Nine countries’ ordinary naturalisation routes need 5 to 30 years

Across nine countries whose nationality laws were read on 28 September 2026, the ordinary route to citizenship requires at least five years of residence or domicile in Thailand, Indonesia and Malta and at least 30 years for non-Arab applicants in the United Arab Emirates. Latvia starts counting only from permanent residence, which lengthens the path for holders of its investor permits, and Hungary counts only residence held with one of the statuses its law lists.

The years each law sets

• Switzerland: 10 years in total, three of them in the last five, and a settlement (C) permit at the time of application. Cantons set their own minimum local residence of two to five years, which can fall within the ten. Federal minimums are B1 spoken and A2 written in a Swiss national language.
• Denmark: nine years of uninterrupted residence, with a permanent permit held for two years. The general language standard is Danish Test 3, with Test 2 accepted for applicants who meet stricter self-support conditions, plus the 2021 citizenship test. Citizenship is granted by act of parliament.
• Norway: as a general rule, eight years within the last 11 on permits of at least one year, while meeting the conditions for permanent residence; applicants who meet an income requirement need six of the last ten. If total stays abroad in a calendar year exceed two months, all of that time is deducted. Applicants aged 18 to 67 need oral Norwegian at B1 and a citizenship test.
• Hungary: eight years of continuous residence, counted from the registration of an address while holding a long-term residence entitlement, refugee or subsidiary-protection status, or qualifying free-movement rights, and an examination in Hungarian on constitutional basics.
• Latvia: five years counted from the day a permanent residence permit is received, plus tests on the Latvian language, the Constitution, the national anthem and Latvian history and culture.
• Malta: residence throughout the 12 months before application and for at least four of the six years before that, and adequate Maltese or English.
• United Arab Emirates: under the law as consolidated to 2017, 30 years of continuous lawful residence for non-Arabs, seven for Arabs and three for Arabs of Omani, Qatari or Bahraini origin, with proficiency in Arabic; grants under these articles are discretionary.
• Thailand: five years’ continuous domicile up to the application date and knowledge of Thai; the decision rests with the minister.
• Indonesia: five consecutive or ten non-consecutive years of residence, a copy of the permanent stay permit, the ability to speak Indonesian and acceptance of the state ideology, Pancasila.

Giving up Vietnamese nationality

On the ordinary route, three of the nine laws require it. Indonesia grants naturalisation only if the applicant would not become a dual national. The UAE law as consolidated to 2017 states that no one may be naturalised without renouncing the nationality of origin. Latvia requires renunciation, with proof of release or loss where applicable, while permitting retention of nationality from EU, EFTA or NATO states, Australia, Brazil, New Zealand or a state with a dual-nationality treaty; Latvia has no such treaty in force, so Vietnamese nationality must be given up.

Switzerland has allowed dual nationality since 1992, Denmark since 1 September 2015 and Norway since 1 January 2020, and Malta’s law expressly permits it. Hungary does not prohibit it. A 2025 amendment lets Hungary suspend, for up to ten years, the citizenship of a Hungarian whose only other nationality is from outside the European Economic Area, such as a Hungarian-Vietnamese dual national, where that person’s conduct threatens public order, public security or national security and suspension is proportionate. Thailand’s naturalisation sections set no renunciation condition; how they are applied in practice was not established. What Vietnamese law says about keeping Vietnamese nationality after naturalising abroad is covered in a separate TLT article.

Whether investor residence counts

Two laws answer the question through their counting rules. Latvia’s five years run only from permanent residence, which itself requires five years of continuous temporary residence, including on the permits Latvia issues for investment in company capital, real estate or subordinated bank liabilities; the practical minimum for an investor is therefore about ten years. Hungary counts residence only while the applicant holds one of the statuses its law lists. Read against the immigration office’s descriptions, the guest investor permit alone does not appear to be one of them; no official text read states this directly.

Switzerland counts time on B and C permits, Norway on permits of at least one year and Denmark from the first residence permit; Switzerland still requires a settlement permit at the time of application. For Malta’s permanent residence programme, the UAE’s Golden Visa, Thailand’s long-term resident and Privilege visas and Indonesia’s Golden Visa, the texts read do not say whether the time counts.

Other routes

Malta’s Act XXI of 2025, in force on 24 July 2025, deleted the definition of its individual investor programme and replaced the provision with naturalisation “by merit” for exceptional services or contribution, including through job creation. Applications filed under the old provision before that date remain under the earlier rules, subject to any regulations made under the Act. Indonesia’s president may grant citizenship, after consulting parliament, to foreigners who have rendered services to the state or for reasons of state interest; the no-dual-nationality condition still applies. Latvia’s parliament may grant citizenship for special merit, and that route allows dual nationality.

The Hungarian text was read from an archived copy, taken on 14 April 2026, of the official version dated 23 December 2025, and the UAE law from an English consolidation covering amendments to 2017. The currency of Indonesia’s 2006 law and of Denmark’s 2021 naturalisation circular was not fully confirmed.