A new passport of a citizen of Lithuania – with a note about the citizen’s nationality

Over 1 900 Lithuanian citizens, including 79 people of Polish origin, have already applied for a note in their passports about nationality. Such a possibility was introduced just on the 1st of January this year, after the amendment to the Act on passports became effective. The majority of people who want to have the note about their nationality in documents are people of Lithuanian origin.

According to statistics presented by the Department of Police, from the 1st to 9th of January, 4 355 people applied for a passport. Nearly a half of them want to have the note about nationality in their passports, including 1 789 people of Lithuanian origin. 74 Poles and 36 Russian also asked for this note in their passports. Among people who applied for such a note, there are also 9 Belarussians, 5 Ukrainians, 3 Germans, 2 Karaites, as well as an Armenian, a Tatar and a Jew. The first person who applied for a passport with a note about her nationality was a Lithuanian women of Ukrainian origin.

Until 2003, a point in documents (ID cards, passports) of Lithuanian citizens, where an owner’s nationality was specified, was present. In 2003, the Lithuanian parliament altered this issue – the point was deleted. After this change, one’s nationality could be added only in one’s certificate of birth. In July 2014, the parliament passed the appropriate amendments to the Act on passports, whereby the note about an owner’s nationality can be added in his or her passport, when the owner will apply for this in writing. It should be borne in mind that such a possibility exists only for citizens who make an application for a new passport.

However, the Cabinet did not agree for adding such a note in ID cards. This decision was justified on the ground of anticipated technical difficulties.