I need some help/advice regarding my citizenship application in Munich.

I am waiting for 2 years now, and six months ago i hired a lawyer hoping that this would help me finalize the process. Unfortunately, i just feel blocked since because the only response i get from my lawyer is to be patient and they keep in asking for update but my caseworker doesn’t reply.

I asked my lawyer about filing a lawsuit multiple times (since apparently this is the only way to finish pre process in Munich because there is too many applicants) and she says that i should just wait. She doesn’t want to proactively do anything and claims that she asked my caseworker for the update, but they don’t reply for two months now. She doesn’t want to file Dienstbeshwerde either, not threat with the lawsuit or keep in pressuring them for Aktezeichen. Basically i payed her to do nothing and even worse is that i can’t file a lawsuit myself since i have a lawyer (feel free to correct me if i misunderstood this part).

Is there any way to get my money back since she doesn’t do anything about my case? What can i do in this case to force my lawyer to be proactive? Is there anything i can do about it all or it’s the best to cur my losses, fire her and move on with the lawsuit myself? Thank you for the advice!

Yesterday, after randomly chatting with my cousin, i discovered.

GF born in 1909 in Bremerhaven, Germany

He moved to Queens USA in 1925

He married a USA citizen 1931 in Queens NY.

Had my mother in 1932 in Queens NY

Had my uncle in 1933. (cousin's path) in Queens NY

applied to naturalize in 1940. died in 1959 The Naturalization documents have my Mother and Uncle listed.

Mom married Dad in 1951 in Queens NY

I was born 1968

i'm assuming its StAG 5 for me, and regular path for my cousin? and we can apply together.

Hi guys! I know that the parliament is willing to abolish the 3 years rule but I think it's still active ? Am I correct.

Thanks y'all

My grandmother was a german citizen and married a foreigner in Germany. She never naturalised after moving to the US so she kept her citizenship, and had my mother here as well.

I would like to apply for German citizenship for my mother, myself, and siblings, however I am trying to collect everything needed and its been a pain. I have my geandmother and grandfathers marriage records, her birth certificate from Germany, and everything down to my siblings and I. The only thing I am missing is proof of her German citizenship.

I cannot get her old passport because of familial issues where no one talks to the uncle holding onto her documents, so there's no way to prove it that way. However I did find the ship manifest of her and my grandfather coming to the US with her passport number, can we give that to the BVA to look up her previous passport for proof of citizenship?

I assume if not we will need to trace ancestry back to someone born before 1914 but that might be difficult as it took so long for me to get her current records from Germany, I'm worried I might not be able to get her parent's birth and marriage records let alone her grandparents. If that's the case, is it possible to hire a genealogist to help find these?

Thanks in advance for any assistance and advice!

I have a full time job contract and I applied for citizenship. However, I’d like to switch to work with a foreign company as a freelancer. Will this affect my citizenship application? Will I still be eligible?

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for guidance on a citizenship/passport situation involving my daughter.

I was and am a German citizen when my daughter was born. My wife was and is an Indian citizen. My daughter was issued an Indian passport first. Later, when she came to Germany, she was registered as both an Indian and German citizen, and we also obtained a German passport and German Personalausweis for her.

We have now moved back to India. We recently became aware that India generally does not allow dual citizenship / holding two nationalities in the same way Germany does, and that having two passports can create complications from the Indian side.

We have never used my daughter’s German passport even once. When needed in Germany, we only showed her Personalausweis, and that was sufficient.

Now we are wondering whether we should return her unused German passport to the German consulate in India, mainly because we want to renew her Indian passport and avoid any issue if we are asked whether she holds any other passport.

My concern is this: if we return the German passport, could that be interpreted in any way as giving up or renouncing her German citizenship? Could it create problems for her German citizenship now or in the future?

To be clear, we are not trying to renounce her German citizenship unless that is legally required through a proper process. We are only trying to understand whether returning an unused German passport is just an administrative act, or whether it could have citizenship consequences.

Has anyone dealt with a similar situation involving a minor child? I would especially appreciate pointers on any doumentation of laws around this.

Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to share my ongoing naturalisation timeline for Hamburg since I know how stressful the waiting game can be. I applied at the end of last year, and things are moving significantly faster than the 14-month average you hear about online.

For context, I submitted a 100% complete digital application on day one, which definitely helped bypass the initial bottleneck.

Here is my exact timeline so far:

• 15 Dec 2025: Submitted online application via the Hamburg Serviceportal with all initial documents.
• 22 Dec 2025: Received the file number one week after submission and requested missing document, the Loyalitätserklärung, Birth Certificate, Document was uploaded in meantime
• Mid-Feb 2026 (2 months in): Received the official fee invoice (Gebührenanforderung) for €255. This means caseworker opened my file and cleared the initial screening!
• 01 May 2026: Paid the fee.
• 10 May 2026: Received portal notification confirming the payment was successfully matched to my file number.
• Last Week (Late June 2026): Proactively uploaded my latest payslips up to the current month via the portal. but doing this prevents the caseworker from pausing the file to ask for updates.

Has anyone else with a December 2025/January 2026 application date in Hamburg received their final Einbürgerungsurkunde invitation yet? Let’s compare notes!

I believe I was born with German citizenship but I need to get the documents in order to go get a passport and such.

Sperm donor = father Spawn point = mother (I don't want to call them parents but biologically they are)

So I was born in 2006 in America, my sperm donor is German, born and raised there. Spawn point is American. To the best of my knowledge the two were married and he still had German citizenship. I've never seen any documents but he's told me all my life I have German citizenship so I assume it's true. The problem is I need to gather the necessary papers to know for sure and to go to the consulate and go sort all that since I want to move to Germany in a couple of years.

I want to interact with my sperm donor and spawn point as little as possible while doing this so I'm trying to go into this with a full understanding of exactly what I need and I'm hoping ya'll can help me understand what's necessary for this process.

Thank you sosososo much to anyone who views this or helps <3

Hi everyone,

My child was born abroad in 2025 to a non-EU citizen. I was and am a German citizen at the time of birth and was born in 1985.

From what I understand, the one-year birth registration rule for children born abroad mainly applies when the German parent was also born abroad after 31 December 1999.

So in my case, is birth registration with a German consulate required for my child to have German citizenship, or is it only optional/documentary?

Can we apply for a German passport or proof of citizenship later if needed?

Thanks.

How long did you guys have to wait until the first contact by the bürgeramt? Just curious to see how it varies from different cities.

Hello, So my father was born in Haan Germany in 1962 my Oma was born in Trier, I forget her birth year but I will be going to visit her soon, her and my father and my Opa live in British Columbia Canada as well as myself, my Opa was an Italian national and met my Oma in Germany, from my father through my Oma my bloodline is german, I was born in British Columbia, I’m just wondering how I would go about applying for citizenship or if I’m even eligible for that, or a passport etc. my aunt was also born in Germany but I don’t know where, she lives in bc as well, if anyone could point me in the right direction or help me with the process it would be much appreciated 🙂

I'm hoping someone with experience in German citizenship by descent or the BVA process can offer an opinion about my potential claim to German citizenship.

My father's circumstances are as follows:

• He was born in Germany in 1950 to two German parents.
• The family emigrated to Australia.
• In 1960, both of his parents became Australian citizens through naturalisation (my father was not listed on the records but I assume as he was a minor he acquired Australian citizenship automatically through his parents).
• My father was 10 years old at the time.

My question is:

Under the German nationality law that applied in 1960, would a minor German child automatically lose German citizenship when his parents naturalised in Australia, or did it depend on whether the child actually acquired Australian citizenship by being included in the parents' naturalisation?

Has anyone had a similar case or received a BVA decision in comparable circumstances?

Thanks in advance for any insights.

Hey everyone! Have a rather unqiue problem. My complete name has three parts (mine + dad's name) and in my Indian passport it was all recorded under given name with the last name section completely blank (it's common not to have a last name in my community).

I received the Urkunde this week (the complete name there is also recorded under Eigenname like it's in the Indian passport). When I went to the Bürgeramt, they refused to complete my ID and passport request without a last name. I am now looking at going to the Standesamt in Berlin to get my name officially reordered - but this process could take months!

I need to travel for work and family outside of Germany and have a trip planned for end of this month. What can I do now since I have no documents to return or leave the country (my Aufenthaltstitel was surrended at the Urkunde appointment). My indian passport isn't valid anymore (India doesn't allow dual citizenship).

Could I add my complete name under my last name and have the first name blank/'+'? Any ideas how I could get the passport asap? Thanks a lot!

PS: This community has been super helpful throughout my citizenship process. Big thanks to everyone here! :)

Edits: typo

If someone is eligible but City A has very long processing times, can they move to City B (around 1.5 hours away) and apply there because the process is faster?

The person would still keep their job in City A and may keep a place there for workdays.

Has anyone done something similar? Did the new city process the application normally or were there any issues because your workplace stayed in the old city?

I live in Rheinland Pfalz. I had my interview last month where they check my documents, ask questions, etc. Everything was fine and I answered the questions they asked correctly as well.

But when the case worker scanned my passport, she got a "Meldung" on the computer and said that she needs to send my passport for "Prüfung". I got a copy of my passport stating that the original passport has been kept by the Einbürgerungsbehörde along with the date, stamp and signature.

It had been a month so I sent an email asking for an update and in the reply my case worker confirmed that it has been sent to the LKA in Mainz for an authenticity check and that it can take several more months until the passport is returned to me.

Has anyone else also had the same experience? My passport is 100% genuine and I have no criminal record but it's really stressful living for months without a passport.

My wife is the child of a German mother, but she was born in the US 1964. (Category 1)
I believe I have the application filled out correctly.
I have the following Docs - can you tell me if I’m missing anything or if adding anything would make the application smoother?
I have
- Applicant birth certificate
-Applicant passport
-Applicant good conduct (FBI)
- Applicant and my marriage certificate
- German Mother’s last German passport (1990’s)
-German Mother’s birth certificate
-German Mother’s and American dad marriage certificate.
- German Mother’s US naturalization 1995

I apologize for not being able to find the answer on the sub, even though I’m sure it’s in there. I’m a bit loopy from just filling out the form.
Thanks!

I want to apply for citizenship this year in Aachen with my 5 years clause completing in December 2026. Since all my documents are ready can i take an appointment one month before 5 years actually complete?

Thank you!

Hi everyone, I am seeking advice on my plans to apply for German Citizenship under Section 5 StAG. I have spent months researching, reaching out to archives and appear to have hit a wall finally when it comes to ultimately proving that my ethnic German nana (from Sudetenland) was indeed a German citizen. 

I have summarised her story below, as well as the archives I’ve reached out to. I’ve also noted some original documents we have of hers (not retrieved from my archive outreach but preserved by my family over the years). 

Summary:
My nana was born in 1931 in Unter Vollmau / Taus (German name for what is now Domazlice in Czechoslovakia). She was one of 3.1m Germans living in Sudetenland within Czechoslovakia (in an area that had a turbulent history from 1918 to the end of World War 2 in 1945). In 1945 she was forced to flee this area and moved to German war barracks (family tales and records show her as living in Sengenbuehl as well Furth Im Wald). Her father was also conscripted to fight for the German army and went missing in action in Russland. 

She moved to the UK in 1949. She married my Grandfather in the UK in 1952 (he was from Berezhany and had also fled to the UK). In 1989 she received her UK citizenship. My uncles have stated she had to send her German passport back at some point (perhaps when she married or when she obtained citizenship?). Note: My nana died in 2015. My dad died in 2020.

I have spent months gathering all the required documents for filing for German citizenship but unfortunately I seem to be missing the crucial proof that she was indeed German (and considered herself German) as it seems I need a town record, census etc?. 

Here’s a list of the archives I have contacted and the responses:

- Soalplzen (CZ): received hers and her father’s Czech birth certificates. These unsurprisingly list them as Czech. 
- Nacr (CZ): contacted them as suggested by someone previously for Sudetenland records and censuses. They said they had a census from 1930 where my nana was declared as Czech, they said that they did not have any other records as “these were not preserved for municipalities incorporating into Bavaria.” 
- Bundesarchiv (DE): I paid for four hours of research. They’ve now informed me they have searched variations of hers and her father’s names and have found nothing? This has really surprised me as her father fought for the German army in World War 2 and I thought they also handled records from the Wehrmacht Information Office). 
- Furth Im Wald (Stadt Furth Im Wald): trying to find and town or church records from them relating to her, they are not responding to emails and the phone goes to nowhere… I have distant family living here who I’ve tried to get in touch with (unfortunately my father who was close to them died 5 years ago and now its hard to reach them). 
- Bavaria Archives: they said they had no records and suggested contacting Furth Im Wald and Soaplzen. 
- Arsolsen Archives: they responded saying they searched for my nana and her dad but found no results. 

Here’s a list of some interesting hard copies we have, but doubt they prove German citizenship:
- Her original Abmeldung (de-registering her as a German citizen). This lists her as Deutsch and living in Vollmau. Could this be used as proof? It’s the original record so I’m not sure if any archive around Germany owns a digital version. 
- Her ‘Ministry of Labour and National Service “Westward Ho!” Acceptance card which shows her as a Sudeteland woman from Sengenbuehl / Furth Im Wald Wutzmuehlbaracke being recruited for employment in Great Britain.
- The original 1944 letter noting that my great-grandfather was missing in action (look slike it was sent by the German army) as well as a follow up letter in 1968 (sent by the Deutsches Rotes Kreuz / Suchdienst Munchen) noting he was still missing. 

I would really value any advice on any other archives to try, or anything else which I should be looking into (especially from those who have went through this process having Sudetenland ancestors!). For personal reasons, I cannot afford a genealogist to support searching records at this point in time. I am starting to lose hope that the application would be accepted without solid town records / evidence listing her as Deutsch. 

Hi, is there anyone out there that supports one going through the naturalization by descent process?

Getting clear what documents are needed and where to get anything i'm still missing.

Help with the application process/languaging.

Any other unseen support?

Any recommendations would be really appreciated. Waiting for a couple documents but going to begin my application quite soon.

Thank you!