In most countries, one of the conditions for being granted citizenship is renouncing any citizenship already held. Germany's Nationality Act (Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz — StAG) is no exception — to obtain German citizenship, an applicant must go through the procedure of renouncing whatever other citizenship they hold.
A young man — let's call him Pavel — was born in Germany. His mother and grandmother are Russian citizens of Russian ethnicity; the man he had always considered his grandfather (his mother's stepfather) is a German national of German ethnicity. Pavel never knew his biological father. His mother did, however, and a year after the child was born, she insisted that the biological father formally acknowledge his paternity. The paternity acknowledgment procedure was carried out, and Pavel was issued a new birth certificate stating that his father was a Ukrainian citizen permanently residing in Germany and married to a German national (that is, he was in a registered marriage with someone other than Pavel's mother). We will not go into what benefit this acknowledgment of paternity for a child born out of wedlock brought the mother. Instead, we will explain what problems this acknowledgment of paternity later caused for Pavel.
Naturalization Requirements
Naturalization in Germany generally requires at least 5-8 years of lawful residence, knowledge of German, and passing a test on the basics of life in the country (Einbürgerungstest).
Under the Federal Law "On Citizenship of the Russian Federation," a child whose sole parent holds Russian citizenship is a Russian citizen regardless of where the child was born. Pavel was therefore a Russian citizen from the moment of his birth. But he had lived his entire life in Germany, and it made perfect sense that he wanted to acquire German citizenship. When he turned 18, he applied to the competent German authorities for German citizenship. After reviewing his documents, the German authority confirmed that he could be granted German citizenship once he had voluntarily renounced his Russian citizenship and... provided confirmation that he did not hold Ukrainian citizenship. Pavel filed an application with a set of documents to renounce his Russian citizenship and approached the Ukrainian diplomatic mission in Germany to request a certificate confirming that he did not hold Ukrainian citizenship. But it turned out not to be so simple. At the consulate, he was told that issuing a certificate of non-citizenship required a corresponding review, and that, based on the documents Pavel had, it could already be assumed that he was, in fact, a Ukrainian citizen. For the young man, this statement came like a bolt out of the blue.
Pavel turned to our law firm for help.
Under Article 13 of Ukraine's Law "On the Citizenship of Ukraine" of 8 October 1991, which was in force at the time of Pavel's birth and at the time paternity was established, where the parents held different citizenships and one of them held Ukrainian citizenship at the time of the child's birth, the child is a Ukrainian citizen if: 1. the child was born on the territory of Ukraine; or 2. the child was born outside Ukraine but the parents, or one of them, permanently resided in Ukraine at that time. In addition, paragraph 4 of Article 13 of the same law provides that, where paternity is established for a child whose mother is stateless and whose father is recognized as a Ukrainian citizen, the child, if under the age of 16, becomes a Ukrainian citizen regardless of where they were born.
We contacted the Ukrainian diplomatic mission in Germany asking it to conduct a fresh review of our client's Ukrainian citizenship, citing the provisions of the law that were in force at the time of his birth, and pointing out that, at the time of his birth, his only recognized parent — his mother — held Russian citizenship and resided in Germany. His father, whose paternity had not yet been established at that point, was a Ukrainian citizen but permanently resided in Germany and was in a registered marriage with a German citizen. At the time paternity was established, his mother still held Russian citizenship, and his father still resided in Germany. We also pointed out that our client had been raised from an early age by his grandmother (of Russian ethnicity) and grandfather (of German ethnicity), and had been under the supervision of the youth welfare office (Jugendamt). In parallel, we sent inquiries to Ukraine to find out whether our client's father resided in Ukraine and whether he held Ukrainian citizenship.
The reply we received was disappointing — Ukraine's migration service informed us that the individual named in our inquiry resided in Ukraine, held Ukrainian citizenship, and was in a registered marriage with a Ukrainian citizen. The Ukrainian diplomatic mission in Germany, having conducted its own review, likewise confirmed Pavel's Ukrainian citizenship and informed us of this. What's more, in its letter, the Ukrainian Embassy's consular section explained what steps our client needed to take before applying to renounce his Ukrainian citizenship. Namely: leave Germany for Ukraine, register his residence in Ukraine, apply for an internal Ukrainian passport, then obtain permission from the competent Ukrainian authorities to relocate permanently to Germany, obtain a Ukrainian foreign travel passport, deregister his residence in Ukraine, travel to Germany, and register with the Ukrainian consular mission there. Only after completing all of these steps could he apply to renounce his Ukrainian citizenship. That's all!
What was to be done in this situation? We saw two possible paths. The first was to challenge the response received from the Ukrainian diplomatic mission before a higher authority, and, if the outcome was still unfavorable to our client, to take the matter to court. But that path would have taken a very long time. The second was to petition Germany's Federal Office for citizenship matters to grant our client German citizenship while allowing him to keep his Ukrainian citizenship — his renunciation of Russian citizenship was already well underway and posed no issues. Both paths had limited chances of success, but we decided to take the risk and chose the second one. Success in resolving the problem depended less on knowledge of German law than on, let's say, the lawyer's powers of persuasion — the ability to present the situation in the right light and argue it correctly.
In short, we decided to set a precedent. We prepared an application to Germany's Federal Office for citizenship matters requesting that our client be granted German citizenship without renouncing his Ukrainian citizenship, as an exception under § 12 of Germany's Nationality Act. In the supporting statement, the lawyer explained that we had approached the Ukrainian Embassy in Germany asking it to clarify our client's citizenship status by applying the provisions of Ukrainian law in force at the time of his birth, and to issue, on that basis, a document confirming that he did not hold Ukrainian citizenship. However, as the Ukrainian Embassy's response made clear, our client was instead being told to travel to Ukraine and resolve his issues there. The lawyer went on to argue that our client's travel to Ukraine was impossible for a whole range of reasons. First, he was only 18 years old, had been born and had lived his entire life in Germany, had finished school there, and was currently enrolled in an educational institution. He had never been to Ukraine, had no acquaintances or relatives there, and did not know his biological father. He had nowhere to live and nowhere to register a residence. The lawyer noted that Ukraine was in an unstable situation at the time, with a mobilization law in effect for those subject to military duty — already in its third phase. Our client was of conscription age and, upon arriving in Ukraine, could be swept up in the mobilization. That was out of the question, since he was a pacifist — that is, he rejected violence in any form. In addition, our client held Russian citizenship (the process of renouncing it was not yet complete), meaning he could, on the one hand, be detained at the border, and on the other, be sent to serve in the active military. And if the young man ended up in the army, he would undergo reintegration, given that he had been born and raised in Germany. Furthermore, given the lengthy absence that fulfilling all the requirements set out by the Ukrainian Embassy would entail — a process that would take several months at least — the young man risked losing his place at the educational institution where he was currently studying. Beyond these main points, the lawyer put forward a number of additional arguments that ultimately proved decisive. Along with the application and its supporting statement, we submitted all the necessary documents.
The response from the Federal Office arrived fairly quickly. It noted that we had provided a very thorough and in-depth explanation of the problem, along with all the necessary documents, and that a decision would therefore not take long to reach.
Shortly afterward, we received a decision in which the authority gave its consent to grant Pavel German citizenship without requiring him to give up his Ukrainian citizenship.
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