Through the Thorns of the Bureaucratic Machine to German Citizenship

"Sometimes you can't even headbutt your way through paper"

Wiesław Brudziński

It's no secret that Germany ranks among the world's most developed countries. It is a Western state with a traditionally high standard of living, a stable economy, a respected international standing, and enormous influence on world politics. It is a country with high social standards, an established political system, and well-developed infrastructure. Yes, this is Germany — one of the most attractive countries for immigration, citizenship, and a comfortable life. There are several ways to acquire German citizenship: by birth, repatriation, naturalization, or marriage. In most cases, however, anyone seeking a German passport must go through a lengthy and complicated procedure. So, unless an applicant for citizenship has some special "privileged" basis, they will need to meet certain prerequisites, including:

holding a permanent settlement permit, or, in exceptional cases, a temporary residence permit;

having resided in Germany for at least 8 years (shortened to 3 or 5 years for certain categories of immigrants);

no criminal convictions;

financial self-sufficiency, being able to support oneself and one's family independently;

renouncing one's previous citizenship (only children may keep it, under certain conditions);

proficiency in the official language (German) at a level of at least B1, demonstrated by passing a language test;

knowledge of German culture (demonstrated by passing the corresponding test).

As a rule, obtaining German citizenship requires renouncing citizenship of another country (§ 10(1), No. 4 of the Nationality Act, Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz). Exceptions to this rule are permitted where dual citizenship is provided for under international treaties, where the applicant is a minor, where the foreign national cannot renounce the second citizenship at all, or where renouncing the second citizenship would involve particularly severe hardship, under § 12 of the Nationality Act. An official deciding whether to allow a second citizenship to be retained must therefore take into account the applicant's personal situation and circumstances. § 12(1), second sentence, No. 5 of the Nationality Act provides that a foreign national may obtain German citizenship while keeping their previous citizenship if losing that citizenship would entail major economic or proprietary losses.

It should be noted that officials reviewing applications from candidates for German citizenship do not limit themselves to a purely formal approach and, in a number of cases, may demand additional documents and certificates. In most cases, this creates no real problems or difficulties, but unfortunately, not always. In this article, we would like to tell you about one interesting story in which, thanks to our well-judged actions, German citizenship was obtained by a former Armenian citizen — let's call him George.

George, an ethnic Armenian, was born and spent his childhood in the city of Baku, in the Republic of Azerbaijan, which at the time was part of the USSR. During the armed conflict between Azerbaijanis and Armenians over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, George's family, fearing violence, fled to Armenia, where they settled in a small town near the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the determination of citizenship, George was issued a new passport of the Republic of Armenia. As a young man, he moved to Yerevan, where he lived, studied, and later worked for quite some time, until his life took a new turn. He had long been thinking about starting his own business, especially since he had every opportunity to do so. By the age of 30, he had his own capital, spoke fluent Russian and English in addition to his native Armenian, and had many friends and acquaintances both in Armenia and around the world. He was encouraged to set up a business in Europe by his equally enterprising young wife, whose parents and older brother had already been living in Germany for several years. As Britain's talented prime minister Winston Churchill rightly observed, "Our life is like a one-way road, and it's important not to miss your turn, because there's no going back." Having sounded out the situation, George decided to open a small office whose main line of business was real estate services. One could only envy our future client's eloquence, business acumen, and connections — there was more than enough demand among Russian- and English-speaking clients, and his devoted wife was always by his side, actively involved in growing the profitable business as well.

So the young family settled in Berlin, obtaining a long-term residence permit in Germany under the "business immigration" program. Time went by, and life kept moving forward. Over a little more than 8 years of permanent residence in Germany, the couple became practically fluent in German, opened their own restaurant and two beauty salons in addition to the real estate agency, built a small house in Potsdam, and had two sons. It would be hard to imagine a more successful example of integration. They came to our office for a consultation, asking whether they could obtain German citizenship. After explaining all the legal requirements and procedural matters to them, our firm's lawyer, who specializes in immigration law, began preparing the corresponding set of documents. Naturally, George and his wife were informed that they would need to renounce their Armenian citizenship.

Despite the fact that an exhaustive set of documents had been submitted to the migration authority for both applicants for their long-sought passports, this turned out not to be enough. Officials reviewing George's case assumed that, since his place of birth was Baku, in the Republic of Azerbaijan, he needed to additionally provide proof that he did not hold citizenship of that country — a citizenship he could, "purely theoretically," have held. In other words, if the officials' assumption had turned out to be correct, our client would have had to renounce Azerbaijani citizenship as well. Since the possibility of an additional citizenship was nothing more than an assumption with no basis in reality, our client had to provide evidence — specifically, a certificate issued by the competent Azerbaijani authorities confirming that he did not hold that country's citizenship. Unfortunately, this seemingly simple step led to significant delays. There was, of course, no question of George flying to Baku himself to obtain the certificate. What's more, he flatly refused to visit the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Germany, for personal, principled reasons of his own. The situation thus reached an impasse: a favorable decision on the citizenship matter required George to obtain the certificate, yet there was no realistic way to actually get it. Representing our client's interests under the power of attorney we held, we submitted the corresponding request to the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Germany. Time passed, and we repeatedly followed up with the embassy, but the desired certificate was never issued over the course of two years. What was left to do in such a deadlock? We prepared and submitted to Germany's migration authority a detailed petition setting out the following key facts:

— George fully met the existing statutory requirements for obtaining German citizenship;

— he had indeed been born in the Republic of Azerbaijan, which at the time belonged to the USSR, but had never actually acquired Azerbaijani citizenship;

— at the time of the USSR's collapse, our client was permanently resident in the Republic of Armenia, and under the laws and procedural acts in force at the time, he could not have acquired citizenship of any other country;

— due to the tragic events of history and his own convictions, George could not personally visit Azerbaijan, nor the Azerbaijani embassy in Germany, to obtain the requested certificate;

— a certificate confirming the absence of Azerbaijani citizenship had been requested from the embassy by our firm's lawyer nearly two years earlier, but despite repeated follow-up requests, no response had ever been received.

Just as we had rightly expected, the arguments set out in our petition were deemed sufficiently persuasive, and the lengthy process of obtaining citizenship was successfully completed for both George and his wife. Despite the long wait and the need to provide additional clarifications, the long-sought passports were finally obtained. This case, like many others, once again confirms that every immigration matter is different, and there is no universal recipe for handling them. What might stump an ordinary person may pose no real obstacle to a qualified lawyer with years of experience handling cases like this. If you have run into difficulties preparing your documents or in the handling of your case, or if you need professional advice, we invite you to our firm, where we will provide you with a thorough, clear consultation and see your immigration case through to a successful conclusion.

Immigration & Residence Law

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