The law on easier acquisition of citizenship was adopted in the Federal Republic of Germany

On Friday, the German parliament, the Bundestag, adopted a draft law on the modernization of the right to obtain German citizenship. The majority of deputies voted in favor of easier obtaining a German passport – 382 votes “for”, 234 “against”.

The main innovation was the permission to have the citizenship of other countries upon obtaining the German one. Now foreigners will not need to give up their old passport.

The terms for the possibility of obtaining citizenship while staying in the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany have also been shortened. Now you can become a German citizen after five years instead of eight. With special achievements in integration into German society, citizenship can be granted after three years of permanent residence in Germany. Such “achievements” mean good knowledge of the German language, voluntary civic activity, or extraordinary success in school and professional activities.

Applicants for citizenship must successfully pass language and geography tests, as well as prove integration into the civil society of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Children of parents with foreign passports, born in Germany, will also now be able to automatically obtain German citizenship after five years instead of eight. At the same time, the obligation to choose between the citizenship of the parents and the citizenship of the Federal Republic of Germany is abolished.

The conditions for granting citizenship are also called the recognition of a free democratic state system in accordance with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany. An applicant for citizenship must confirm that he rejects anti-Semitic, racist and other illegal actions aimed at humiliating human dignity. The agencies granting citizenship will receive information from the prosecutors’ offices about the applicants committing such crimes.

Obtaining citizenship is also excluded in case of polygamy or if the applicant shows by his behavior that he denies the constitutionally enshrined equal rights of men and women. When checking security, the powers of state bodies are extended.

Citizenship will be granted only to those persons who earn a living independently, supporting their family members as well, and do not receive social assistance or unemployment benefits.

Exceptions are allowed for those who have worked full-time for at least 20 months in the last two years, and for those who live in the same family with a full-time employee and one child. Economic requirements will not be presented also in relation to the so-called guest workers and contract workers who entered the FRG before 1974 or the GDR before 1990. They will also not have to pass a citizenship test and can limit themselves to proof of oral German.

Citizenship can be revoked again within ten years if it was obtained by fraud or providing false data.

It is expected that the new rules will enter into force in April. Currently, 12 million people with foreign citizenship live in Germany, of which about 5.3 million have lived in the country for at least ten years. However, some of them already have dual citizenship, as it is permissible for persons from the EU countries and Switzerland, and it was also not canceled when accepting late immigrants and Jews from the CIS countries.

MPs from the factions of the SPD, the “Union of the 90s/Greens” and the SPDP (the party of the coalition government), as well as many politicians from the opposition CDU/CSU bloc, voted for the adoption of the law. The “Alternatives for Germany” faction abstained from voting. The statement of the CDU/CSU faction demanding to abandon the modernization of the law on citizenship was rejected.