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GERMAN CITIZENSHIP

EXCLUSIVE: German government to vote on citizenship law ‘on Wednesday’

Germany's eagerly awaited dual nationality law is likely to be passed in cabinet on Wednesday, The Local's sources have revealed.

Published: 18 August 2023 15:19 CEST
Updated: 22 August 2023 11:03 CEST

German cabinet ministers at the first cabinet meeting after summer in Berlin. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Kay Nietfeld

After returning from the summer break on Monday, cabinet ministers are forging ahead with plans to drastically reshape Germany’s citizenship and naturalisation laws.

According to Stephan Thomae, an FDP politician working on the reforms, a cabinet vote on the citizenship bill is scheduled at the next cabinet meeting on Wednesday, August 23rd.

“The current status is that the citizenship law will be presented to the cabinet during the summer break,” a spokesperson for Thomae revealed.

Following a review and amendment process, the latest draft will “be in cabinet tomorrow”, she added.

In response to an earlier request, the spokesperson told The Local that there were “no more points of conflict” in the draft legislation.

That suggests that the government has now ironed out controversial aspects of the bill and will be presenting a new version of it at cabinet tomorrow.

The draft will also be presented by Interior Minister Nancy Faeser at the Federal Press Conference on Wednesday at 12:30pm.

A successful vote in cabinet would then pave the way for a parliamentary vote after the Bundestag returns from recess on September 5th.

Sweeping reforms

Since the traffic-light coalition of the Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Free Democrats (FDP) took office in December 2021, the government has been working on overhauling Germany’s naturalisation laws.

Back in May, a draft version of the new citizenship law was published on the Interior Ministry’s website.

Since then, it has been in a review process in which federal state governments and other stakeholders submit feedback on the legislation and proposals for amendments.

The reforms detailed in the bill include getting rid of a longstanding rule that forbids the holding of multiple nationalities for non-EU citizens. Once the new law comes into force, people from non-EU countries will be able to keep their old passports even after becoming German.

Other changes set out in the draft law include slashing the period of residency required for naturalisation from eight years to five – or from six to three in exceptional circumstances – and easing language requirements for over-67s.

Member comments

Anonymous - 18 August 2023 at 18:36 CEST

Any news on if they could ease the requirements for those who have a female German ancestor who couldn’t pass on citizenship to her children and the children being born prior to 1949? Currently left out of 5 stag and only covered under 14 stag in conjunction with a 2019 decree from the BVA (which requires B1 German language skills)

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REVEALED: Citizenship backlogs and waiting times in major German cities

Excitement for the introduction of the new citizenship law is building in Germany, with many foreigners desperate to take advantage of lower residence requirements and the right to hold dual nationality.

But one nagging question is prevalent in the run-up to June 27th: will citizenship offices in Germany really be able to cope with a flood of new applications after the new law comes in?

The growing backlogs at German citizenship offices has been common knowledge for some time now, culminating in May with the announcement out of Cologne that no new applications would be accepted until at least September.

Speaking to The Local, the authority said they had made the decision after finding themselves unable to keep up with the high number of enquiries they were receiving.

Much like Cologne, many immigration offices in Germany are currently struggling to deal with low staffing levels and an influx of applications from Syrian refugees, many of whom have recently become eligible to apply for naturalisation.

Once the dual nationality law comes into force in June – accompanied by a campaign promoting the new citizenship rules – authorities are expecting a tidal wave of applications.

So, how are things looking in immigration offices at the moment, and are authorities prepared for the upcoming changes?

Here’s what’s going on in seven major German cities.

Berlin

Since the new centralised citizenship authority opened at the start of the year, there are signs that things are moving a lot faster in Berlin.

With additional staff, an online eligibility check and digital applications speeding up the process, many new applicants are waiting just a few months to hear back from the Landesamt für Enwanderung (LEA) and receive their German passports.

Naturalisation ceremony in Berlin

Engelhard Mazanke, director of the LEA, speaks at a naturalisation ceremony in the Berlin district of Wedding. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Bernd von Jutrczenka

That said, the LEA revealed to The Local that there were still around 40,000 applications from before the start of the year hadn’t yet been processed. That’s because these old paper applications have needed to be scanned into a computer and digitalised before being handled by a case worker.

If documents from these old applications are out of date, that may delay things still further as applicants have to resubmit proof of employment and other time-sensitive documents.

In addition, around 16,000 online applications have been submitted online since the start of the year, meaning case workers at the LEA currently have their hands full.

Once the new law comes in, the authority estimates that as many of 80,000 applications could be submitted this year. They are currently aiming to increase the amount of applications they can process from 9,000 per year to 20,000.

Munich

As of the end of April this year, 17,592 naturalisation applications were currently being processed in the Bavarian capital.

A spokesperson told The Local that it currently takes around 12-18 months to process an application once it has been submitted.

“This processing time is due to the high number of applications that are received and those that could not or cannot be further processed or finalised for various reasons, such as missing documents, lack of cooperation from customers, and staff shortages,” the spokesperson said.

German Grundgesetz

Two copies of the German Grundgesetz, or Basic Law, lie on a table in a library. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Frank Molter

In Bavaria as a whole, the number of applications received by authorities has tripled over the past ten years, and the state government expects a significant spike in applications after the new law comes in.

However, the use of an online ‘quick check’ tool to screen applicants means that foreigners don’t need to wait for an initial consultation, and applications can also be submitted digitally.

Frankfurt

In the state of Hesse, applications for naturalisation are handled by municipalities and towns with residents of 7,500 people or more before being forwarded to the central authority in Darmstadt.

Due to the fractured nature of the system, no overall figures are available for the amount of applications currently being processed.

However, a spokesperson for Frankfurt City Council revealed to The Local that applications had risen significantly over the past five years, from around 3,500 in 2019 to more than 6,200 in 2023.

The average waiting time for citizenship in Frankfurt is approximately six months – though this is increasing over time – with an additional 18 months required for processing at Darmstadt Regional Council.

The authorities expect the number of applications in Frankfurt to “double or triple” when the new law comes in. “No additional staff is available for this task,” the spokesperson added.

Hamburg

In Hamburg, around 26,000 applications are currently being processed, with average waiting times of over a year.

However, the local citizenship authority is hoping to speed things up this year with an increased number of staff and the introduction of the Online Access Act, which allows foreigners to submit a naturalisation application digitally.

Much like in Berlin and Bavaria, potential applicants can also check if they are eligible via an online ‘quick check’ tool rather than waiting for a phone consultation.

President Frank Walter-Steinmeier naturalisation ceremony Hamburg

President Frank Walter-Steinmeier (SPD) speaks at naturalisation ceremony in Hamburg in 2018. Photo: picture alliance / Christian Charisius/dpa | Christian Charisius

Stuttgart

Around 4,000 naturalisation applications are currently submitted in Stuttgart every year. According to the latest figures, 8,000 are currently being processed and applicants can expect waiting times of around 9-10 months.

A spokesperson told The Local that, based on estimates from the federal goverment, they expect the number of applications to increase by a factor of 2.3 once the new naturalisation law comes into force, meaning more than 9,000 naturalisation applications per year would be expected in the city after June.

With around 11 new staff positions created at the city’s naturalisation office in 2024, the authorities are hoping this will help cope with the influx.

Dortmund

As of May 28th this year, 5,800 naturalisation applications were currently being processed in the city of Dortmund in western Germany.

At the same time, around 4,000 people were waiting for an appointment to apply for naturalisation. According to the local citizenship authority, the waiting time for this consultation is around 6-8 months.

“The demand for naturalisations has already been rising continuously since 2021 and is not exclusively due to the entry into force of the new Citizenship Act,” a spokesperson for the authority told The Local.

“Accordingly, the City of Dortmund has already been taking various organisational and technical measures to strengthen the naturalisation authority since 2021. The number of employees in the naturalisation office has also more than doubled between 2021 and 2024.”

Bremen

A spokesperson for the Interior Ministry in Bremen told The Local that the city state was currently processing around 10,840 citizenship applications in total.

These include 6,600 “largely unprocessed” applications, around 1,260 applications that are in the initial stages of processing and around 2,260 that are in the final review stages.

In addition, around 720 people have been provisionally granted citizenship on the condition that they give up their previous nationality – and have yet to do so.

A woman shows the booklet with her naturalisation certificate at Neukölln town hall in Berlin in April 2016.

A woman shows the booklet with her naturalisation certificate at Neukölln town hall in Berlin in April 2016. Photo: picture alliance / dpa | Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert

The ministry expects applications to double to around 10,000 this year after the new law comes in – up from 5,749 in 2023 and 5,031 in 2022. Waiting times for citizenship are currently around two years.

“The expected significant increase in the number of applications will lead to a further strain on the already overstretched naturalisation authorities,” a spokesperson for the citizenship office told The Local.

“It must be taken into account that the new regulations will lead to a reduction in processing times, for example because it will no longer be necessary to release the old citizenship.

“At the same time, however, the reduction in workload will be offset by the very high workload due to the sharp rise in the number of applications.”

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