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More Americans applied for Luxembourg citizenship after Roe v Wade overturn
Read the original article at Contacto →
With each passing year, more Americans are looking to reconnect with their Luxembourg heritage — and Daniel Atz, founder of LuxCitizenship, is at the center of that movement. In a feature by Contacto.lu, Daniel shares insights into the steady rise in U.S. applicants pursuing Luxembourg citizenship through ancestry.
The article, titled “Não para de crescer o número de americanos que pedem cidadania luxemburguesa” (The number of Americans requesting Luxembourg citizenship keeps growing), highlights how more U.S. citizens are taking advantage of the 2008 nationality law, which allows descendants of Luxembourg emigrants to reclaim their citizenship.
Daniel discusses how political shifts, global uncertainty, and the desire for stronger international mobility have driven this steady increase. Through LuxCitizenship, he’s helped thousands of applicants trace their roots and navigate the legal process of becoming Luxembourgish citizens.
👉 Read the original article in Contacto (Portuguese): Não para de crescer o número de americanos que pedem cidadania luxemburguesa →
English translation
Citizenship
More Americans applied for Luxembourg citizenship after Roe v Wade overturn
US citizens seek Grand Duchy passport each time US politics produces controversy
Daniel Atz, American and Luxembourgish, CEO of LuxCitizenship.
Daniel Atz, American and Luxembourgish, CEO of LuxCitizenship. © Photo credit: LuxCitizenship
27/05/2024
Each time there is a significant US policy decision or Donald Trump makes a controversial statement, the number of Americans applying for Luxembourg citizenship goes up, according to a US-based consultancy.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, which enabled several US states to severely restrict access to abortion, consultancy LuxCitizenship, which advises Americans on how to become Luxembourgers, recorded an increase in the number of requests to start the citizenship process.
The same had happened when then President Donald Trump signed a tax reform into law in 2017. “The next day I received almost 20 phone calls to start the Luxembourg citizenship application process," said Daniel Atz, who is the CEO of the New York City-based company and himself also of Luxembourg descent.
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The phenomenon reached a proportion that the entrepreneur did not expect when American influencer LeejaMiller published a video on TikTok explaining how to apply for Luxembourg citizenship. The post has been viewed by around 1.8 million people.
US nationality applications grow more than Brazil’s
In the first three months of 2024, 730 Americans obtained Luxembourg nationality, according to the Registre national des personnes physiques. That puts the US in the number one spot for that year for new Luxembourg citizens, ahead of Brazil and France, where over 28,000 and 33,000 citizens of the Grand Duchy live.
In the US, that number stood at over 15,700 as of 31 March.
And there is potential for citizenship applications from the US to continue to increase. “Figures available at the US Library of Congress show that 45,000 Luxembourgers emigrated to the US in the 19th century, while around 15,000 emigrated to Brazil. The result is that there are around 100,000 Americans who are descendants of Luxembourg emigrants who arrived in the US 200 years ago,” Atz said.
The CEO of LuxCitizenship believes that “the security of living in Europe is the main reason that attracts Americans, but also the fact that there are more social rights and free medical care, when there is no public health care in the US.” In addition, “there are also many Americans who dream of retiring in Europe,” he said.
(This article first appeared on Contacto. Translation and adaptation by Yannick Hansen.)