A parental declaration – useful for those naturalising with their children to bear in mind.

One of the peculiarities of my case, given that I have my son naturalising with me, is that there was an additional piece of paperwork requested in relation to my son’s naturalisation. The situation might be similar to international couples where husband and wife have different nationalities (until naturalisation in case both are naturalising) and where they have a child that has not taken up both nationalities through its parents, for whatever reasons.

The case is as follows. British man marries Russian woman, and Russian woman begins naturalisation process. However, before she has a legal claim to Austrian citizenship, a child is born to the couple in Austria. Child takes British citizenship, by descent through British father (lex sanguinis) but not Russian citizenship by descent through mother (although entitled to due to lex sanguinis) at birth. Father and mother choose to naturalise in separate cases, with son naturalising with his father (with whom he shares his nationality). Since at the time of taking Austrian citizenship together with his father his mother’s Austrian citizenship has not come through (as she is a third country national, her citizenship will only be granted following her surrendering her Russian citizenship). There competent authority therefore needs to ensure that prior to granting the Bescheid to father and son, that the parents have not put in for Russian citizenship for their soon-to-be-Austrian son, and so request a written confirmation from the parents that they have not applied for a Russian citizenship for their son in the mean time.

The declaration effectively is used by the authorities to check that there is no intention of falsely acquiring a second citizenship, which Austria does not allow for naturalisation.  Applying for another citizenship at the same time would render the application null and void, or in the event that the Austrian citizenship had already been granted, it would cease to be valid the instant the alternative claim to another citizenship were to be exercised.


The text of the statement is below, and was signed by both parents and submitted to the competent authority and accepted by the authority.

Betreff:  schriftliche Erklärung beider Eltern von XXXXXXXXXX zur Bestätigung der Nichtbeantragung der YYYYYYYYYY Staatsbürgerschaft für XXXXXXXXXXXXX (Zahl XXXXXXXXXXXX)

Sehr geehrte(r) Herr/Frau!

hiermit bestätigen wir, dass wir, als die leiblichen Eltern von [Kind] (geb. TT.MM.JJJJ in [Ort], ZZZZZZZZZZZZ Staatsbürger/in), die YYYYYYYYYYY Staatsbürgerschaft für unser [Kind] nicht beantragt haben. Es wurde für [ihn/sie] ausschließlich die ZZZZZZZZZZZ Staatsbürgerschaft durch Abstammung über [seinen/ihren] Vater, [Vor- und Nachname vom Vater] (geb. TT.MM.JJJJ in [Ort], ZZZZZZZZZZZZ Staatsbürger) nach der Geburt beantragt, während die YYYYYYYYYYYY Staatsbürgerschaft absichtlich nicht beantragt wurde, nachdem zum Zeitpunkt [ihrer/seiner] Geburt [ihre/seine] Mutter, [Vor- und Nachname von Mutter] (geb. TT.MM.JJJJ in [Ort], YYYYYYYYYYY Staatsbürgerin) schon den Antrag bei der zuständigen Behörde zur Einbürgerung als österreichische Staatsbürgerin gestellt hatte.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,

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