We are a British family living in London. The children and my husband all have Swiss passports as my husband’s mother is Swiss. Can anyone tell me whether there is any risk to the children’s Swiss passports if I apply to reinstate my Lithuanian citizenship (my grandma was a Lithuanian citizen) and acquire Lithuanian passports for myself and the children? They will then hold three passports. Their Swiss passports were renewed or acquired at the end of 2018. I have read contrary statements on how the Swiss embassy will view this. Thank you for any help.

Switzerland allows dual/multi citizenship. As long as Lithuania does it will be ok. I have both Swiss & British.

"Swiss citizens may acquire another nationality without affecting their Swiss citizenship provided that the legislation of the other state does not require that they renounce their citizenship of origin."


I guess you will need to check the Lithuanian legislation.


You can see some more details on the EDA webpage: https://www.eda.admin.ch/countries/g...gerschaft.html

https://www.renkuosilietuva.lt/en/dual-citizenship/

Lithuania is your problem, not Switzerland or U.K.

Passport and citizenship are not the same.

Most nations law do not forbid or limit the number of passports but the number of actual citizenships. As mentioned Switzerland has no limits regarding other citizenship.

You can even have the Swiss citizenship w/o having a Swiss passport. There is no need to get a Swiss passport or a Swiss ID as a Swiss citizen. But you can only get a Swiss passport when you also have the Swiss citizenship.

As a Swiss living abroad you should be aware about the Swiss Abroad Act: https://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home...zergesetz.html

As you do not link to any such statements we can only guess and wonder. Maybe it was the fact that Switzerland normally only speaks about Doppelbürger/"Dual citizens" which in the literal sense means just two citizenships. However, in the Swiss legal sense it means multiple or more than one citizenship.

__________________
"Okay, I just hope we don't wake up on Mars or something surrounded by millions of little squashy guys."

My kids both have three citizenships by birth, but only two passports (neither has ever bothered to get their Canadian passport).

Tom

"Most nations law do not forbid or limit the number of passports but the number of actual citizenships.

You can even have the Swiss citizenship w/o having a Swiss passport."



but does Switzerland issue a passport to someone without being a Swiss citizen?

The answer to that question is conveniently available in the above post. Just
right after the part you quoted.

Actually yes they can - original law in German:

https://www.admin.ch/opc/de/classifi...548/index.html

Refugees and some other cases when people can't get a passport from their own state; but it isn't a "Swiss" passport as such, the status of the person will be clearly noted etc.

This is a "Travel Document" which does not equal to the Swiss Passport, only available for Swiss citizens. Most other governments issue "Travel Documents" for refugees/displaced persons as well. This does not give you any rights of a Swiss passport holder - i.e. Visa restrictions are different, you are not entitled to the freedom of movement within the EU/EFTA, you are not eligible to vote in Switzerland etc


So, you can only get a Swiss passport if you have Swiss citizenship.

The regulation explicitly says they issue passports for foreigners:

b. Pässe für ausländische Personen;

and Article 4 gives a bunch of cases where this can happen.

This is unrelated to Swiss citizenship and rights obtained as a Swiss national, but it is a passport issued by Switzerland. You are correct that it will not give you the rights you mention, although apart from (possibly) the visa restrictions the others also come from citizenship and are valid even without a Swiss passport.

Can non Swiss get a passport issued by Switzerland? Yes.
Can they get the Swiss passport? No.

It is green (teal) and it looks like this:


More information:
https://www.bit.admin.ch/dam/bit/de/...hepersonen.pdf

The Swiss passport is red and looks like this:

"Passport for aliens" is so cool, my kids would love one

At the time the Netherlands did not allow second passports (not sure now) and my ex became Swiss by marriage and my kids have Dutch / GB / CH nationality and passports. They just did not bother to tell the Dutch!!

Great info! It seems that this "Passport for Aliens" is not a real passport but a quasi-passport as it gives the holder very limited usages - no voting rights, no visa-free, what else?

Shouldn't have called a passport but maybe identity document perhaps

If you look at the PDF aSwissInTheUS posted there is also an identity document for foreigners.

It is a passport because it is used for passing borders, pretty much the definition of a passport.

And once again - voting rights and Schengen travel are not dependent on a passport anyway! Maybe also not even visa free travel, although the passport and the visa are typically linked.

How does one get a "CH passport for aliens" Looking at that PDF, it appears the green/teal passport is only available for stateless persons, is this correct?

Also for people which are proof able unable to get the needed travel documents from their home country, have a legal stay in Switzerland, have a need to travel abroad for a certain time which can not be denied because of humanitarian reason.

OR

People which are illegal in Switzerland and wish to travel back to their country of origin but cannot get a passport from their home country in short time (Nullifies the argument that they would leave if they had a passport).

...Lithuania doesn't allow double/multiple citizenships...

Under limited circumstances it does, as previously posted.