tonrob

At the risk of boring everyone with yet another "What might they accept as proof of..." thread I'd like to throw this one out there!

My wife and I moved to the U.S. just over a year ago and should receive our GCs soon-ish (fingers crossed). I'm a UK citizen and she's German.

We're seriously considering applying for U.S. citizenship as soon as we're eligible. I know this is at least 5 years away but I'm raising the question as we're at a place now where want to map out our future plans.

Retaining our current citizenship is important to us, and I know that currently the UK has no problem with its citizens also becoming citizens of another country whereas this is not so easy for Germans.

My understanding is that whilst Germans would, by default, lose their German citizenship once they take citizenship of another country, it is possible to apply for some kind of exception document if they can prove ongoing ties to Germany. Some loose examples were provided on a website I visited but as always with these things it seems to be entirely discretionary.

Now while I can easily speculate what kinds of things might provide sufficient proof, I was wondering whether anyone out there has either gone through this process or knows someone who has and could say what they actually provided and whether this was good enough.

Alternatively can anyone recommend a good "German expats"-type website that we could post on?

Thanks!

Kb

"tonrob" <member27938@british_expats.com> wrote in message
news:[email protected] m...
    >> My understanding is that whilst Germans would, by default, lose their
    > German citizenship once they take citizenship of another country, it is
    > possible to apply for some kind of exception document if they can prove
    > ongoing ties to Germany. Some loose examples were provided on a website
    > I visited but as always with these things it seems to be entirely
    > discretionary.


Check out:

http://www.germany.info/relaunch/inf...uergerung.html

and then get help (including specific examples) here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/zweipaesse/messages

Bob

Kind of along the lines of hearsay as I don't have direct experience, but a friend of my mothers got second citizenship and wasn't a problem, she still owned a home in germany though, also still had family there, a sister and brother who she saw during summer holidays and that was enough.

Ivonne

Yes, this is called "Beibehaltungsgenehmigung" and needs to be applied for before receiving US Citizenship.
Now, I myself have no experience with this application, I've read and heard that proving your ties to Germany are only ONE aspect of the application and the more important aspect would be to explain, WHY you need US citizenship. Acceptable reasons seem to be all reasons which explain that a hardship would occur to you without US citizenship (for example if your working in a profession that requires you to have us citizenship and without it you'd be at a disadvantage of getting jobs)

Try: www.talkaboutusa.com
Those are German expats as well as immigrants and some of them have sucessfully applied for the Beibehaltungsgenehmigung.

tonrob

Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond. Those websites are probably our best bet - we'll see if we can find some Germans who have gone through this personally.

All of your thoughts on the subject were most gratefully received!

sgallagher

tonrob wrote:
    > > Yes, this is called "Beibehaltungsgenehmigung" and needs to be applied
    > > for before receiving US Citizenship.
    > > Now, I myself have no experience with this application, I've read and
    > > heard that proving your ties to Germany are only ONE aspect of the
    > > application and the more important aspect would be to explain, WHY you
    > > need US citizenship. Acceptable reasons seem to be all reasons which
    > > explain that a hardship would occur to you without US citizenship (for
    > > example if your working in a profession that requires you to have us
    > > citizenship and without it you'd be at a disadvantage of getting jobs)
    > >
    > >
    > >
    > > Try: www.talkaboutusa.com
    > > Those are German expats as well as immigrants and some of them have
    > > sucessfully applied for the Beibehaltungsgenehmigung.
    > Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond. Those websites are
    > probably our best bet - we'll see if we can find some Germans who have
    > gone through this personally.
    > All of your thoughts on the subject were most gratefully received!

A work associate of mine who looked into this, but never actually did
it yet, said that one thing he believed about it was that the waiver
from Germany had a specific window of validity, and the acquisition of
the other citizenship had to take place within that period, in order
for Germah citizenship to be preserved. If that's the case it would be
important to know how long it takes to get the waiver from Germany and
how long naturalizations are taking in your geographic area, in order
to time things correctly.

Joe Feise

[email protected] wrote on 06/13/06 05:13:

    > tonrob wrote:
    >>> Yes, this is called "Beibehaltungsgenehmigung" and needs to be applied
    >>> for before receiving US Citizenship.
    >>> Now, I myself have no experience with this application, I've read and
    >>> heard that proving your ties to Germany are only ONE aspect of the
    >>> application and the more important aspect would be to explain, WHY you
    >>> need US citizenship. Acceptable reasons seem to be all reasons which
    >>> explain that a hardship would occur to you without US citizenship (for
    >>> example if your working in a profession that requires you to have us
    >>> citizenship and without it you'd be at a disadvantage of getting jobs)
    >>> Try: www.talkaboutusa.com
    >>> Those are German expats as well as immigrants and some of them have
    >>> sucessfully applied for the Beibehaltungsgenehmigung.
    >> Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond. Those websites are
    >> probably our best bet - we'll see if we can find some Germans who have
    >> gone through this personally.
    >> All of your thoughts on the subject were most gratefully received!
    >
    > A work associate of mine who looked into this, but never actually did
    > it yet, said that one thing he believed about it was that the waiver
    > from Germany had a specific window of validity, and the acquisition of
    > the other citizenship had to take place within that period, in order
    > for Germah citizenship to be preserved.


Yes. It is valid for 2 years.

    > If that's the case it would be
    > important to know how long it takes to get the waiver from Germany and
    > how long naturalizations are taking in your geographic area, in order
    > to time things correctly.


It takes 2-3 months to get.

-Joe
--
I am not a lawyer.
For reliable advice, consult a competent immigration attorney.