Pretty much everyone has heard by now about the long awaited reforms to the German Nationality Act (Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz or StAG). The changes were championed by the Greens at the last election and the law were seen as a long overdue liberalisation of the policy towards the naturalisation of longterm non-German residents. The central change being the possibility for non-EU citizens to gain German nationality without giving up their original passport.

Nearly 12% of the population of Germany don’t hold German passports, and 5.7 million of these have lived here for over 10 years. In terms of democratic rights, that is a lot of people who have no ability to vote and could have a significant impact on the political landscape in the future. I can totally understand why the AFD aren’t in favour…

But don’t expect to get a passport quickly. Last year, 168,000 naturalisations were passed, more than 20% increase compared to 2021 but that was mostly down to 48,000 Syrian applications being approved in 2022. When the law passes, expect a slew of new applications, with predictions of an increase between 50-100%. The biggest bottleneck is likely to be bureaucratic though. In major cities like Frankfurt and Berlin, the waiting time is already up to two years. In Berlin alone last year there were 28,000 unprocessed applications, 10,000 of which dated back to 2021!

So what has happened so far?
Progress has been a little slow with two big delays already thrown in the works, and after two readings in parliament at the end of last year, the draft law comes back again probably in February (although not scheduled yet) for a 3rd reading and hopefully a positive result. Everyone, except the AFD of course who (for dramatic effect) tore up the draft law during the last reading, generally supports the reform, but the arguments have focused on the fine print. Key questions regarding the conditions under which an individual can be rejected (due to un-German behaviour), whether legal support will be offered and whether previous access to social welfare benefits will affect your application (thanks to the FDP this is likely to block your application).

The coalition parties (Greens, FDP and SDP) now claim to have solved any disagreements and are ready to go ahead with a vote.

And the opposition?
Predictably, the AFD are fully against the revision. In fact, at a time when Europe in general is moving towards stricter immigration and naturalisation rules, Germany is going the other direction. The main opposition party though, the CDU are also agreeing with the AFD for pretty much the same reason. Both are arguing that the whole reform is misguided and that speeding up the process is wrong when the issue is about a lack of integration. One CSU (Bavaria’s sister party) politician stated that allowing dual nationality would lead to ‘conflicts of loyalty’ and ‘weaken social cohesion’. Anyway…

Key changes:

• Dual Nationality Permitted: Germany to allow multiple nationalities for all, changing current restrictions on non-EU citizens.
• Faster Citizenship Process: Residence requirement for citizenship reduced to five years for B1 German speakers, three years for those with C1 German and notable achievements.
• Language Test Exemption for Seniors: People over 67 can naturalize without formal language tests, needing only to demonstrate German communication skills during application.
• Citizenship for Children of Foreigners: The residence requirement for non-German parents to confer citizenship to their children reduced from eight to five years.
• Celebratory Naturalization Ceremonies: New Germans to receive citizenship in public, festive ceremonies, emphasizing celebration and inclusion.

If you want to get support and find out what the current legal regulations are, I found a really helpful solicitor’s website. It is extensive, clear and in English. I haven’t used their services though but I imagine that they are priced accordingly 😉

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