in Israel is home to thousands of emigrants from the country that broke up in the 1990s.
Thanks to an amendment in the law, they and their descendants are entitled to either Czech or Slovak citizenship.
How is it done? Thousands of Israelis, descendants of Czech and Slovak émigrés, who were not previously entitled to citizenship in those two countries, may now acquire it:
Descendants of a Czechoslovak father who married before June 23, 1947, are entitled to receive Czech or Slovak citizenship. {br2/}Czechoslovakia was established when the Austro-Hungarian Empire disintegrated at the end of World War I (1918).
Following the end of World War II in 1945, the Carpathian region, which had belonged to the country, was annexed by the Soviet Union, and today that territory belongs to Ukraine.
In 1993, following “the Velvet Revolution” Czechoslovakia was peacefully split into two republics: The Czech Republic and Slovakia. {br3/}Both became full members of the European Union in 2004 and their citizens enjoy all the benefits conferred by EU membership such as the right to reside, work and study in any EU member state.
Recently, in the wake of a shift in Czech and Slovak policy, new avenues have opened for Czechoslovak émigrés and their descendants to obtain citizenship in both states. Czech Citizenship Under a new section in the Czech law known as “Section 32”, an applicant for Czech citizenship whose father (as opposed to his mother) was eligible for Czech citizenship and who married in a civil ceremony prior to June 23, 1947, is entitled to Czech citizenship, as are his offspring and descendants.
For example, a Czechoslovak citizen who resided permanently in the country and immigrated to Israel in 1938.
He married a woman who was not of Czech extraction in 1945, and they had a son in 1950.
The son had three daughters, and each daughter had three children.
In this case, all members of the family shall be entitled to receive Czech citizenship.
Unfortunately, the law discriminates between men and women.
Thus, if a woman of Czechoslovak origin married a man who was not of Czechoslovak origin before June 23, 1947, then her Czech citizenship would be revoked, and her descendants would probably not be entitled to it.
In many cases, citizens who left Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War were forced to renounce their citizenship, or had their citizenship revoked without their knowledge.
Moreover, the Czech citizenship of Czech émigrés who even prior to the Second World War defined themselves as Germans and did not change their status after the war because they no longer lived in Czechoslovakia, has occasionally been revoked,
and according to both Czech and Slovak law, the holding of Czech and Slovak citizenship contemporaneously is prohibited.
In practice, every applicant for Czech citizenship must also submit, and have rejected, a preliminary application for Slovak citizenship.
This is a key condition for obtaining citizenship.
Thus in order to obtain Czech citizenship, every applicant must actually submit a formal application for citizenship to both the Czech authorities and the Slovak authorities, even if he is a minor.
In the case of Czechoslovak citizens from the Carpathian region, Czech citizenship may only be obtained for them and their descendants if the head of the family permanently resided in Czech territory after the Second World War and actively chose the option of remaining a Czechoslovak citizen.
All applicants who meet the requirements of Section 32 and are interested in Czech citizenship are advised to act as soon as possible, since the aforementioned law may be amended to their detriment by restricting the right of their descendants to obtain citizenship.
With regard to the documents required, the applicant must present an evidentiary basis that proves his entitlement to Czech citizenship.
Inter alia, he must submit to the authorities Israeli certificates such as birth certificates, certificates attesting to Czech citizenship, marriage certificates, registration extracts, and change of name certificates.
All certificates in the Hebrew language must be translated into Czech, after being stamped with an apostille (a confirmation of authenticity issued for a fee by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Slovak Citizenship Since the Czech Republic and Slovakia were formerly one country, the statutory framework regulating the acquisition of citizenship is similar.
There are nevertheless differences between the citizenship laws of the two countries.
Under the Slovak law corresponding to Section 32 of the Czech law, descendants of a man who held Slovak citizenship and was married prior to June 23, 1947, are entitled to Slovak citizenship.
The applicant must still prove, however, that the head of the family held permanent resident status in Slovakia or valid citizenship between September 1939 and September 1949.
a burden which is very hard to discharge, since many Slovak émigrés left Czechoslovakia prior to the outbreak of the Second World War without documents or passports, and reconstructing appropriate documents and locating them in Slovak archives today, is a monumental task. Nevertheless, many Slovak émigrés did retain appropriate documents, particularly those who left Slovakia between the years 1945 and 1949, or who kept their documents when immigrating to Israel before the outbreak of the Second World War.
