Terms of use

1. Agreeing to these terms

These terms are an agreement between you and the operator named above. Using Roots means you accept them. If you do not accept them, please do not use the service.

They cover everything published here: the discovery tool, the country and route pages, the change alerts, the book and the account area.

2. What Roots is, and what it is not

Roots is a research tool. It gathers published information from official government sources, records where each statement came from and when it was last checked, and lays out which citizenship, immigration and tax routes might apply to you and what to ask next.

It is not legal advice, tax advice or immigration advice. Using it does not make the operator your lawyer or your adviser, and it creates no professional relationship of any kind. Nothing here decides your rights or promises you a result. Roots never calculates what tax you owe; it shows which rules and treaties are likely to be in play.

Before you act on anything you read here, check it with the relevant government authority and with a qualified professional. That applies with particular force before you file an application, pay a fee, move country, or do anything else you cannot easily undo.

3. Who may use it

You must be eighteen, or the age of majority where you live if that is higher. Roots is not intended for children.

The account area is invitation-only and is not being offered at this stage. If you have been invited, your invitation is for you and is not transferable, and you are responsible for what happens under your account.

4. Accuracy, and what is not promised

Laws change, official sources contain mistakes, and whether you personally qualify turns on details of your situation and on the law as it stands today. Only a licensed professional who knows your full circumstances can judge that properly.

So there is no warranty that what you read here is current, complete or correct, and no guarantee about eligibility, approval, timing or any other outcome.

What Roots does instead is show its work. A route names the source it came from and the date it was last verified, and where something has not yet been researched for a country the page says so rather than filling the gap with an estimate.

5. Translated pages

Much of this site is available in several languages. Except where a page says otherwise, those translations are produced by machine and have not been reviewed by a native speaker or by a lawyer. The language picker says so when you choose one, and these two documents repeat it at the top of every translated version.

The English version is the one that governs. Where a translation and the English differ, the English prevails, and that applies to these terms and to the privacy notice as well as to the research pages.

Legal texts quoted from official sources are quoted in their own language, and the citation is preserved exactly, so you can check the original.

6. Acceptable use

Please do not: collect content from the site by automated means beyond ordinary reading; try to break, overload or gain unauthorised access to the service; take it apart to rebuild it; resell its content without permission; upload anything unlawful, or anything you have no right to share; or use the service to break the law.

Please do not enter sensitive information about another living person unless you have their agreement to share it. You are responsible for the accuracy of what you enter and for having the right to enter it.

Please do not present what you read here to anyone else as professional advice, or as a determination of their eligibility.

7. Your information

What Roots does with your answers, what it keeps and what controls you have are set out in the privacy notice, which forms part of these terms.

Some parts of the tool need to know your country, and sometimes your state or province, to give you relevant results and to point you to the right professional. You can type this in yourself. Some features do not work without at least a country.

8. Referrals to professionals

Roots may point you towards independent lawyers, tax advisers and other licensed professionals. They do not work for the operator. They are not partners or agents of it, and Roots does not practise law or provide professional services itself.

Whatever you agree with them, including their fees and what they do for you, is between you and them. The operator is not responsible for their work, their advice, or how things turn out.

Any package or price range mentioned is what that professional is understood usually to charge. It is not a quote, the operator does not set it, and the operator does not collect it. It can change.

Where the operator is paid for a referral, it is a flat fee paid by the professional for each person introduced. It is never a share or a percentage of what you pay them. That distinction matters, because it means there is no reason to steer you towards a more expensive option.

9. Payment

The discovery tool is free at this stage and no payment details are taken. Where anything is offered for a price later, the price will be shown before you buy it, and it can change for future purchases.

Some links on this site may earn the operator a commission, such as links to consumer DNA testing services. That never costs you more, and it never changes what a route assessment says.

10. Intellectual property

The site, the book, the rulesets, the compiled research and the writing belong to the operator or its licensors, and are protected by copyright and other rights. The Roots name and logo belong to the operator.

You may use what you find here for your own research, and you may share a link to any page. That is a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence, and it does not extend to republishing this material, to building a competing product from it, or to using it to train a model.

The underlying laws, treaties and official documents belong to nobody here. Where they are quoted they are cited, and you are free to go to the original.

Anything you enter stays yours. The operator receives only the permission needed to run the service for you, and nothing more.

11. Disclaimer

As far as the law allows, the service is provided as it is and as it is available, without warranty of any kind, whether stated or implied. That includes any implied warranty of merchantability, of fitness for a particular purpose, of accuracy, and of non-infringement.

There is no warranty that the service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free, or that any defect will be corrected.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits anything that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, and any right you have as a consumer under the law of the country you live in.

12. Limits on liability

As far as the law allows, the operator is not liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, for lost profit, lost opportunity or lost data, or for a decision you took or did not take on the basis of what you read here.

If you do have a claim, the operator's total liability for all claims taken together is limited to whichever is greater of the amount you paid in the twelve months before the claim arose, or one hundred euro.

These limits apply however the claim is framed, and they survive the ending of this agreement.

13. If you cause a claim

If somebody brings a claim against the operator because of how you used Roots, because of what you entered, or because you broke these terms, you agree to cover the reasonable costs of dealing with it. You will be told promptly about any such claim, and it will not be settled in a way that binds you without asking you first.

14. Suspension and ending this agreement

You can stop using Roots at any time, and if you have an account you can ask for it to be closed.

The operator may suspend or end your access if you break these terms, if the law requires it, or if the service stops being offered. Where notice can be given, it will be. Where you have paid for something you have not received, it will be refunded.

The sections on intellectual property, disclaimers, liability, costs and governing law survive the end of this agreement.

15. Governing law and where disputes are heard

These terms are governed by the law of [governing law and venue], and the courts there have jurisdiction over any dispute arising from them.

If you are a consumer, this does not take away the protection of the mandatory law of the country you live in, and it does not stop you bringing a claim in your own local courts where the law gives you that right.

16. Changes to these terms

The service will keep improving, and these terms may change with it. When something significant changes, a new version number and a new date are published at the top of this page. Continuing to use Roots after that means you accept the new version. If you have an account, you will be asked to acknowledge a material change rather than have it assumed.

17. How to get in touch

Questions, concerns, or anything here that looks wrong: write to [email protected]. If you think a legal point here is wrong, saying so is genuinely welcome.

By using Roots you confirm that you have read this, that you understand it is not legal or tax advice, and that speaking to a licensed professional is the necessary next step before you rely on any of it.