apply for the travel document. The first stage is where the time goes.

The step-by-step process

1. Map your chain of descent

Before you gather anything, draw the line. Start with yourself and trace back to the Albanian ancestor — you, your parent, then their parent, then their parent. Three generations up is the limit. A great-grandparent counts; a great-great-grandparent does not.

Every link in that line has to be documented. If you claim through a grandmother, you need records that connect you to your parent, and your parent to that grandmother, and the grandmother to Albania. A gap anywhere breaks the claim. This is the single most common place the process stalls, so map it honestly first and find out where the missing records are before you start paying for the rest.

2. Gather the civil-status documents

For a US applicant, the packet is built from:

• Your own birth certificate.
• The chain of records that links you to the qualifying ancestor — birth and, where relevant, marriage certificates for each generation in between.
• The Albanian ancestor’s Albanian birth certificate — the record that anchors the whole claim to Albania.
• An FBI background check.

Order the US records as certified copies from the issuing state or county. The Albanian ancestor’s certificate comes from the civil registry in Albania; if you do not have it, a relative there or a local municipality request is usually the route.

3. Apostille every document

Each document has to be legalized with an apostille before Albania will accept it. An apostille is a standardized certificate, attached by the issuing authority, that confirms a document is genuine for use in another country. In the US, apostilles come from the Secretary of State of the state that issued the record, and from the US Department of State for federal documents like the FBI check. Every piece in the packet gets its own. Skipping this step is not an option — an un-apostilled document is treated as unverifiable.

4. Get certified translations

Every document then has to be translated into Albanian by a translator authorized by Albania’s Ministry of Justice. This is strict, and it is worth repeating: a bilingual friend, a relative, or a general translation agency will not do. The translation has to come from an authorized translator, or the file is rejected on receipt. Line this up early, because it is easy to have everything apostilled and then lose weeks finding the right translator.

5. Submit the packet with the fee

With the documents gathered, apostilled, and translated, you submit the full packet along with a fee of roughly €30. From the US you can file at:

• the Albanian Embassy in Washington, DC,
• the Consulate in New York,
• the Honorary Consulate in Chicago, or
• directly in Tirana.

Confirm the current document list and submission details with the specific office before you send anything — the mission handling your file is the authority on exactly what it wants and in what form.

6. Wait for review and the decree

The packet goes to the Ministry for review. There are background and identity checks, and the citizenship is confirmed by presidential decree. Realistically, plan on six to twelve months for this stage. This is the confirmation of the status you already held — the legal acknowledgment that you are a citizen, on paper.

7. Apply for the passport

Once the citizenship is confirmed, the passport is the short final step — about three to four weeks. This is the document that lets you travel on it, and, paired with registering to vote from abroad, take part in Albanian elections.

What it realistically costs and how long it takes

End to end, from the United States, plan for nine to fourteen months and roughly $500 to $1,300. The money goes to certified copies, apostilles, authorized translation, courier costs, and the submission fee. Most of the calendar time is the ministry review, not anything you control.

One caution: these figures are for the United States. The offices you file at, the way documents are legalized, and the exact fees all vary by country. If you are in Germany, Italy, the UK, or anywhere else, the shape of the process is the same but the specifics are not. Find your nearest Albanian embassy or consulate and confirm their requirements before you begin.

Where people get stuck

Three things account for most of the delays. A broken chain — a missing birth or marriage certificate in the middle generations — is the big one; find the gaps before you pay for translations. Translation done by the wrong person is second; only a Ministry of Justice–authorized translator counts. And missing apostilles on one or two documents will bounce an otherwise complete file. Solve those three ahead of time and the rest is patience.

This is general information, not legal advice. Rules, offices, and fees change and vary by country. Confirm the specifics for your situation with the nearest Albanian embassy or consulate before you start.

If you are working toward citizenship so your vote will count from abroad, add your name — it helps us see who is already document-ready and who still needs to close the gap. Add your name.