Coming home is a curious thing: the same familiar sights, sounds, and smells... the only thing that has changed is you.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Conditions for Obtaining Status
Late resettler status requires proof of German ethnicity, a lasting affiliation with German culture, and German proficiency at a family/native-speaker level (Section 6 BVFG).
The "Late Resettlers to Germany" program allows ethnic Germans, as well as persons of German nationality who left their homeland during or after the Second World War, to obtain German citizenship. Germany's Federal Expellees Act defines the group of people who qualify as late resettlers. This group is entitled to resettle in Germany and to receive social support from the German state. "Late resettlers" do not have to go through a naturalization procedure or renounce the citizenship of their country of origin. Children of resettlers born in Germany likewise receive dual citizenship — of their country of origin and of Germany.
Immigration law is one of the main areas of our law firm's practice. Among other matters, we frequently provide legal support to clients returning to their historic homeland in Germany under the "Late Resettlers" program. As we've discussed in earlier articles, there are certain requirements and preconditions that must be met to acquire this status.
First, the principal requirement is proof of German ethnicity (under Section 4 of the Federal Expellees and Refugees Act — Bundesvertriebenengesetz, or Gesetz über die Angelegenheiten der Vertriebenen und Flüchtlinge, abbreviated BVFG). This requires one of the applicant's documents (for example, their birth certificate) to state German nationality. Descendants of ethnic Germans must provide a document showing that one of their parents or grandparents was German.
Second, so-called affiliation with the German people (Bekenntnis zum deutschen Volkstum) is of great importance; under Section 6 BVFG, this is demonstrated through language, upbringing, and culture. The applicant must prove basic knowledge of German and provide confirmation of proficiency at the required level — at least Goethe-Zertifikat B1 (on the six-level Common European Framework of Reference for Languages scale). This level implies fairly confident German proficiency, the ability to hold everyday conversations, write simple letters, and understand general, non-specialist information.
In addition, the applicant must also have no criminal record for a serious criminal offense — a requirement that is quite self-explanatory and hardly needs elaboration.
Finally, for the sake of completeness, the applicant must be a German living in one of the republics of the former USSR (with the exception of the Baltic states), and must also not fall under Section 5 BVFG. Under Section 5 BVFG, an applicant cannot obtain "late resettler" status if, in the USSR, they held a privileged position (for example, as an officer of the militia, the KGB, the judicial system — as a prosecutor or judge — a diplomat, and so on), or if they had at least one close relative in such a position.
No two dawns are ever the same; every moment in life is unrepeatable... That same sentiment applies to how each and every application to immigrate permanently to Germany is handled. Beyond meeting the formal requirements set out above, applicants also need to be prepared for a certain subjectivity in how individual officials approach each document package. A set of documents that raised no questions for one official might well raise questions for another. So in any ambiguous situation, it is better to place your trust in professionals who understand every nuance of the German bureaucratic machine and know the tools needed to secure a positive outcome even in complex, atypical cases.
One day, our law firm was approached by a very successful young man named Oleg, who was used to managing every aspect of his own life and solving problems quickly and decisively. Growing up in Siberia's harsh climate had hardened his character, and, barely having come of age, he left his parents' home and moved to Novosibirsk, where he earned a university degree while working at the same time. After graduating, Oleg began weighing his options. On one hand, everything in Novosibirsk was already going well — a well-paid job, colleagues he enjoyed spending his free time with, a beautiful girlfriend... Yet after numerous trips around Europe, he had long wanted to move abroad. After talking with his cousin Eliza, who had moved to Germany with her parents as a child, he figured out how to go about it. Since Oleg's paternal grandfather was an ethnic German, the young man knew he had everything he needed to move to Germany under the "Late Resettlers" program. On his own, within two weeks, he assembled the required set of documents (he already had a B1 language certificate) and submitted it to Germany's Federal Office of Administration for resettlement matters (BVA) for review. At the time, Oleg was fully convinced that nothing could possibly go wrong with his case. He cheerfully quit his job and flew to France for a six-month advanced training course for engineers, believing it would help him win his "place in the sun" in Germany's tough job market. What's more, during his studies, this promising young specialist landed an internship at a local engineering firm, where he made such a good impression on his manager that he was offered a few more months of work on an interesting project after the course ended. Everything seemed to be going smoothly and every door seemed open — until, "like a bolt from the blue," Oleg received the BVA's refusal on his case.
As it later turned out, the very reason for the refusal was his drawn-out internship in Paris. As the official handling Oleg's case reasoned, the fact that he had taken up employment in France indicated that the young man no longer resided in the territory of the former USSR, in the areas where ethnic Germans traditionally lived, and that, on formal grounds, he could therefore no longer be eligible to immigrate to Germany under the "Late Resettlers" program. In a fit of anger, Oleg tried several times to reach BVA staff directly to explain "what was actually going on." Running into a wall of incomprehension from representatives of a smoothly running bureaucratic system, he was ready to take them to court. Fortunately, that's when a phone call from his cousin in Germany came to the rescue — she advised him to turn to us, just as other relatives of hers had done when facing similar problems. Our attorney, who specializes in immigration matters and late resettler cases, concluded after reviewing the case that Oleg's temporary residence in France was, unfortunately, far from the only reason he might be refused again on reconsideration. It turned out that Oleg's case also lacked sufficient proof of German ethnicity, and, on top of that, his B1 language certificate had been issued by a non-accredited organization. Furthermore, the application and cover letter contained numerous inaccuracies that could also have led to a formal refusal of the coveted positive BVA decision. Oleg's first reaction to our assessment was to want to "go after the BVA" and get justice in court. After a lengthy phone conversation with the attorney handling his case, the young man eventually calmed down somewhat and decided to follow our advice. Within a short period, under our careful guidance, he assembled the required set of documents with his parents' help. He also obtained a statement from his French employer confirming that he had worked in France for only a few months on a fixed-term project, and that his main place of residence and the center of his personal life had remained in Russia. We helped him correctly rewrite his application and cover letters, and to compile and submit a new set of documents to the BVA. Finally, after reviewing the new set of documents, the BVA issued a positive decision, and all that remained for Oleg was to wrap up his affairs in Russia and begin preparing to move to his historic homeland.
We are glad we were able to help Oleg, as we have helped so many other clients, achieve a successful outcome in his case, even though he had initially planned to go about it in a very different way. As we've mentioned earlier in this article, every immigration case is unique — there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. Our attorneys are used to examining every nuance in order to propose the solution best suited to your particular situation and see the case through to a successful conclusion.
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