What a Romanian Passport Gives You in 2026
What a Romanian passport gives you in 2026
A Romanian passport means European Union citizenship: the right to live, work, do business and study in 27 EU countries, freedom of movement across Schengen and a status that passes on to your children. There is one limitation — the passport is not issued on request: it arises from a ground confirmed by documents, most often the family’s Romanian roots. Below is what exactly the passport gives in each area of life, who can get it and what the path to it looks like.
What a Romanian passport gives — the direct answer
A Romanian passport gives the status of a European Union citizen: the right to live and work in any of the 27 EU countries without a residence permit or work permits, about 178 destinations worldwide without a visa or with a visa on arrival, and Schengen without border controls — Romania has been a full member since January 1, 2025. In the 2026 world passport ranking it is in 11th place. The main difference from any temporary status: citizenship is permanent, it is not renewed and does not need to be confirmed by income or address — it works for life and passes on to your children.
“The right to Romanian citizenship is confirmed by documents — and we take this right all the way to the passport. The decision is made by the authority: the result cannot be guaranteed, but the file can be assembled so that there are no questions about it. The timelines, the amount and the working procedure are in the contract.”
Who can get a Romanian passport
The passport is available to those who have a ground confirmed by documents. There are 3 working grounds: descent — the Romanian citizenship of ancestors, parents, grandparents or great-grandparents who lived in the territories of Romania before 1940, including Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina; reacquisition — for those who themselves lost citizenship; naturalization — based on years of legal residence in the country. For the descent line, a window for filing without a B1 certificate is currently open — until March 14, 2027 (OUG No. 16/2026). The ground is checked against family documents: certificates, extracts, archival records — some lost records can be restored through archives. Minor children are included in the parent’s case — the family goes through the process with one file.
What the passport gives the family: work, business, education, healthcare
Each area opens up on the terms of a citizen, not a foreigner. Work — in any EU country without permits, quotas or a sponsoring employer. Business — registering companies and opening accounts in the EU on the same terms as citizens. Education — schools and universities of the European Union at EU-citizen rates rather than international ones. Healthcare — the public system of the country of residence and the European Health Insurance Card for travel. Real estate and banks — without the restrictions that apply to foreigners. Children receive citizenship by birth, without the procedures their parents went through. Plus the right to vote in elections and consular protection from any EU country where there is no Romanian mission. A separate line is travel: there is no border control within Schengen, and the visa-free list stretches from the United Kingdom and Japan to most countries of Latin America.
What the path to the passport looks like and what determines the timelines
The path consists of 5 stages: checking the ground and assembling the file, filing with the National Authority for Citizenship (ANC), the order granting citizenship, the oath, and the final documents — transcriere, Romanian certificates, CNP, identity card and passport. The timeline is made up of two segments. The first is the review at ANC: cases are processed in order of filing, and the horizon depends on the ground, the queue and the quality of the file, so there is no single timeline “for everyone.” The second is from the oath to the passport: in practice 2–4 months with a ready file; how this segment works step by step is covered in the article “After the oath: transcriere, certificate, ID and Romanian passport.” There is only one way to save time on this path — the quality of the file: a case without questions from the authority moves faster than a case that needs rework.
You have the right to a passport but have not applied: what you lose
The most expensive mistake here is not a refusal but a pause: the ancestors’ documents sit at home, and the family lives for years on renewable statuses, even though the ground for citizenship already exists. Cases at ANC are reviewed in order of filing — every year without an application pushes the order and the oath back by a year, and you add that time with your own hands. If this is about you, the procedure is as follows. First — checking the ground: which documents you have in hand and which can be restored through archives. Second — putting the file in order: translations, apostilles, consistent spelling of names across all records. Third — filing and managing the case; your life does not change: you do not need to relocate, the process runs in parallel. A raw file is the second most expensive mistake: a return for rework shifts the entire schedule, and ANC checks are strict today.
How Alliance handles the path to the passport
Alliance handles the entire path under a contract that sets out the timelines, the amount and the working procedure; the company’s licenses are publicly available on the website. The scope of work: checking the ground against family documents, archival search for lost records, assembling and certifying the file, filing and managing the case at ANC, support with the oath and the final documents — all the way to the passport in hand. Personal participation is required only where the law requires presence; the rest is done under a power of attorney and on a schedule agreed at the start. The client lives their own life in their own city, and the company’s office operates in Constanța.
Conclusion: a Romanian passport is a status for generations
A Romanian passport is not a travel document but the lifelong legal status of an EU citizen, which passes on to your children. It starts with one action — checking the ground against family documents. For a family, it is the only European status that does not need to be renewed or confirmed.
Do you need to live in Romania permanently for the passport to remain valid?
No. Citizenship is permanent and does not depend on the country of residence. The passport is replaced like an ordinary document — for adults once every 10 years.
Will I have to give up my current citizenship?
Romania recognizes multiple citizenship and does not require renunciation. The position of the country of your current citizenship is a separate question, which we review individually at the assessment.
Sign up for a free strategic assessment: we will review your ground against family documents and show at least 2 routes, the budget and the sequence of steps. The assessment is free and non-binding. Write the word СТАТУС in the Telegram chat @alliance_consulting_SRL — we will review your situation.
The company’s licenses and documents are publicly available on the website.