Naturalization
 

Have you ever thought about the advantages of naturalization, acquiring German citizenship? Is one of your ancestors a German citizen and do you suspect that you have German citizenship by descent? Attorney Hochstrat will represent you in the citizenship determination process. He has more than 18 years of professional experience.

                                                New Citizenship Law

On January 19, 2024, the German Bundestag passed a law to modernize citizenship law.

Situation so far

According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, there are approximately 12 million people living in Germany who do not have German citizenship. Of these 12 million people, over five million have lived in Germany for more than 10 years. The naturalization rate in Germany is currently below average compared to the EU average.

Naturalization after five or three years

Naturalization is now possible after just five years instead of the previous eight years, and even after just three years if the child is very well integrated. This could include good language skills, volunteer work or very good performance at school or work. Children born in Germany to foreign parents will receive German citizenship at birth if at least one parent has been legally resident in Germany for five years instead of the previous eight years. In the future, these children will generally retain German citizenship and will no longer have to choose a citizenship.

Dual nationality

The principle of avoiding multiple nationalities is being abandoned. In future, naturalization will be carried out with the acceptance of multiple nationalities (“dual nationality” will become the norm). Applicants for naturalization will therefore no longer have to be released from their old nationality. A retention permit will also no longer be required when a German citizen acquires another nationality.

Language skills

With the new citizenship law, the federal government also wants to recognize the life's work of the guest worker generation, which also includes contract workers from the former GDR. The law therefore provides for making naturalization easier for foreigners who entered Germany by June 1974 on the basis of an agreement on the recruitment and placement of workers, or for former contract workers from the GDR who entered the country by June 1990. In future, oral knowledge of the German language will be sufficient as proof of language skills. In addition, they will not have to take a naturalization test.

In addition, a hardship provision will be introduced. In the future, in order to avoid hardship, a minimum level of oral language skills may be sufficient as an exception if, despite serious and sustained efforts, acquiring German language skills at level B1 is not possible or is permanently made significantly more difficult.

Entry into force of the law

The law will come into force at the end of June 2024.