Help with German citizenship by descent. Not sure what holes there are and what to track down.
Ok. I am working on this for my partner. Hopefully I give all the relevant info. From the perspective of my partner:
German Grandmother has child (partner's father) in Germany in 1950 with American grandfather, before they are married.
German grandmother, American grandfather and father move to USA in 1958.
Grandparents marry each other shortly thereafter in New Jersey.
Pretty certain grandmother eventually naturalized in USA
Partner is born to said father and American mother in 1978. Father has German grandmother's maiden name throughout his life.
At first it seems that German grandmother out of wedlock passes German citizenship to partner's father, and partner is eligible.
But some wrinkles. Given that partner's father was born to his German mother, but also to his American father, does USA recognize partner's father as a dual citizen, without partner's father ever having to naturalize (thus not forfeiting German citizenship?)
Partner and father are estranged. So now, I'm wondering what I need to gather. We have partner's birth cert with her dad named on there. But do we have to prove whether or not partner's father naturalized in US? How do we do that?
If he did, I know that it matters when relative to partner's birth.