Thinking about applying for dual citizenship in Germany? Well, there are tons of perks to partially being a German citizen, but how easy is the process, and who is eligible? Let’s dive in and find out more!
A quick note: Obviously, all of these methods are contingent on the fact that your other home country allows you to get dual citizenship. Not all countries allow their citizenship to be shared, so check the rules for your country before heading any further down this road.
Why Should You Get German Dual Citizenship?
Honestly, there are so many amazing reasons to get German Dual Citizenship. Probably the biggest reason is to get access to the EU. As a German dual citizen, you’ll be able to live, study, and work in any country in the EU. That’s a huge benefit and makes your life super flexible.
The German passport is one of the strongest out there, so you’ll be able to travel visa-free to around 140 different countries. Especially if you’re coming from a nation with a relatively weak passport, this can save you so much time and money in visa applications and open doors to new countries that were previously beyond reach.
Finally, you’ll also be protected and be able to open businesses in two separate countries. This is definitely worth looking at if you want favorable business rates and tax allowances further down the road.
How Can You Become a German Dual Citizen?
There are actually a few different ways that you can become a German Dual Citizen from another country:
- By birth
- By ancestry
- By naturalization
We’re going to dive into each way individually, so you can work out which route is eligible and realistic for you.
How Can I Get German Dual Citizenship by Birth?
If you were born in Germany or were born to German parents, there are a couple of ways that you might be eligible for German dual citizenship.
So, if you were born in Germany to at least one German parent, you can have the citizenship of both of your parents’ nationalities as standard.
Alternatively, if you were born in Germany to foreign parents, you might be able to become a German dual citizen. The rule for this is that one of your parents will need to have lived in Germany for at least eight years and be in possession of a permanent residency card.
Finally, if you were born overseas to at least one German parent, you can be eligible for dual citizenship. However, you personally have to live in Germany for at least eight years and have been to school in Germany for at least six of them.
Can I get German Dual Citizenship if I’m a naturalized citizen?
So, first things first, a naturalized citizenship means that you’ve either:
- Lived in Germany for eight years, have at least a B1 level of German language ability, and hold a residency permit, or
- You’ve lived in Germany for six years, have at least a B1 level of German language ability, hold a residency permit, and have completed an integration course.
If you’re naturalized, there are a couple of instances where you can become a German dual citizen, but they’re pretty niche.
First up, if your country doesn’t allow you to fully rescind your citizenship – some don’t – Germany will allow you to hold dual citizenship as a sort of compromise instead.
Secondly, if you are a refugee living in Germany, you can apply for dual citizenship.
Thirdly, if it negatively impacts your finances to rescind your original citizenship, you can get a German dual citizenship instead. However, you need to prove that you’d lose income, property, possessions, or show a huge financial strain to be eligible for this dual citizenship path!
Finally, if your home country just happens to be a part of the EU (European Union), EEA (European Economic Area), or Switzerland, then you can apply for dual citizenship with Germany.
Can I Get German Dual Citizenship if I Live Abroad?
If you’re a German citizen living overseas and you want to add another citizenship into the mix, there’s going to be a big stack of paperwork in your immediate future. What can we say, classic German bureaucracy!
So, you need to apply for something called a retention permit. This basically asks if you’re allowed to keep your German citizenship and combine it with another country.
You need to fill out the application form, which can be found on the German Federal Office website, and submit it along with all your supporting documentation.
The documents you’re going to need are as follows:
- Your German passport and ID
- If you have one, your residence card for your other country.
- Proof of how this secondary citizenship is going to benefit you. This includes anything from tax breaks to financial support to educational scholarships to career schemes and beyond!
- Proof that you still have what’s considered a “strong connection” to Germany. These can be examples of family members or friends that still live there as well as any property you have, or if your business is based there.
Essentially, this pack will help reassure the German government that you’re applying for dual citizenship for a worthwhile reason that’s going to actually benefit you, while simultaneously checking that you’re still contributing or tied to Germany in some way, shape, or form.
Once you’re approved, you’ll get a retention certificate in the post, and you’ll be able to apply for your dual citizenship. It’s important to note that it does currently cost 255 EUR for the retention permit, so make sure you factor this into any relocation or bureaucratic costs that you need to weigh up.
Of course, the German Federal Office can also deny your retention permit if the reasons outlined in your documentation aren’t strong enough one way or the other.
The other reason might be that the country you’re applying for dual citizenship with doesn’t actually allow dual citizenship, so make sure that this is the first thing you check to avoid all the hassle of German red tape and throwing 255 Euros down the drain!
If you’re unsure about whether your claims are strong enough or if you have a good chance of being approved, it’s best to contact a German immigration expert or a lawyer ahead of time for a quick consultation session.
Can I Get Dual Citizenship if I Have a German Ancestor?
Okay, and now we end up on probably one of the most complicated ways to try to get dual citizenship in Germany. Realistically, it should be one of the easiest ways to secure your German dual citizenship, but given how much German nationality laws have changed in the last century or so, it’s gotten more and more complex.
If you have a German family member in a straight line back on your family tree – so parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, etc. – you might be eligible for dual citizenship. But there’s a catch.
As the citizenship laws have changed so much, it’s sometimes unclear who was a citizen at the time and who wasn’t.
Let me explain.
Working out if your relative was a German citizen
There are three (fairly odd and archaic) questions that you need to ask yourself of the relative in question:
- Whether or not they were born in or out of wedlock
- When’s their date of birth
- Which of their parents was a German citizen
Now, these sound like odd questions, because it doesn’t matter if they’d be considered a German citizen by modern standards, but it’s whether they were considered a German citizen at the time, hence why you need to know their date of birth.
So, let’s tackle the wedlock issue first. If your relative was born in wedlock after the 1st of January 1975, it doesn’t matter which parent was a German citizen; your relative would become a German citizen by birth. If your relative was born pre-1975, your relative would only have German nationality if the father was German. It’s messed up, but that was the rule.
Alternatively, if your relative was born out of wedlock at any point between January 1st, 1914, and January 1st, 1993, the relative would only have German nationality if the mother was German. After 1993, it could be either parent.
What happens if your German relative lost their citizenship?
Unfortunately, in Nazi Germany, many people lost their citizenship due to discriminatory rules, specifically targeting Jewish Germans. During the same period, many children born to German mothers in wedlock, but to foreign fathers, were often left stateless, which would not be the case nowadays.
To rectify this, all of those German citizens, and any direct descendants, can apply for the Restoration of German Citizenship. This was only launched in 2021, and you have up to 10 years to apply for it, so the cut-off is in 2031.
You and your relatives would have to meet one of the specific criteria listed below:
- Children who were born to a German parent, but didn’t get German citizenship at the time. For example, pre-1975 children who were born in wedlock to a German mother and a foreign father.
- Children born to a German mother who married a foreigner before the child was born. That’s because, before 1975, any German woman who married a foreigner automatically had to give up their nationality.
- Any children who were entitled to German citizenship by birth, only to lose it after the mother married a foreigner. Essentially, this is when the child was born out of wedlock to a German mother who subsequently married a foreigner before 1975. This means both the mother and the child automatically had to give up their nationality.
- Any Jewish German citizens who fled Nazi persecution and were living abroad between January 30th, 1933, and May 8th, 1945.
- Anyone who has their German citizenship stripped by being listed in the Reich Law Gazette (Reichsgesetzblatt).
- Any direct descendants of the above.
As you can see, that’s a huge list, so if you have your family tree handy, this is a pretty decent way of securing dual citizenship.
To apply, you’ll need to send all of the following to the German Federal Office:
- Passport and ID documents
- Birth certificates
- Death certificates
- Marriage certificates
- Photocopies of your family tree or book
- Any certificates that show name changes
Similar to any dual-citizenship application, you’ll either be approved or denied and sent a certificate in the mail.