Germany will be giving foreigners citizenship in 5 or 3 years starting from April 2024. German Government makes history by allowing non-EU citizens to get citizenship of Germany in well shorter time by reducing it to 5 from the previously applied 8 years. With “special integration services”, naturalization should in future even be possible after three years. Such “achievements” include good language skills, voluntary work, or very good performance at school or work. The German Parliament has decided on 19 January to change the nationality law.
The new citizenship law start date has been set as 26.06.2024. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, around twelve million people with foreign citizenship currently live in Germany. Of these, around 5.3 million have been in the Federal Republic for at least ten years.
In the future, migrants should in principle be able to have multiple nationality – i.e. the possession of two passports. From the Federal Government’s perspective, this threatens to deter many people because of their connection to their home country or their family living abroad.
German citizenship for children Children born in Germany to foreign parents should in future receive German citizenship without further reservation if at least one parent has been for more than five years living legally in Germany. Here too, the deadline was previously eight years. In principle, children born in Germany should be able to obtain and permanently retain their German citizenship and the citizenship of their parents.
Language skills Faster naturalization would also be linked to several requirements in the future. Applicants from abroad who want to obtain German citizenship must provide evidence of good integration and good knowledge of German. Exceptions apply here to members of the so-called guest worker generation, who have often been living in the Federal Republic for decades. There will be no need for a written naturalization and German test for them.
A further condition for naturalization is that migrants must be able to support themselves and the dependent family members usually have to pay for themselves. Here too, the planned regulations provide for exceptions for guest workers who came to Germany after 1974 and for so-called former contract workers in the GDR.
To receive a German passport, foreigners must – as before – commit to the free-democratic basic order anchored in the German Basic Law. The Federal Ministry of the Interior’s draft law states that “anti-Semitic, racist, gender or sexual orientation or other inhumanely motivated acts” are incompatible with the basic law’s guarantee of human dignity.
Withdrawal of citizenship naturalization can also be withdrawn again within ten years. German citizenship can be revoked in the event of fraudulent deception or incorrect information. With the reform, incorrect declarations of commitment to the free-democratic basic order can also lead to withdrawal in the future.