Germany's Nationality Act requires renouncing one's existing citizenship in order to obtain German citizenship. Ukrainian citizenship law is likewise based on the principle of single citizenship, meaning that holding two or more citizenships is only permitted in the exceptional cases provided for by law. If you are a Ukrainian citizen lawfully residing in Germany and intend, with proper grounds, to obtain German citizenship, you must voluntarily renounce your existing Ukrainian citizenship.
What does "renouncing" actually mean here? In fact, Ukraine's Law "On Citizenship of Ukraine" does not use the term "renunciation of citizenship" at all. Article 17 of the law is titled "Grounds for Termination of Ukrainian Citizenship," and reads as follows: "Ukrainian citizenship is terminated: 1. as a result of withdrawal from Ukrainian citizenship; 2. as a result of loss of Ukrainian citizenship; 3. on grounds provided for by Ukraine's international treaties."
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).
You can withdraw from Ukrainian citizenship by filing a personal application with the Ukrainian diplomatic mission or consular office in your country of residence, together with the required set of documents. You can lose Ukrainian citizenship as a result of voluntarily acquiring another state's citizenship; if it is discovered that Ukrainian citizenship was obtained through knowingly providing false information or forged documents — that is, through fraud; or through voluntarily entering the military service of another state, where that service is in accordance with that state's laws and is neither universal conscription nor alternative (non-military) service. In this case, the loss of citizenship is initiated by the state itself.
The date on which Ukrainian citizenship is terminated is the date the corresponding decree of the President of Ukraine is issued.
It should be noted that the main condition for terminating citizenship is establishing permanent residence in another country, formally documented in accordance with Ukrainian law currently in force. In other words, when leaving Ukraine permanently for, say, Germany, one should obtain the relevant permission from Ukraine's competent authorities — a stamp is placed in the traveler's foreign passport confirming that Ukraine's state authorities consented to their permanent relocation to Germany. If this was never done, the process of renouncing citizenship becomes very complicated indeed.
Victoria — as we will call the heroine of our story — has been living in Germany for 20 years now. She came here to reunite with her husband, then divorced him and remarried here. Her children grew up and reached adulthood in Germany. And now Victoria decided to obtain German citizenship. She applied to the competent German authorities for German citizenship. After reviewing her documents, the German authority confirmed that she could be granted German citizenship once she had voluntarily renounced her Ukrainian citizenship. She went to the Ukrainian consular office in her area to find out what documents she needed to provide to voluntarily renounce her Ukrainian citizenship. That's when it turned out that she was not registered with the consulate, had never formally processed her permanent departure from Ukraine, and did not have an internal Ukrainian passport. The consular officer briefly explained to Victoria what steps she needed to take before she could submit the relevant set of documents and her application to renounce Ukrainian citizenship. This information left her in shock. Realizing she could not handle this on her own, Victoria turned to our law firm.
We once again explained to our client that, in her case, the process of renouncing Ukrainian citizenship would involve two stages: first obtaining permission from the competent Ukrainian authorities for permanent residence in Germany, and only then proceeding to renounce citizenship. We went over the list of documents Victoria had received from the Ukrainian consular office once more, paying particular attention to those that would be difficult to obtain. The issue was that Victoria and her husband had registered their marriage in Switzerland, where the Swiss registry office had issued them a marriage certificate along with a sort of decorative marriage certificate document — but that document had never been legalized. Second, Victoria had been raised from early childhood by a stepfather whom she had always considered her father, but they had never gone through a formal adoption procedure. As for her biological father, Victoria knew he had lived in Belarus and had died long ago, but she had neither a death certificate nor any other document confirming his death. In addition, a notarized statement was needed from her mother, who lived in Ukraine, confirming that she consented to her daughter living in Germany and had no financial claims against her.
Victoria's mother sent her consent quickly, and after reviewing the set of documents once more, we accompanied our client to the consular office for a preliminary interview. After checking the documents, the consular officer drew our attention to precisely the documents that had also raised our own doubts — the German-issued divorce certificate from her first husband and the Swiss-issued marriage certificate with her second husband both needed to be legalized. In addition, her biological father's death certificate needed to be provided.
Legalizing the first document — the divorce certificate — posed no problems. We went to the regional court, where an apostille stamp was affixed to the document, and then sent it to a sworn translator, who translated it into Ukrainian. The second document was trickier: we tracked down Russian-speaking colleagues in Switzerland, discussed the situation with them, and they agreed to help us. We sent them the document by registered mail. Our colleagues had the document notarized, obtained an apostille stamp, and produced a certified translation of the finished document into Russian.
But the hardest document to obtain was the one from Belarus. With our client's help, we established where her biological father had lived and died, and then contacted the registry office there by phone. A registry office employee assured us that the document could be issued on the basis of a notarized power of attorney. But when the authorized representative went to the registry office with that power of attorney to collect the document, they were told that the person requesting the document had to appear in person. We prepared and submitted a petition to the registry office, by both email and post, on our client's behalf. A month later, we received a response — the registry office recommended that our client approach the Ukrainian consulate and ask it to request the document from Belarus under an international agreement.
Instead of following the registry office's recommendation, we called the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus and asked for its assistance in obtaining the document from Belarus, explaining that our client was a Ukrainian citizen who had been born in Belarus. The embassy staff were very courteous and agreed to help. After preparing the necessary documents, we submitted them to the Belarusian embassy. A few days later, Victoria was invited to a personal appointment at the embassy to confirm her identity.
Two months later, we obtained the document we needed. The process took so long because the embassy sends documents by diplomatic mail, which is dispatched only once a month.
The first stage of the first phase in this long farewell to Ukrainian citizenship is now complete: Victoria has submitted all her documents to the Ukrainian consular office. They will now be forwarded to Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs by diplomatic mail, and will then go through various checks to confirm that our client owes nothing to anyone and can continue living in Germany — now with Ukraine's consent. Once that consent is obtained, Victoria must surrender her internal passport in Ukraine (!) and obtain a certificate confirming that she has been deregistered there. Only then will she be able to file the actual application to renounce her Ukrainian citizenship.
Our ongoing task now is not only to support our client emotionally, but also to stay in touch with the authorities in Ukraine, so we know what stage her documents are at and whether their representatives have raised any additional questions.
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