Ukrainian citizenship by descent from the USA: territorial origin, the three exams and the declaration
Checked against the official pages on 22 October 2026. How we check.
Territorial origin is the route for people whose family comes from Ukraine but who were never Ukrainian citizens themselves. The Embassy describes it step by step, and it changed with Law No. 4502-IX, in force since 16 January 2026 (Embassy citizenship page, in Ukrainian).
Who qualifies
You qualify if you, or at least one of your parents, grandparents, full or half siblings, children or grandchildren, were born or lived permanently before 24 August 1991 on territory that became Ukraine.
A second door is open for you, a parent, a grandparent or a sibling born or living on lands that belonged at the time to the Ukrainian People’s Republic, the West Ukrainian People’s Republic, the Ukrainian State, Carpatho-Ukraine or the Ukrainian SSR (Embassy page, in Ukrainian).
The door is closed to anyone who committed a crime against humanity or genocide, was convicted in Ukraine of a grave or especially grave crime that is not yet expunged, or committed abroad an act that Ukrainian law treats as a grave crime.
The five steps
| Step | What you do |
|---|---|
| 1 | Pass the language, history and Constitution exams and get the certificates |
| 2 | Collect the documents of your origin or your relatives’ |
| 3 | File the application with the certificates and the declaration |
| 4 | If approved, receive the certificate of registration as a Ukrainian citizen |
| 5 | Apply for a Ukrainian passport or a certificate of return |
The steps are the Embassy’s (Embassy page, in Ukrainian). The language exam is booked with the National Commission on State Language Standards, and the history and Constitution exams with the Ukrainian Center for Educational Quality Assessment at testportal.gov.ua.
For preparation the Embassy points to the Ye-Mova platform and to courses of the All-Ukrainian Online School; programs and sample tests are on citizenship.gov.ua (Embassy citizenship page, in Ukrainian).
The declaration instead of renouncing
Citizens of the U.S., Canada, Germany, Poland and Czechia sign a declaration recognizing themselves as Ukrainian citizens. They do not have to leave their other citizenship.
Stateless applicants sign a declaration that they hold no foreign citizenship, and nationals of countries outside the simplified route sign an undertaking to give up their citizenship (Embassy page, in Ukrainian).
How the two passports coexist is in our dual citizenship guide.
The documents
Everything is filed in person, by appointment, at the office of your consular district. The Embassy’s list (Embassy page, in Ukrainian):
- the application, in two copies;
- two photos, 35 by 45 mm or 2 by 2 inches;
- the declaration recognizing yourself as a Ukrainian citizen;
- your U.S. passport, with a copy, a notarized Ukrainian translation and an apostille on the translation;
- your green card or U.S. passport as proof of residence, and a document with your U.S. address, treated the same way;
- the three exam certificates, originals and copies;
- an FBI background check, apostilled, with an apostilled notarized translation;
- a money order or cashier’s check for $80, made out to “Embassy of Ukraine”;
- the proof of origin: a birth certificate or archive extract, and if the link is a relative, the chain of birth and marriage certificates that leads from you to that person.
Every foreign document except the passport and the residence and address papers needs an apostille and a Ukrainian translation with the translator’s signature notarized, and then the translation gets its own apostille. See apostille for Ukraine.
After the approval
You receive a certificate of registration as a Ukrainian citizen, in person or by mail if you left a prepaid return envelope with tracking and the mail request form. With it you apply for the Ukrainian passport.
The Embassy adds a warning. In relations with Ukraine you are only a Ukrainian citizen, so Ukrainian law applies to you, military duty included. A man aged 18 to 60 needs the Reserv+ e-military document for a passport, and Reserv+ needs BankID, which a new citizen does not have.
For him the Embassy can only issue a certificate of return, to get both passports in Ukraine (Embassy page, in Ukrainian).
- The three exam certificates
- Two copies of the application and two photos
- The signed declaration
- Apostilled translations of your U.S. documents
- The FBI check with its apostilles
- The chain of family documents, apostilled
- The $80 money order or cashier’s check