On July 1st, 2025, Luxembourg’s government released its quarterly social security statistics regarding Luxembourg citizens living abroad. Within those numbers, was a standout figure regarding citizens living in the United States.
The Numbers Don’t Lie: A Historic Surge in Context
Between March and June 2025, the number of Luxembourgers officially residing in the United States grew by 5% in just three months. That translates to 889 new dual Luxembourg citizens holders, bringing the total from 18,004 to 18,889 Americans holding Luxembourg nationality. Because only about 45 Luxembourg citizens move to the US per year, the vast majority had to be new Luxembourg dual citizens through ancestry.
To put this in perspective, Britain’s Home Office reported 1,931 applications for British citizenship by Americans between January and March 2025 – the highest quarterly figure on record. While this made headlines as a “record surge,” Luxembourg’s growth of 889 new citizens represents something far more remarkable when you consider the scale difference.
The UK, with a population of 67 million, saw roughly twice as many American applications as Luxembourg – a nation of just 640,000 people – saw new American citizens in the same timeframe. This means Luxembourg is attracting American dual citizens at a rate more than more than 200 times higher per capita than the UK attracts American citizenship applicants.
Six Years of Dramatic Growth
The data reveals an extraordinary transformation since 2019. Luxembourg citizens in the US have grown from 3,949 in early 2019 to 18,889 in mid-2025 – a staggering 378% increase over six and a half years. This represents a consistently large demand by people in one of the world’s largest countries applying for citizenship in one of the world’s smallest countries.
During that same timeframe, only one three-month period surpassed March to June 2025. The only bigger jump occurred in early 2023, when thousands of Americans rushed to secure Dual Luxembourg Citizenship before what they believed was a closing deadline of December 31st, 2022 (a deadline that ultimately was extended 10 days before the end of the year). Because Luxembourg’s government follows strict application processing timelines written into law, the applications made in the last four months of 2022 are only expressed in early 2023.
A Global Phenomenon with Strong American Interest
While 18,000 American dual citizens represent a significant concentration of new Luxembourg citizens, they’re part of a broader global trend. Brazil actually leads with over 30,000 new Luxembourg dual citizens. These is also a small contingent of applicants for Luxembourg dual citizenship by descent in Argentina. The phenomenon reflects Luxembourg’s complex emigration history, when economic hardship in the 19th and early 20th centuries drove Luxembourgers to seek new lives across the Americas.
The Strategic Value Driving This Trend
For Americans, Luxembourg citizenship represents much more than ancestral pride – it’s a gateway to the entire European Union. Luxembourg passport holders can:
- Live and work freely in all 27 EU member states
- Access European healthcare systems and social benefits
- Study at European universities at local tuition rates
- Establish businesses anywhere in the EU without visa restrictions
- Pass citizenship to their children, creating multi-generational European opportunities
Luxembourg’s passport ranks among the world’s most powerful, offering visa-free travel to over 180 countries. This global mobility is increasingly valuable in an interconnected world where geopolitical uncertainties make multiple citizenship options attractive.
To find out if you are eligible for Luxembourg dual citizenship by descent, sign up for the Citizenship.EU platform and submit your family tree!
2 Responses
I’m currently looking into Luxembourg citizenship through ancestry, and the surge in numbers (especially from the U.S. and Brazil) makes me think it might actually be feasible for people in the wider diaspora like myself. How long did it take from submitting documents to receiving citizenship and then the passport? Also, the article mentions the role of older nationality laws and different “pathways” for descendants. Which options are actually open right now, especially for people who might not fall under the 2025 deadline?
Hi Anne, thank you for reaching out to Citizenship.EU!
In Luxembourg, there are still two articles that are actively accepting new citizenship applications, which are Article 7 and Article 23 (as well as an application process that combines both of these articles for specific applicants who are further removed from their ancestor that don’t meet typical Article 7 or 23 criteria). Depending on the complexity of your applications, we have seen clients complete their citizenship application from start to finish in less than three months, while others who require travel to Luxembourg or more complex documentation may take closer to a year. The timeline for your potential application would depend on your particular lineage back to your most recent Luxembourg ancestor.
It is important to note that applying for Luxembourg citizenship does not automatically come with a Luxembourg passport, and that this is a separate process which can either be carried out with the Luxembourg embassy in your country of residency, or in person in Luxembourg at their local passport office. Both options require that you first successfully apply for and obtain Luxembourg citizenship before applying for a passport, and the passport application processing times widely range depending on where you file your application.
Lastly, we would like to point out that 2025 is only a deadline year for individuals who filed a citizenship application under different provisions before the end of 2018. The article in question (Article 89) has not accepted new applications to be made since this deadline.
If you are interested in confirming your eligibility to apply for Luxembourg citizenship through ancestry, we highly recommend completing our Eligibility Report service option, where we provide you with a detailed report analyzing your eligibility: https://citizenship.eu/eligibility-report/
Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any more questions!