Interest in the Albanian passport declines, citizenship for foreigners down 46% in 2025

During 2025, the process of obtaining Albanian citizenship entered a phase of contraction, marking a clear decline in interest both in acquiring it and in renouncing it compared with a year earlier.

INSTAT data show that the number of people who obtained Albanian citizenship fell to 495 this year, well below the 919 cases recorded in 2024.

Of these, 306 regained citizenship, while 189 obtained it for the first time. The largest share of this group consists of citizens of Kosovo, who account for 56.1% of the total, followed by Turkish citizens with 20.1%; they are followed by citizens from North Macedonia and Italy, with 4.8% each.

Requests to renounce citizenship also declined, indicating a change in applicants’ behavior and a more cautious assessment of migration movements during this period. In 2025, 173 people chose to give up Albanian citizenship.

The demographic trends of these processes show that the 30-39 age group was the most represented, accounting for 31.7% of those who obtained citizenship and 43.9% of those who renounced it.

At the same time, the number of people who sought asylum in Albania rose to 144 in 2025, which is 40 more than in 2024. According to INSTAT, only a slight increase in requests for international protection had been observed a year earlier.

An asylum seeker is considered to be any foreign citizen or stateless person who has submitted a request for international protection, for which no final binding decision has yet been made.

Asylum applications were concentrated mainly in the second quarter of the year, especially in August, September and October, a period that accounted for 63.2% of total applications in 2025.

As for country of origin, the figures show that the largest share of requests came from Egypt with 39.6%, followed by Afghanistan with 11.8% and Palestine with 9.7%.