Russia · Citizenship by descent
Citizenship by Russian or Soviet ancestry (Article 16(2))
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Last verified August 2026
Open under Article 16(2) of Federal Law No. 138-FZ, in force since 26 October 2023. This ground replaced the old native-Russian-speaker commission, which was abolished with the previous law — any adviser still offering the НРЯ route is working from a repealed statute.
For anyone with a grandparent born inside today's Russian borders this is by far the shortest route to a second passport here: no five-year wait, no language exam, no renunciation. It is also the route that most deserves a long think before anyone takes it, because a naturalised Russian citizenship is revocable for life and a Russian passport brings obligations a residence permit does not.
Qualifying routes
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Born in the RSFSR and formerly a citizen of the USSR
Article 16(2)(1).
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A direct ancestor born or permanently resident within today's Russian borders
Article 16(2)(2), covering the RSFSR, the Russian Empire and the USSR within the present state border. This is the broad ancestry ground.
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A parent, son or daughter who is a Russian citizen living in Russia
Article 16(2)(3) and (4).
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State programme for the resettlement of compatriots
Article 16(3). This one waives the residence term but not the language and history requirements.
The facts
- Total landed cost
- A state duty of RUB 50,000 since 27 July 2026, up from RUB 4,200 — roughly a twelvefold increase — plus the permanent residence permit at RUB 30,000 and document legalisation and translation. Resettlement-programme participants and former USSR citizens keep duty exemptions.
- Route type
- By ancestry
- Timeline
- 1–2.5 years (The five-year clock disappears, but the permanent residence permit does not: you must hold it before you can file. Realistically a year to eighteen months to the permit, then three to six months for the citizenship decision.)
- Physical presence
- You must be permanently resident in Russia — holding the permanent permit — to file under Article 16(2). The residence term is what is waived, not the residence itself.
- Family
- Spouse, on their own ground rather than derivativelyMinor children are included with a parent
- Permanent residency
- Several of these grounds also open the permanent permit without a prior temporary one, under Article 8(2) of Federal Law No. 115-FZ.
- Citizenship
- Immediate once the permanent permit is in hand — the five-year requirement of Article 15(1) is disapplied, along with the language and history examination.
- Language test
- Waived entirely for the Article 16(2) grounds. Not waived for resettlement-programme participants under Article 16(3), who get only the residence-term waiver.
- Dual citizenship
- Federal Law No. 138-FZ dropped the requirement to renounce your existing citizenship — the old law required it, the new one does not. But Article 10 means that inside Russia a dual national is treated as Russian and nothing else: no consular protection from the other state, and every citizen obligation, military service included, applies in full. Your other country may also treat voluntary acquisition of Russian citizenship as loss of its own; Russia's silence does not bind it.
- Requirements
- documentary proof of the ancestral link — birth, marriage and residence records, legalised and translateda Russian permanent residence permit in hand before filingthe oath, sworn after a positive decision; citizenship does not take effect until it is takenno ground for refusal under Article 18, which includes participation in armed conflict against Russian forces and any standing entry ban
What can go wrong
- NATURALISED CITIZENSHIP IN RUSSIA IS REVOCABLE FOR LIFE. Articles 22 to 26 of Federal Law No. 138-FZ let the state terminate citizenship acquired by admission or recognition on conviction under any of roughly sixty to seventy Criminal Code articles, and Article 24 applies with no limitation period whatsoever. Citizenship by birth cannot be taken away. Citizenship you acquire can.
- The offence list is not confined to violent crime. It includes speech and war-related offences — false information about the armed forces, discrediting the armed forces, involvement with organisations designated undesirable. A naturalised citizen carries an extra consequence for the same conviction.
- A RUSSIAN PASSPORT SWITCHES ON MILITARY OBLIGATIONS FOR MEN. Failure to complete first-time military registration is itself a ground to strip the citizenship, added in August 2024. Conscription covers ages 18 to 30 and has run year-round since 1 January 2026. A summons entered in the electronic register bars departure from Russia the same day, is deemed served after seven days whether or not it reached you, and after twenty days triggers automatic suspension of your driving licence and bans on property transactions and loans. The partial mobilisation decree of September 2022 has never been repealed.
- Holding a residence permit instead of a passport avoids all of that — foreign citizens are not liable to conscription or to military registration.
- Marriage alone is not a route. Article 16(2)(5) requires marriage to a Russian citizen resident in Russia AND a common child. The old three-years-of-marriage alternative did not survive into the new law.
- Once you are a citizen, you must notify the Interior Ministry of every other citizenship and every foreign residence permit within sixty days, or within sixty days of your next entry into Russia if you were abroad. Silence is a criminal offence under Article 330.2 of the Criminal Code; a late or defective filing is an administrative one. There is no exemption for citizens living permanently abroad — the exposure simply crystallises the first time you visit.
- Russia was added to the EU's own anti-money-laundering high-risk list by Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/46, applicable from 29 January 2026, and has sat on the EU tax blacklist since February 2023. Enhanced due diligence on any Russia-linked relationship is now legally mandatory across the EU, and de-risking is the common outcome. Expect account refusals and source-of-wealth demands elsewhere for as long as you hold Russian residence.