Reunification of a Mother with a Minor Child in Germany

On September 13, 2013, certain amendments to Germany's immigration legislation entered into force — specifically, to the Act governing the fundamental requirements for the residence, employment and integration of foreign nationals in Germany (Aufenthaltsgesetz). We have already written extensively about this in our articles. As a reminder, the amendments simplified the procedure for reuniting foreign parents holding a residence permit in Germany with their minor children who are foreign nationals residing outside Germany. It is no longer necessary to deprive the other parent of their parental rights; a notarized declaration of consent transferring all custodial rights over the child to the other parent is now sufficient. And if there is no other parent — that is, if the child's birth certificate has a dash in the "father" field — no notarized consent needs to be obtained at all. In that situation, it is only necessary to prove that the child cannot remain in the country of residence without the mother, since there is simply no one else to raise the child. In other words, as before, an exceptional case must be demonstrated.

The stories we tell on the pages of the newspaper "Law and People" are not fictional. They are all real and recount the difficult fates of their protagonists who, finding themselves in a difficult situation, turned to an attorney for help. What follows is our next story of happiness and misfortune, love and hatred, and the attorney's role in resolving the problems that arose.

Vasily — as we will call our law firm's client — came to Germany together with his family, his wife and two children, under the late-resettler program. There, all family members received German citizenship, an apartment, and were registered with the employment center. The family was granted social benefits. Vasily searched for permanent work for a long time, but without success. As often happens in such situations, disagreements and mutual reproaches and grievances arose between Vasily and his wife. In the end, it ended in divorce. To distract himself somewhat from the aftermath of the family drama, Vasily went on vacation to Russia. There he met a young woman — let's call her Anna. Feelings developed between the man and the woman, and they decided to marry. The marriage was registered in Russia, and Vasily returned to Germany to await his young wife's arrival. Anna gathered all the necessary documents and filed an application for family reunification. But a problem arose here. The fact was that Anna had not previously been married, but she had a minor child — she was a single mother. Neither Vasily nor Anna had discussed adopting the child; they simply had not considered that the boy might become an obstacle to their reunification. At the German embassy in Russia, where Anna had filed the documents for reunification with her husband, she was told that there was no obstacle to her reunification with her husband, but that her child could not travel with her. Moreover, her husband was not working in Germany and was a recipient of social benefits, and therefore had no means to support her and her child. What was to be done? Anna could not even entertain the thought of leaving without her little boy. On top of that, Anna was pregnant. She told her husband all this news. After consulting with acquaintances, Vasily bought his wife a Schengen visa to the Czech Republic and traveled there himself. While vacationing in the Czech Republic, the woman began to feel unwell — apparently the strain of recent months had taken its toll. They traveled to Germany, and Vasily turned to our law firm for help.

The attorney explained to the client that the situation involved rather serious problems, since his wife had come to Germany not for family reunification but on a Schengen visa. As for her child, that was a further problem, since the law provides that the reunification of a foreign wife with her foreign child from a first marriage (or born out of wedlock to a different man) depends on a number of conditions. The first of these is financial independence, i.e. no reliance on state assistance. In their case, this condition was not met. However, not everything was hopeless — his wife was pregnant, and the pregnancy was at risk, as confirmed by a medical report. Consequently, she could not leave Germany at that time and could not send her young child back to Russia, since there would be no one there for the child to live with. The attorney suggested that the clients see a doctor and obtain a medical report stating that Anna's condition of pregnancy did not permit her to travel and that she needed rest and bed rest. Once that document was obtained, the attorney prepared and submitted an application to the immigration authority requesting that the foreign child of the foreign wife of a German citizen be permitted to attend school in order to learn German. He explained the situation and submitted the supporting documents. After reviewing the application, the authority granted permission and enrolled the child in school. Anna soon gave birth to a second child, who automatically acquired German citizenship at birth.

Here it is worth explaining to our readers that, under Germany's Nationality Act (Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz, StAG), children born in Germany acquire German citizenship in, broadly speaking, several ways:

1. by descent — Abstammungsprinzip;

2. by birthright — Geburtsrecht;

3. through naturalization — Einbürgerung.

In other words, a child acquires German citizenship if at least one of the parents is German. Since January 1, 2000, the following rule has applied in Germany: a child born on German territory can acquire German citizenship even if the parents are not German citizens, provided that at least one parent has, by the time of the child's birth, been lawfully residing in Germany for at least 8 years, with Germany being that parent's place of permanent (or predominant) residence.

So, Anna and Vasily's child was born on German territory. His father is a German citizen, and therefore the baby automatically acquired German citizenship. On his client's behalf, the attorney filed the corresponding application with the immigration authority for reunification with the child, a German citizen. The application was reviewed and granted — Anna was issued a residence permit valid until the child turns 18. Her elder son was likewise granted a residence permit valid until he turns 18, in view of the exceptional nature of the case, which we succeeded in proving.

At the same time, the immigration authority required Anna to immediately begin attending an integration course in German. But this was practically impossible for her to do. The attorney prepared and sent a letter to the authority requesting a one-year deferral for his client, since she was a nursing mother caring for her newborn child.

And so love, the pursuit of happiness, and the attorney's professionalism overcame every bureaucratic barrier.

Immigration & Residence Law

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