Paulaner

Hello to the community,

After living almost 30 years in the Munich area, my wife (British) starts thinking about to become a German

She already passed all required tests and prerequisites for the "Einbürgerungs-Antrag" (application for naturalisation) but to become a German, it requires to give up your previous citizenship.

And now comes the challenge: my wife also wants to keep her british nationality.

Since Brexit, this now seems to be impossible or with a lot of "hurdles"

To get the german and keep the british nationality is only possible under "certain circumstances"

And this is typical for the german authorities - there is no exact explanation what exactly these circumstances are or can be.

Was (or is) anyone of you in the same situation recently and was successful in explaining the reasons to keep your british citizenship in addition to the the german citizenship.

In other words, what did you write to them to convince them?

Really looking forward to your replies

Cheers

Paulaner

SanDiegogirl

Where have you read that there are 'certain circumstances' which allow you to obtain German citizenship, and retain your British citizenship after December 30, 2020?

Those who applied for German citizenship during the transition were allowed to keep their British nationality, but I thought that was it.

Do you think you have special circumstances? apart from your wife just wanting to retain British citizenship?

Having said all that the following website does say:

https://se-legal.de/dual-uk-german-c...ation/?lang=en

In the circumstances involving non-EU citizens, it is possible to benefit from German dual citizenship by naturalization where there are the following elements:

• cases of hardship,
• there exists an inability to renounce previous citizenship,
• where the applicant is fleeing persecution or is a refugee/asylum seeker.

Seek professional legal advice if you fulfil any of the following conditions.

Paulaner

Hello SanDiegogirl

Many thanks for your quick reply.

The special circumstances are stated in paragraph 12 in the "Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz (StAG)" which say that there could be an exception if "significant disadvantages of an economic or pecuniary nature" would arise in giving up the previous citizenship.

I have attached a screenshot of this paragraph as I'm not allowed to post links to the web-page (yet)

But again, typical "Behörden-Deutsch" (authorities german) ;-) with no clear examples.

Thats why I (we) hope to get some support/recommendations from this forum

Paulaner

I'm not allowed to attach pictures (attachments) either...

scrubbedexpat0105

Paulaner,

According to my information, the British authorities currently charge people £372 for renouncing their British citizenship. If your wife were unable to afford this and also had very good reasons for needing German citizenship, Germany might decide to make an exception.

However, although the fee of £372 is, in my opinion, eine Unverschämtheit, I doubt that it will be enough to constitute "hardship" for your wife.

Germany is quite strict about not permitting dual citizenship to non-EU citizens, and that's the situation that British citizens now find themselves in.

Paulaner

Thanks Watchpost for this info. We wasn't aware that the UK will charge this amount as well.

Totally agree that is is an insolence.

But you're right - 372 GBP (around 433 EUR) will probably not count for "hardship"

Any other ideas?

Cheers

SanDiegogirl

You've got to make a case based on the reasons in the link I gave you:

• cases of hardship,
• there exists an inability to renounce previous citizenship,
• where the applicant is fleeing persecution or is a refugee/asylum seeker.

If you don't have any of the above I don't see you have a case.

I can only assume you are trying for German citizenship as you want the ability to move around Europe as freely as other Europeans. Can't imagine why you would not have done so before Dec 2020.

scrubbedexpat0105

What SanDiegogirl said. The rules are what they are, the exceptions are unlikely to apply to your wife, and it's surprising that she didn't apply whilst the UK was in the EU and everything was much easier.

Paulaner

Many thanks for your advice so far.

I know it's not easy, but we'll give it a try

Cheers

Paulaner

sternchen

No examples are given because exceptional circumstances are individual and it's up to the applicant to make their case just how exceptional the circumstances are.

Examples could be being excluded from inheriting or automatically losing property in the country of original citizenship.

FrancoPhil02

I have lived in Germany for nearly 40 years and it wasn't a problem retaining British citizenship. After taking the language/cultural knowledge tests I was able to choose whether I wanted to retain it or not, just by ticking the relevent box.

sternchen

It wasn't a problem while the UK was part of the EU. EU citizenships can be retained. This is no longer the case since Brexit.

FrancoPhil02

Oh, I see. I obviously got mine before Brexit.