u/Nochioni

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to figure out whether I realistically have a basis for Hungarian citizenship by descent before I invest time in learning the language and gathering documents.

My grandfather was born in 1910 in Lika (Gospić), which today is in Croatia. At that time it was part of Austria-Hungary (the Hungarian part). My family is Serbian — as far as I know, there was never any Hungarian language or Hungarian identity in the family.

From what I've researched, the requirement isn't just that the ancestor was born somewhere in the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary; the ancestor also had to have been a Hungarian citizen. As I understand it, Lika was part of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, which had its own autonomy and Croatian as its official language, even though it was under the Hungarian Crown. That's different from Vojvodina, which was part of Hungary proper, with Hungarian administration and Hungarian as the official language.

• What did the old birth/death records have to show (language of the entry, religion, place of belonging/"illetőség") for the consulate to accept the link to Hungarian citizenship — the link on which I'd base my claim, in addition to the language requirement?
• Beyond proving the family connection down to the ancestor, what do the consulate officials actually look at on those ancestral documents?
• Has anyone successfully applied with an ancestor from Lika / Croatia-Slavonia (as opposed to Vojvodina or other regions of Hungary proper)?
• Does the autonomous status of Croatia-Slavonia actually disqualify you (since the requirement is that the ancestor was a Hungarian citizen, and in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia not everyone was automatically Hungarian), or is it assessed case-by-case at the consulate?

Thanks in advance.

Pozdrav svima,

Pokušavam da utvrdim da li realno imam osnov za mađarsko državljanstvo po poreklu pre nego što uložim vreme u učenje jezika i prikupljanje dokumenata.

Deda mi je rođen 1910. u Lici (Gospić), što je danas u Hrvatskoj. Tada je to bila Austrougarska (mađarski deo). Porodica mi je srpska, koliko znam, nikad nije bilo mađarskog jezika ni mađarskog identiteta u porodici.

Iz onoga što sam istražio, uslov nije samo da je predak rođen negde u Austrougarskoj u Mađarskom delu, već je predak morao biti i mađarski državljanin. Koliko razumem, Lika je bila deo Kraljevine Hrvatske i Slavonije, koja je imala autonomiju i hrvatski kao zvanični jezik, iako je bila pod ugarskom krunom. To je drugačije od Vojvodine, koja je bila deo uže Mađarske sa mađarskom upravom i gde je mađarski bio zvanični jezik.

• Šta su stari izvodi rođenih/umrlih morali da pokažu (jezik upisa, vera, zavičajna pripadnost) da bi konzulat prihvatio vezu sa mađarskim državljanstvom, a na osnovu kojih bih ja tražio mađarsko državljanstvo pored jezika?
• Šta ljudi iz konzulata zapravo gledaju na tim dokumentima predaka pored toga što se dokazuje porodična veza do njih?
• Da li je neko uspešno aplicirao sa pretkom iz Like / Hrvatske-Slavonije (za razliku od Vojvodine i drugih krajeva uže Ugarske)?
• Da li autonomni status Hrvatske-Slavonije stvarno diskvalifikuje (jer je uslov da je predak mađarski državljanin, a u Kraljevini Hrvatske i Slavonije nisu svi po automatizmu bili mađari), ili se gleda od slučaja do slučaja na konzulatu?

Hvala unapred

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