The German government has presented its new citizenship law this Wednesday (23.08.2023). The legislation proposed by Interior Minister Nancy Faeser will make dual citizenship easier as well as naturalization for non-EU citizens.<
The new citizenship plans boil down to these changes:
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Immigrants legally living in Germany will be allowed to apply for citizenship after five years, rather than the current eight; and if they have special achievements this can go down to only three years
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Children born in Germany of at least one parent who has been living legally in the country for five or more years will automatically get German citizenship;
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Immigrants above the age of 67 will be able to do an oral instead of a written German language test
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Multiple citizenships will be allowed
People living entirely on state support will not be eligible for German citizenship. German citizenship will be denied to people who have committed antisemitic, racist, xenophobic or other defamatory offenses that are seen to be “unreconcilable with commitment to the free democratic basic order.”
The new legislation will be debated in parliament and could come into effect in the fall.<
This is a good step, but from experiences of friends and family:
The real problem with the immigration process here is that the Ausländerbehörden (the municipal departments dealing with immigration) are so incredibly understaffed which makes the immigration process hell for anyone applying without hiring a (for many too expensive) lawyer.
My ex-gf qualified for citizenship but wanted this confirmed and it took months to get someone on the phone. She then had to send her ORIGINAL birth certificate in and they only confirmed that it had arrived 8 months after sending it (not an extreme case according to other friends) and if you call them to ask if it has arrived you get literally yelled at.
My cousin also married an American and he reported the same, as well as multiple other friends: for whatever you want, it is many months of waiting time between every single appointment. For getting citizenship this sucks for many reasons, but it is even worse for all the people who can and want to work here, but will need years to get a work visa, even if you clearly qualify.
I am 100% for making it easier to obtain citizenship, but passig laws like this without massively expanding processing capacity will only make the reality of obtaining citizenship even worse.
I don’t think the offices are understaffed, I think it’s the endlessly complex processes that block progress. If it wasn’t for all the (literal) paperwork and if they were more digital they could do more with half the staff probably.
This is everything I’ve heard about the Ausländerbehörden via iwantout subreddit too. That and not speaking anything but German. I think that’s fine for normal societal interaction but if you want to encourage immigrants to come you probably need to meet them halfway. Otherwise they’ll just go somewhere else easier.
I speak A2 but I would be very leery of trying to immigrate and navigate it all if I didn’t have friends who could advise and assist me.