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Lithuania to grant dual citizenship for persons with great merits

Xinhua, December 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

Lithuanian parliament approved amendments to the Law on Citizenship on Tuesday which are expected to grant dual citizenship to Lithuanians with special merits.

According to the amendments to the law, the country's president will have the power to decide whether Lithuanian citizen, known for its exclusive merits for the Baltic country, may maintain his Lithuanian citizenship after acquiring other country's citizenship.

The citizen's activities concerning "enhancing of the country's statehood, increasing its might and authority within the international community" are mentioned as special merits in the law.

The amendments will also offer possibility to restore the previously lost Lithuanian citizenship for persons of great merits.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite initiated corresponding law amendments last year, after it appeared that Zydrunas Ilgauskas, famous Lithuanian basketball player and former NBA player, lost his Lithuanian citizenship after he accepted citizenship of the United States. Ilgauskas lives in the United States since 1996.

According to Lithuanian Constitution, Lithuanian citizen can not hold citizenship of another country, with very few exceptions foreseen in the law.

The Law on Citizenship stipulates that persons who were exiled or voluntarily moved from occupied Lithuania prior to restoration of independence in March 1990 or persons whose parents, grandparents or grand-grandparents were exiled from Lithuania prior to March 1990 may apply for reinstatement of Lithuanian citizenship, while retaining their current citizenship.

Under the law, dual citizenship is not allowed for the people who left Lithuania after the country restored its independence. Endit