Route two of three
The SLA certificate
If your Slovak ancestor is further back than a great-grandparent, or was born outside the territory of present-day Slovakia, citizenship by descent is not available — but the Slovak Living Abroad certificate usually is. It asks a different question: not where your ancestor was born or what citizenship they held, but whether they were Slovak.
Who it’s for
Two situations, one route
Your qualifying ancestor is a great-great-grandparent or earlier — the fourth generation and beyond.
Your ancestor was Slovak but born outside present-day Slovakia — common for families from areas now in Hungary, Ukraine, Romania, or Serbia, and for families whose ancestors were already abroad.
Birthplace is not a barrier here
For the SLA certificate it makes no difference where your ancestor was born. That is the key distinction from citizenship by descent, where the ancestor must have been born within today’s Slovak borders. What matters here is documented Slovak ethnicity.
The requirement
Slovak ethnicity, in official documents
The SLA certificate does not ask whether your ancestor held Czechoslovak citizenship, and it does not ask where they were born. It asks whether they were ethnically Slovak — and that has to be shown in official documents.
In practice, this means records in which your ancestor’s language is recorded as Slovak, or in which they themselves declared Slovak ethnicity. The usual sources:
Census records — the mother-tongue and nationality columns
Parish registers and civil records recording language or ethnicity
Ship manifests and immigration paperwork, which routinely recorded the language of arriving passengers
Naturalization files and other official records abroad
Membership records of Slovak churches, fraternal societies, and associations in the diaspora
These records survive more often than families expect — knowing which ones to ask for, and where they are held, is a large part of this work.
What it grants
Rights that come with the certificate
The right to live, study, and work in Slovakia, without a separate work permit
Access to study and health insurance on the same basis as residents
A route to citizenship after three years of continuous residence in Slovakia
The route
From certificate to citizenship
- 1
Document your Slovak ancestry and your ancestor’s Slovak ethnicity.
- 2
Apply for the SLA certificate at the Office for Slovaks Living Abroad.
- 3
Move to Slovakia on the basis of the certificate.
- 4
Complete three years of continuous residence.
- 5
Apply for citizenship.
Worth knowing
How this route behaves in practice
Slower than citizenship by descent, but open to families that descent excludes.
The certificate itself does not require you to move — it grants the right, and the three-year clock starts only when you take up residence.
Children can be included in a family’s planning — the route works across generations.
If your ancestor turns out to have been born in present-day Slovakia within three generations, citizenship by descent is the faster route, and we will say so.
Not sure whether your family’s records support it?
Tell us what you know about your ancestors and what documents you hold. We’ll review the case at no charge and tell you whether the SLA route is realistic — and if it is, how we can help and what the work would cost.