Knowing what documentation you’ll need when applying for Czech citizenship can be surprisingly difficult, as each application is different requiring different sets of documents.
1. Essential Czech citizenship needed through descent:
- Birth certificate
- Family birth certificates
- Marriage certificates
- Citizenship certificates
- Passports
2. If you’re born in the Czech Republic but are not a citizen, what documents will you need to apply for Czech citizenship?
If you were born in the Czech Republic, it does not automatically make you a Czech citizen. The best way to apply in this situation is with your birth certificate and your parent’s Czech citizenship certificates. If you don’t have access to your parent’s Czech citizen certificates, the Czech government will look at the archives and confirm that your parent/s were Czech citizens at the time of your birth.
3. What are some documents that are likely to prove Czech heritage?
When applying for Czech citizenship it’s better to provide as many documents as possible to increase your chances.
This includes documents such as:
- Birth certificates
- Marriage certificates
- Right of domicile document
- Citizenship certificates
- Passports
- School documents
- Letters
- Family memories and photos
4. What are secondary documents and are they useful?
Secondary documents are documents issued by foreign governments. They are not a mandatory part of the application, but it’s good to provide these supporting documents to improve your chances to get Czech citizenship.
When using secondary documents, they must be accepted by the Czech government. The foreign documents also have to be translated by an official translator into Czech, the official language of the Czech Republic.
Some useful secondary documents include:
- Foreign birth certificates
- Foreign marriage certificates
- Notarization certificates
- Death certificates
- Foreign citizenship certificates
5. What do you do if you cannot find any Czech documentation?
If you cannot find any Czech documents or certificates when applying for Czech citizenship, you’ll need a third party (Polaron can help you) to look up your ancestral records through the Czech government archives. The Czech Republic keep a good record of marriages and birth certificates in these archives. Knowing the dates and places of where your Czech ancestors were living, will make it significantly easier to find birth certificates.
The more documentation you provide, the better. Anything which can help prove your Czech ancestry is worth being sent to Polaron to be verified.
If you’d like to learn more about Czech documentation, our friendly team of experts are here to answer any questions you may have.