For instance, in Liberia, African-born persons will acquire nationality while those of non-African origin will not be entitled to this privilege.
By contrast, other states may restrict their jus sanguinis transmission of nationality up to the registration of the second generation down the family line.
Uniquely, citizenship of the Vatican City is jus officii, namely on the grounds of appointment to work in a certain capacity in the service of the Holy See.
Most states today allow for aliens to acquire a nationality via a process known as naturalization on the basis of long-term residence and other conditions.
By international custom, each sovereign state generally has the right to freely determine who it will recognise as its nationals and citizens.
The laws in these countries appear to reflect a desire by governments to guarantee a safe haven to diaspora populations, particularly those assumed to be living under precarious conditions.
It is usually Ingrian Finns from the former Soviet Union who exercise this right, though American, Canadian, and Swedish nationals with Finnish ancestry are eligible.
Recognizing this situation, Greece grants nationality to broad categories of people of ethnic Greek ancestry who are members of the Greek diaspora, including individuals and families whose ancestors have been resident in diaspora communities outside the modern state of Greece for centuries or millennia.
Anyone wishing to do so must present a number of documents, including "[a]vailable written records...proving the Greek origin of the interested person and his ancestors."
Irish law also automatically grants nationality at birth to any individual born abroad to a parent who was born in Ireland, without the need to register with the DFA prior to the granting of citizen's rights like holding an Irish passport.
The Law of Return is legislation enacted by Israel in 1950, that gives all Jews, persons of Jewish ancestry up to at least one Jewish grandparent, and spouses of Jews the right to immigrate to and settle in Israel and obtain nationality, and obliges the Israeli government to facilitate their immigration.
People who would be otherwise eligible for this law can be excluded if they can reasonably be considered to constitute a danger to the welfare of the state, have a criminal past, or are wanted fugitives in their countries with the exception of persecution victims.
[28] A special visa category exists exclusively for foreign descendants of Japanese emigrates (nikkeijin) up to the third generation, which provides for long-term residence, unrestricted by occupation, but most nikkeijin cannot automatically acquire Japanese nationality, and must instead go through the process of naturalization.
However, the Minister of Justice can waive the age and residence requirements if an applicant for naturalization has a special relationship to Japan, such as a Japanese parent.
The Kola Norwegians were deported to or put in camps in other parts of Russia during the course of World War II.
The Foreign Ministry has sent emissaries to countries around the world to urge the descendants of Russian emigrants to return home.
This distinction is important because Spanish nationality laws primarily follow iure sanguinis, including those relating to the right of return.
The third category, por opción ('by choice'), is given to some people of Spanish origins that, though not complying with the requisites to attain nationality through origin, are able to prove close ties to Spain; this option is given mainly to the children of people that have attained or recovered Spanish nationality after their birth, but it has age limits and one must exercise this choice prior turning 20 (in some countries, like Argentina, prior turning 23, as majority of age is attained at 21 there).
Most of the por opción clauses do not confer original status (except those included in the Historical Memory Law), thus it can be lost, and, in case one possesses nationality other than those described below as historically related to Spain (e.g., United States), renounce their current nationality in front of Spanish consular officials.
Those whose father or mother were born original Spaniards (regardless of their place of birth, whether they are still living, or whether they currently hold Spanish nationality) and those whose grandparents emigrated due to political or economic reasons will have the right to de origen Spanish nationality.
Until and while the Law of Historic Memory takes effect, the following laws will also apply: In November 2012, the Spanish government announced that it would eliminate the residency period for Sephardic Jews, and permit them to maintain dual nationality, on the condition that such naturalization applicants presented a certificate of their Sephardic status from the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain.
[35] Spanish diplomacy exercised protection over Sephardis of the Ottoman Empire and the independent Balkanic states succeeding it.
The government of Miguel Primo de Rivera decreed in 1924 that every Sephardi could claim Spanish nationality.
This right was used by some refugees during the Second World War, including the Hungarian Jews saved by Ángel Sanz Briz and Giorgio Perlasca.
In October 2006, the Andalusian Parliament asked the three parliamentary groups that form the majority to support an amendment that would ease the way for Morisco descendants to gain Spanish nationality.
According to Ukrainian law, anyone who was a citizen of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic who was residing in Ukraine at the time of its declaration of independence and any stateless person living on the territory of Ukraine at the moment of its declaration of independence was granted nationality.
[38] The Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968, amending legislation passed in 1962, removed the right of entry from 200,000 south Asians long resident in British East Africa who had become the victims of the Africanization drive in newly independent Kenya and wished to move to Britain.
[39] The act required "substantial connection" to Britain, defined as: Further provisions extended rights to stepchildren.
[41] It is notable that it was enacted after the contraction of the Empire was completed, and was offered to all substantial populations of descendants of ethnic Britons in the former colonies.