- Ways to apply
- Naturalisation of emigrants and descendants (Art. 12)
- Dual citizenship
- Kept, however you apply
- Language
- Slovenian: a basic-level Slovenian exam (ZDRS Art. 10(1)(5), applied by Art. 12)
- Comes with
- EU citizenship: the right to live and work in 27 countries
Each answer assumes none of your ancestors became a citizen of another country before their child was born. Below is what changes each answer.
On this page›
- 01Who qualifies
- 02Dates that matter
- 03Through your mother
- 04Keeping your citizenship
- 05Ways to apply
- 06The documents
- 07What it takes
- 08Where the records live
- 09Places that changed countries
- 10Law changes
- 11Other options
- 12Sources
Who qualifies, generation by generation
POSSIBLE
Can you claim Slovenian citizenship through a parent?
Emigrants and descendants (Art. 12)
Children and grandchildren of Slovenians abroad can apply from home for naturalisation on national grounds, with no residence or language test, if the Government finds it in the national interest; otherwise a year’s residence and a basic Slovenian exam open Article 12.
What would settle itYour age: under 36, a child of a Slovenian parent simply registers; otherwise, the family’s active ties to the Slovenian community, which the Government weighs under Article 13.
What changes the answer
- POSSIBLE
- POSSIBLE
If you were born before 1991The family’s active ties to the Slovenian community, which the Government weighs under Article 13; the grant is discretionary.
- LIKELY
If you were born in 1991 or laterBorn abroad to a Slovenian parent and not yet 36, you acquire Slovenian citizenship by origin simply by registering at the embassy.
- POSSIBLE
If the parent is your mother and you were born before 1991The family’s active ties to the Slovenian community, which the Government weighs under Article 13; the grant is discretionary.
- LIKELY
If the parent is your mother and you were born in 1991 or laterBorn abroad to a Slovenian parent and not yet 36, you acquire Slovenian citizenship by origin simply by registering at the embassy.
POSSIBLE
Can you claim Slovenian citizenship through a grandparent?
Emigrants and descendants (Art. 12)
Children and grandchildren of Slovenians abroad can apply from home for naturalisation on national grounds, with no residence or language test, if the Government finds it in the national interest; otherwise a year’s residence and a basic Slovenian exam open Article 12.
What would settle itThe family’s active ties to the Slovenian community, which the Government weighs under Article 13; the grant is discretionary.
What changes the answer
POSSIBLE
Can you claim Slovenian citizenship through a great-grandparent?
Emigrants and descendants (Art. 12)
A great-grandchild of a Slovenian emigrant can naturalise, at the state’s discretion, after a year living in Slovenia and a basic Slovenian exam, without giving up another citizenship.
What would settle itWhether someone in the family will live in Slovenia for a year and pass the basic Slovenian exam.
What changes the answer
- POSSIBLE
- POSSIBLE
If you can’t pass the Slovenian language requirementA great-grandchild of a Slovenian emigrant can naturalise after a year living in Slovenia, but only with the basic Slovenian exam; until then the option is closed to you.
The dates that matter
No date named in Slovenia’s rule decides who qualifies. The answers above turn on the family’s facts, not on when anyone was born or left.
Claiming through your mother or grandmother
In Slovenia’s rule, the answer changes when the ancestor you descend through is a woman:
- POSSIBLE
If the parent is your mother and you were born before 1991The family’s active ties to the Slovenian community, which the Government weighs under Article 13; the grant is discretionary.
- LIKELY
If the parent is your mother and you were born in 1991 or laterBorn abroad to a Slovenian parent and not yet 36, you acquire Slovenian citizenship by origin simply by registering at the embassy.
In the law’s words
Dual citizenship with your home country
You keep your citizenship.
On every open route, the rule lets a citizen of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina or South Africa keep that citizenship.
Every way to apply, and the law behind it
- POSSIBLE
Through a parent
- LIKELY
Through a parent, if you were born in 1991 or later
- POSSIBLE
Through a great-grandparent
- POSSIBLE
Through a great-grandparent, if you can’t pass the Slovenian language requirement
The law
- A Slovenian abroad may be naturalised for national reasons without living in Slovenia, without a language test and without giving up another citizenship, if the Government finds it in the national interest; the Embassy describes this for descent up to the second generation with active ties to the Slovenian community. ZDRS Art. 13, unofficial consolidated text, Art. 13(1)-(3) ↗
- An emigrant’s descendant to the fourth generation may be admitted at the authority’s discretion after actually living in Slovenia for at least a year with a regulated status and passing a basic Slovenian exam; release from the other citizenship is not required. ZDRS Art. 12 with Art. 10(1), unofficial consolidated text, Art. 12(1) with Art. 10(1)(5) ↗
- Both naturalisation options require no final unconditional prison sentence over three months, or suspended sentence with probation over one year. ZDRS Art. 12 with Art. 10(1), unofficial consolidated text, Art. 10(1)(6), applied by Arts. 12 and 13 ↗
- A child born abroad to a Slovenian-citizen parent and a foreign parent, not registered before 18, acquires citizenship by origin by registering before reaching 36. Embassy of Slovenia in Washington: consular information (registration of adults 18 to 36; Article 13 applications) ↗
What would settle an unsure case
- Your age: under 36, a child of a Slovenian parent simply registers; otherwise, the family’s active ties to the Slovenian community, which the Government weighs under Article 13.
- The family’s active ties to the Slovenian community, which the Government weighs under Article 13; the grant is discretionary.
- Whether someone in the family will live in Slovenia for a year and pass the basic Slovenian exam.
The documents, as the rule lists them
Emigrants and descendants (Art. 12)
Through a parent or grandparent
- Your ancestor’s birth or baptismal record from today’s Slovenia
- Birth and marriage records for each generation to you
- Evidence of active ties to the Slovenian community (membership of Slovenian organisations)
Through a parent, if you were born in 1991 or later
- Registration form for a person aged 18 to 36
- Your birth certificate with apostille and Slovenian translation
- Your parent’s proof of Slovenian citizenship at your birth
Through a great-grandparent
- Your ancestor’s birth or baptismal record from today’s Slovenia
- Birth and marriage records for each generation to you
- A basic Slovenian language certificate
Most countries also want proof that your ancestor didn’t become a citizen somewhere else before their child was born: the naturalization record with its date, or a letter saying there isn’t one.
What it takes: time, cost, the hard part, who decides
Emigrants and descendants (Art. 12)
- Time
- 1–2 years, including at least a year of residence in Slovenia that the law requires before filing.
- Cost
- About $500–1,200: certified copies, apostilles, translations into Slovenian and the cost of the residence period itself.
- The hard part
- The year of actual residence in Slovenia. Keeping your U.S. citizenship also isn’t automatic — it needs the government’s discretionary consent, not just a request.
- Who decides
- The Ministry of the Interior, through the Slovenian embassy, after the residence period.
- The first record
- Your ancestor’s birth or baptismal record from today’s Slovenia, from The upravna enota (administrative unit) civil registry, or the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia. Write to the administrative unit for the ancestor’s birthplace; for records before 1900, the national Archives in Ljubljana hold parish registers. gov.si ↗
How it’s filed
- Where
- An administrative unit (upravna enota) in Slovenia; the one for your registered residence decides. Not filed from the U.S. office list ↗
- How
- In person; you appear in person
- Fee
- About $206
- Decision
- 6–18 months
What goes in the file (8)›
- Completed application form
- Extensive CV (življenjepis)
- Proof of descent from a Slovenian emigrant (birth and marriage records for each generation, up to the fourth)
- Proof of at least one year’s actual residence in Slovenia and regulated alien status (residence permit)
- Certificate of the basic-level Slovenian language exam
- Criminal record certificates (FBI, apostilled and translated)
- Proof of means of support and settled taxes, where applicable
- Your passport and apostilled, translated U.S. birth certificate
What goes wrong (7)›
- Article 12 requires at least one year of actual residence in Slovenia with regulated alien status before filing, plus conditions 1 and 4–10 of Article 10 (including basic Slovenian for everyday communication, proved by exam); release from U.S. citizenship (condition 2) is not among them. The decision is discretionary and must be in the national interest.
- Fee: €181.20 administrative fee for the decision (tariff no. 12), one fee for family members admitted together; filed through a consulate the tariff is €354 (tariff no. 59).
- Alternative without residence: the Embassy in Washington takes Article 13 extraordinary-naturalisation applications from people of Slovenian descent (the Embassy says up to the second generation) with a multiannual active connection and at least 5 years in Slovenian associations, schools or expatriate organisations; the Government decides on national interest. Documents all in Slovenian, FBI check required; the Embassy recommends a representative in Slovenia with power of attorney.
- A child of a Slovenian citizen born abroad and not registered by 18 can still register as a citizen by origin up to age 36 through the Embassy.
- You keep U.S. citizenship: Article 12 applicants are exempt from proving release from their previous citizenship.
- U.S. missions: Embassy Washington (all states except CO, IL, IN, IA, MI, MN, MO, OH, PA, WI; plus DC, PR), 2410 California Street NW, Washington, DC 20008; Consulate General Cleveland (those ten states), 1100 Superior Avenue, Suite 720, Cleveland, OH 44114, email sloconsulate.cleveland@gov.si. Appointments by email with the completed form, at least a week ahead; Cleveland also books by phone, (216) 771-7010.
- Neither U.S. mission files the Art. 12 application; it is filed in person at an administrative unit in Slovenia. The missions take the Art. 13 alternative (application form for descent, FBI check, signed permission to copy documents, consular fee €354) plus passports and civil-status matters.
source ↗
Fees are each office’s published fee, converted to U.S. dollars.
Where each record lives, and how to ask for it
birth1946–2026
The central register of civil status (matični register), extracts issued by any upravna enota (administrative unit) in Slovenia
Any administrative unit can issue an extract; from abroad, a proxy in Slovenia or the Embassy can request it.
- Ask
- By email, in Slovenian
- Fee
- 3 EUR (about $3)
- Takes
- 2–13 weeks
Good to know (3)›
- €3.00 administrative fee per extract at an administrative unit (tariff no. 4); the multilingual version for use abroad is another €3.00. In person it is issued on the spot.
- Through the Embassy or Consulate General the consular fee is €26 per extract, and the extract comes by post.
- A relative’s extract needs that person’s written authorisation if they are living.
source ↗
birth1700–1945
Parish registers held by the diocesan archives (Ljubljana, Maribor, Koper and others) or still in the parish
Identify the parish; many Slovenian Catholic registers are scanned on Matricula.
- Ask
- By email, in Slovenian
- Takes
- 4–17 weeks
Good to know (2)›
- The Archdiocesan Archive of Ljubljana (Krekov trg 1, nsal@nadskofija-ljubljana.si) charges €10 per baptism, marriage or death extract, €20 per family-book extract, €35 an hour for research and €4 per scan. For parishes of the Maribor archdiocese, write to skofijski.arhiv@nadskofija-maribor.si.
- Registers before the mid-19th century are mostly in Latin.
source ↗
Translations
- Into
- Slovenian
- Who may translate
- A translator on the consulate’s list
- About
- $30–$90 a page
All documents must be filed in Slovenian. The Embassy in Washington does not translate; it authenticates a translation you provide against the original (request plus consular fee) and keeps a list of Slovenian-language translators. U.S. documents need an apostille; Slovenian documents need none.
source ↗
The passport
- Where
- In person at the Slovenian Embassy in Washington or Consulate General in Cleveland (or during consular hours in other U.S. cities), after citizenship is granted
- Fee
- About $131
- Time
- 4–13 weeks
source ↗
Places on old papers that lead to Slovenia
If your family’s records name one of these, Slovenia’s law may be the one that applies. The town decides.
- Austria-Hungary · also Austro-Hungarian Empire, Habsburg
Austria-Hungary became a dozen countries in 1918. Pick the one the town is in today.
Today: Austria, Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Ukraine, Poland, Italy, Serbia
- Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia split in the 1990s. Pick the country the town is in today.
Today: Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia
Recent and pending changes
We know of no pending bill or recent court ruling for Slovenia.
We re-read the official pages behind this guide every day. When one changes, a person checks the rule before we update anything here.
If descent doesn’t reach you
2 residence programs lead to Slovenia without an ancestor, each with its own law and road to citizenship.
Every source on this page
4 laws and official pages behind the answers, then the offices and pages behind the records and filing.
- LawZDRS Art. 13, unofficial consolidated text · Art. 13(1)-(3)
- LawZDRS Art. 12 with Art. 10(1), unofficial consolidated text · Art. 12(1) with Art. 10(1)(5); Art. 10(1)(6), applied by Arts. 12 and 13
- LawEmbassy of Slovenia in Washington: consular information (registration of adults 18 to 36; Article 13 applications)
- LawCitizenship of the Republic of Slovenia Act (ZDRS)
- RecordsThe upravna enota (administrative unit) civil registry, or the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia: Your ancestor’s birth or baptismal record from today’s Slovenia
- RecordsHow to file: Emigrants and descendants (Art. 12)
- RecordsVloga za sprejem v državljanstvo Republike Slovenije (naturalisation application; e-uprava publishes it under regular naturalisation, and Article 12 applicants use it citing Article 12), filed at an administrative unit
- RecordsBirth records, 1946–2026: The central register of civil status
- RecordsBirth records, 1700–1945: Parish registers held by the diocesan archives
- RecordsMatricula Online (includes Slovenian dioceses; free)
- RecordsThe passport: where, the fee and the wait
Not legal advice. Every answer comes from the country’s own laws and is tested against real cases. Where the law isn’t clear, we say “possible” rather than guess.