The short version is this. Children born after you become a citizen get it automatically. Children under 14 can be listed in your application and become citizens with you. Children aged 14 and over have to qualify on their own, and depending on where the Slovak-born ancestor sits in your family tree, they may not. Your spouse can’t inherit your citizenship at all, but has realistic routes to living in Slovakia, or anywhere in the EU, alongside you.
Children born after you become a citizen
If you acquire Slovak citizenship and have children afterward, those children will be Slovak citizens from birth, wherever in the world they are born. They’re dual citizens automatically. There is no application, no eligibility test, and no discretion involved.
What remains is an administrative process that mirrors the steps taken after the oath: obtain a Slovak citizenship certificate for the child, and register the birth with the Special Registry Office. Then the child can apply for a Slovak passport.
After the child is born, complete these steps early. It is far simpler to register a birth within the year it happens than to reconstruct it twenty years later when a grown child wants an EU passport.
Can my existing children get Slovak citizenship with me?
Whether your existing children can get Slovak citizenship with you depends on their age. Children under 14 whom you list in your application become Slovak citizens together with you, whichever generation they are. Children aged 14 and over don’t inherit citizenship from your acquired one. They must qualify in their own right, against the same descent requirements you did: an ancestor within three generations — parent, grandparent, or great-grandparent — born in what is now Slovakia, who was a Czechoslovak citizen.
Now count the generations from your child’s position rather than your own.
- If your qualifying ancestor is your grandparent, that person is your child’s great-grandparent. Third generation. Your child qualifies independently.
- If your qualifying ancestor is your great-grandparent, that person is your child’s great-great-grandparent. Fourth generation. From age 14, your child does not qualify by descent; under 14, your child can still be listed in your application.
A generational window that has closed for an older child is not a reason to panic, but it is a reason to plan and to think about your child’s position at the outset rather than after your own case concludes. Even if no pathway exists for your children to obtain citizenship directly, it’s always worth considering whether they are eligible for the SLA certificate and, therefore, an SLA-based residence permit.
Your spouse
If your spouse has no Slovak ancestry of their own, the descent pathway is closed to them. It doesn’t become available once you succeed, and your spouse can’t derive the acquired citizenship from you.
Both routes open to your spouse require a residence permit in Slovakia; the five-year route requires a registered address, intent, and years of residence in Slovakia, as well as the ability to demonstrate this.
What your spouse can get instead of citizenship
After you acquire citizenship, your spouse will be eligible for a permanent residence permit based on being married to a Slovak citizen. It allows them to live, work, and study in Slovakia. The permit depends on you first registering your own permanent residence here, which also has tax and national defense consequences worth weighing first.
Since Slovakia is part of the European Union, you, as a Slovak citizen, can register your residency in any EU member state. Your spouse can follow you: if you register your residency in Italy, for example, your spouse can do so as well.
General information on Slovak citizenship and residence law, current as of publication. Family circumstances vary considerably, and the routes above are subject to individual assessment. Not legal advice, and not a substitute for advice on your own circumstances.