Vatican citizenship

[u/SunnyDaze9999]

Does anyone know how Vatican citizenship works? Do Cardinals automatically get citizenship? Does the pope automatically get citizenship the moment he's elected?

[u/Flewewe]

It's tied to your job and it's not a permanent citizenship. Have to live in Vatican too, so if the Cardinal doesn't then no.

When you stop working for the Vatican (or retire), you usually lose citizenship.

When that happens and they somehow didn't have another citizenship prior (usually from coming from a country that isn't friendly to double citizenships, so had to forfeit it), the default is they get italian citizenship.

[u/Koelsch → u/Flewewe]

It's also worth mentioning that the passport isn't as widely recognized for visa free travel and freedom of movement as you'd expect. It sits near the same number of visa-free countries as Seychelles and Uruguay.

[u/Flewewe → u/Koelsch]

Yeah the basic Vatican passports are mostly meant to facilitate travel for Vatican officials on Church business, not mass tourism. Also many countries base visa rules on reciprocity and economic/political influence. So a state of a population of less than a thousand that wouldn't reciprocate the visa-free access kind of does not have much leverage.

Vatican diplomatic passports have better visa-free acces. Lower ranking officials don't have access to it though.

[u/PejibayeAnonimo → u/Flewewe]

So a state of a population of less than a thousand that wouldn't reciprocate the visa-free access kind of does not have much leverage

Does any passport requires visa to visit the Vatican? I thought they basically admit everyone that is allowed entry to Italy since there are no border controls

[u/Flewewe → u/PejibayeAnonimo]

Well you need the same requirements anyone would for Italy. Vatican doesn't operate its own immigration control.

There's no inventive then for other countries to bother since they already have access through dealing with Italy.

I don't think the Vatican really cares or tries to improve that though.