About Heritage Passport Finder
Heritage Passport Finder is a free educational tool that helps descendants of European immigrants understand whether they may qualify for citizenship by descent — and what steps they would need to take. It covers 46 European countries, from major EU nations like Italy, Ireland, Germany, and Poland to smaller states like Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and San Marino.
Who Built This
Heritage Passport Finder was built by Michael Soucek, a developer with personal experience navigating the European citizenship by descent process. The project started as a way to cut through the noise of scattered information, expensive attorneys, and hard-to-navigate government websites — and make the research stage accessible and free.
The eligibility checker codifies publicly available citizenship laws and administrative requirements for each country into a decision-tree format, guiding users through the questions an immigration attorney would ask in an initial consultation — at no cost.
What This Site Does (and Does Not Do)
✓ What we provide
- •Free interactive eligibility checker (no signup required)
- •In-depth guides for each of 46 countries
- •Document requirements and preparation guidance
- •Processing time and cost estimates
- •Links to official government resources
- •Sub-topic guides on complex rules (1948 rule, Article 116, FBR)
✗ What we don't provide
- •Legal advice or legal representation
- •Official determination of your citizenship status
- •Genealogical research services
- •Document retrieval or apostille services
- •Guaranteed outcomes — laws change and individual circumstances vary
Editorial Standards
All country guides are researched against primary sources: official government websites, the texts of relevant nationality laws, parliamentary records, and published guidance from embassies and ministries. We do not rely on secondary aggregator sites or forum posts.
We review the accuracy of each country's guide at least once per year and whenever a significant legal change is announced. The dateModified metadata on each country page reflects the most recent review.
If you believe any information is inaccurate or out of date, please contact us via the feedback link below. We take corrections seriously.
How the Eligibility Checker Works
The eligibility checker is a client-side decision tree — no data you enter is sent to a server or stored anywhere. It asks you a series of structured questions about your family history (who had citizenship, when they emigrated, when they may have naturalised, whether female ancestors are in the chain, etc.) and maps your answers against the eligibility rules for each country.
The result is a preliminary assessment and a list of suggested next steps — not a legal determination. For individual advice specific to your family's documents and circumstances, you should always consult a qualified immigration attorney licensed in the relevant country.
Technology and Privacy
Heritage Passport Finder is built with Next.js and deployed on Vercel. The eligibility checker runs entirely in your browser — none of your family history responses are transmitted or logged. Vercel Analytics collects aggregated, anonymised page-view statistics (no personal data).
The site uses Google AdSense to display contextually relevant advertising. For full details, see our Privacy Policy.