Our world is so complex and multifaceted that a person, even studying diligently their whole life, simply cannot learn everything. That is why each of us chooses a field that suits us best and works to master it, gaining knowledge, experience and practical skills. In this way, each of us can, over time, bring ever more value to society by helping to resolve various problems at a professional level.
Yuri, a native of the Russian Federation with German roots on his mother's side, had long deliberated over whether to make use of Germany's opportunities for ethnic German resettlement. He searched for information online, read the news, asked friends for details, and concluded that this was a complicated and burdensome procedure — so it was worth first consulting someone with professional experience in the field. This is how he came to our law firm.
Requirements for Obtaining the Status
Late resettler status requires proof of German ethnicity, a lasting attachment to German culture, and German proficiency at a family/native-speaker level (Section 6 BVFG).
In his conversation with Yuri, our attorney first established the prerequisites for initiating the procedure for obtaining late resettler status. Upon learning that our client intended to rely on his German origin because his mother, grandmother and grandfather were German by nationality, the attorney asked him to first send copies of the relevant certificates, records and identity documents confirming this fact.
Reviewing the documents Yuri sent revealed that only his own birth certificate noted that his mother was German by nationality. In all his other documents (military ID, marriage certificate, his children's birth certificates, etc.) Yuri was recorded as Russian. Our client did not think this mattered, believing that since his birth certificate noted his mother's German nationality, he automatically fell into the category of ethnic Germans and was entitled to late resettler status.
Our attorney, however, who has many years of practice in late resettler matters and extensive experience dealing with staff at the Federal Office of Administration (Bundesverwaltungsamt, BVA), immediately warned Yuri that submitting such documents to the competent authority would be a mistake. The reason: even under the law of the RSFSR, Yuri had been entitled, upon turning 16, to choose his own nationality. In many cases, ethnic Germans, fearing persecution by the state authorities, chose the nationality of their other parent — for example, Russian, as Yuri had done. Citizens of the Russian Federation are now given the opportunity to freely choose or restore their nationality. German government bodies accordingly view rather skeptically anyone who, being an ethnic German and feeling a sense of belonging to that nationality, failed to exercise their right to restore it through the legally established procedure.
Drawing on this insight, gained from long experience dealing with the authority, the attorney suggested that Yuri amend every one of his documents containing a "nationality" field, including his marriage certificate, his military ID, and the birth certificates of his three children. Unfortunately, however, under the law of the Russian Federation such amendments are only possible pursuant to a court decision.
Article 69 of the Russian Federation's Act "On Civil Status Records" sets out an exhaustive list of grounds for amending and correcting civil-status records (an adoption record; a paternity-establishment record; a name-change record; a court decision; an unmarried mother's statement adding, amending or removing information about the child's father in the birth record, etc.). In our client's situation, action could only be taken on the basis of a court decision obtained for that purpose.
Yuri agreed to the proposed plan of action, and our attorney accordingly gathered every necessary document (birth certificate, passports, archival records confirming the nationality of Yuri's mother, grandfather and grandmother, etc.) proving our client's right to amend his civil-status records and other documents, and drafted a corresponding court action, which, together with the list of documents the attorney had prepared, was filed with the relevant Russian court.
In that action, our attorney relied on provisions of current Russian law, noting in particular that under Article 26 of the Russian Federation's Constitution, everyone has the right to determine and state their national affiliation. The attorney emphasized that Yuri's mother, grandmother and grandfather were German, as confirmed by the relevant documents, and that Yuri had spoken German since early childhood and that German traditions and holidays had been honored in his family — but that, fearing persecution by the Soviet authorities, Yuri had been forced to state Russian nationality in his documents. The attorney stressed, however, that our client now wished to restore and preserve his ethnic German origin, relying on the provisions of Russian law that afford him this possibility. The action also set out the reason Yuri needed new documents with the corresponding amendments: our attorney noted that, on the basis of the amended documents, our client would also be able to exercise the rights German law grants to persons of German origin.
The relevant Russian court accepted the action for review and, having examined the case materials and the arguments our attorney had presented, concluded that Yuri's claims were lawful and well-founded, and that the action should accordingly be granted.
Obtaining the court decision, however, was only the first step in the plan the attorney had devised. Yuri now had to go directly to the civil registry offices to obtain new birth certificates for his children as well as a new marriage certificate. Under the established procedure, the basis for initiating the state service of amending civil-status records is an application by the interested party to the civil registry office at their place of residence or where the record is held, together with the corresponding request for amendment. The attorney drafted the necessary application for Yuri, who then submitted it, together with the court decision obtained, to the relevant civil registry office. The application was accepted, and some time later our client received new birth certificates for his children and a new marriage certificate, all stating that Yuri was German by nationality.
The military ID proved somewhat more complicated, as the competent authorities did not consider it appropriate to issue an entirely new one. However, after receiving the relevant explanation from our attorney — who stressed how important it was, for the purpose of obtaining late resettler status, that German nationality be recorded in every one of the applicant's documents — a note was added to Yuri's military ID stating that, pursuant to the court's decision, the nationality "Russian" was being replaced with "German."
Not expecting matters in the Russian Federation to be resolved so quickly and effectively, Yuri immediately sent our attorney all the necessary documents in line with the list our firm had previously provided him. In addition, on the attorney's recommendation, Yuri and his wife obtained the required language certificates well in advance, so our attorney now had the complete set of documents.
Having drafted the necessary application and completed the corresponding forms, the attorney, acting on our client's behalf and instructions, applied to Germany's Federal Office of Administration requesting that late resettler status be granted to Yuri and his family. Roughly a month after the documents were sent, the attorney received a letter confirming that the case had been assigned a registration number, and two months after that, without requesting a single additional document, the competent authority issued Yuri and every member of his family a permit to enter Germany for the purpose of obtaining late resettler status.
This example from our law firm's practice clearly demonstrates that, guided by an experienced attorney who thinks several steps ahead, you can achieve the desired result easily, quickly and without unnecessary worry.
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