Getting German Dual Citizenship Through Descent! Why I Did It!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.ย. 2024
- Going through this process is not for the faint of heart, but it is SO worth it! So let me explain why I chose to go through this process and apply for my German dual citizenship through descent!
I chose to apply for German citizenship through ancestry because I have always wanted to move abroad, and found it very difficult to find a country that I could stay long term while doing my freelance work. I'm sure it would have been possible, but I kept hitting road blocks. Receiving an EU passport opens up so many possibilities and I'm so excited!
I also chose to do this for my family, for spiritual reasons, and to connect with my dad before he passed away.
Now I'm in the waiting process to see if it gets accepted - fingers crossed!!
Here are some helpful links for anyone wanting to go through this process:
• www.germany.in...
• www.germany.in...
• Move abroad bootcamp: escapeplanboot...
If you want to support me and the trajectory of this channel, you can donate directly to my move abroad fund!
Cash App: cash.app/$cour...
Follow my socials:
• / unefille.abroad
• / unefilleabroad
I wish you the best in your path to German citizenship! I am doing a similar process since my mother was a German citizen when I was born. I was born in Victoria, BC Canada and spoke German with my parents from birth and always assumed that both my parents were married as they told me. My parents unfortunately passed away when I was a kid but I retained a lot of their IDs including my mother's German passport. My father was German/Austrian descent but became Canadian before I was born. My mom was always a German citizen. I later became a US Citizen since I moved to the US and currently living in Madison, WI. I was planning on applying for the "Declaration of German Citizenship" so I sent away to get my parents death certificates from BC Vital Statistics (British Columbia, Canada). Once I received them, I then sent an application to get a record of their marriage documents. To my surprise, BC Vital Statistics contacted me to let me know that there are no records of their marriage. This means that I was born out of wedlock which also means that I was born a German citizen without knowing it from birth. As great as that sounds, there is one potential issue where I would normally have lost my German citizenship (unknowingly of course) when I became a US Citizen. Under German law, becoming a citizen of another country automatically makes you lose the German citizenship.
The German consulate gave me good news and stated that in my case, there is an exemption available since I was completely unaware of my German citizenship from birth. The consulate told me to include a letter explaining my situation. So I am really excited now as I want to experience living and working in Europe as well. I speak German since birth and I'm now also learning Dutch as I also love The Netherlands.
Wow that is SO interesting!!
I'm currently doing the same process and noticed the exact same thing. I got my documents from Germany much faster than my American ones. Thanks for posting your experience ❤
How's it going? When did you start and are you doing the process alone or are you getting professional/legal assistance help?
@@se2103 It's going well. I'm waiting for a few more documents, then I will submit my application. I'm doing the process myself and not using any help
@@emilycasey1781 if you're submitting to the BVA directly by mail then you can send them your application and the documents you have now and then send the rest of your documents once you get your Aktenzeichen (file number). Just reference this with the rest of the documents. This is highly recommended as they process applications first come first serve and they're getting swamped with applications right now. It used to take 6-8 months total, but now it's creeping up on the 2 year mark.
German here: A really heart warming story how this brought your father and you really close together. Do you speak German at least a little or are you planning to learn it? I know you want to use the EU passport to choose a country that makes it easy for freelancers and Germany might not be that country as it is famous for its bureaucracy so you might need a different language in the country you choose but i would think that there is some incentive to learn the language of your ancestors and that could be something to work on while you wait for the passport.
I would love to learn it! I grew up learning French so when I try to start learning German it's quite challenging because it's SO different. Do you live in Germany now? I'm curious if it's challenging to make friends there as a foreigner?
@@Unefilleabroad I watched a lot of expat videos and most say it is. But also that once you have a friend it is a friend for life. Small talk is not a thing so it is not that easy to get to know people. A good way is to join a club or association where you meet people that share the interest. Yes i live in Germany, i was born in the former GDR and moved to Cologne with my parents after the fall of the iron curtain.
If you learned French then France or Belgium might be interesting starting points in Europe for you. Close enough to Germany to come there for a visit. But i can't tell you about the conditions for freelancers in these countries. But on youtube you should be able to find a lot of reports from others who moved there. Same is true for Germany of course.
Good for you for doing this. I recently submitted for myself and my children. My father was born in Germany, he fled Germany with my Jewish Grandfather in July of 1939 after he was told he could no longer practice as a Dr due to laws forbidding Jews from doing business with non-jews. My father and grandfather eventually became naturalized US Citizens. It was not until my father was close to death in 2001 he decided to leave his children an autobiography of his life describing what he went through that many of us learned because he did not speak of it much. I learned that the laws changed in 2021 that opened up for us to gain German citizenship. It took us about 8 months to gather all the documents and I am told it can now take 2-3 years to go through.
It can take some time but it will all be so worth it!
So, my husband's of Italian decent and he's working on his citizenship there. My mother was German, and I just found this new program. I've looked into it in the past, the closest there was was a window in ... like ... 1975. Glad this is available now. We've been through the collecting documents thing with my husband. But, Italian citizenship literally takes most of a decade, it seems. I just need to find the damn Declaration! Glad you're almost done, and that it was very quick.
I’m starting the process now. I echo your sentiments about the research connecting you to your family. It’s been extremely rewarding to dig into our history.
Good for you Courtney! Germany is repatriating thousands of Ethnic Germans today; ensure you are receiving all possible assistance when you arrive and ask about housing resettlement benefits (Request a specific region otherwise they just put you in random big cities)
Do you have a link with info on this or recommendations of what to search for
@@hubu8298 go to the subreddit: GermanCitizenship. Lots of information and helpful people there!
Great video. Very similar situation as you. My German grandmother married my US grandfather in Germany. They moved to the US and had two sons (my Dad and my Uncle). She then naturalized after they were born. Tragically, my grandfather passed away shortly after. My grandmother was so distraught that she threw all of their documents away and never wanted to talk about it.
She later remarried to a wonderful man that I always knew as my grandfather. My dad passed away about 15 years ago, and my grandmother passed away a few years after that.
So when I found out I was eligible for StAG 5 several months ago, I had absolutely nothing. No passports, birth certs etc. In fact, my family didn’t even know if my grandmother was married in Germany or the US!
It’s been a crazy journey, and along the way I’ve discovered so much about my family. Finally last week I obtained the last of the required documents (my great grandparents birth certificates) and submitted my application (and also for my brother and niece) to the German consulate.
It took me about 3.5 months of work to obtain everything. It would’ve been even longer, but fortunately the state of Colorado had my grandmother’s naturalization certificate in their archives. We’re all so excited!
Just a heads up, StAG 5 cases are taking 12-24 months to process once they are received, so you likely wont have a passport for another 12-24 months or so.
It's been about 8 months, so I'm hopeful for another year! I'll keep everyone on here updated 😊
I was going to do the same thing, collected as much as I could, had certain papers translated, etc, met with the Counsulate, needed a couple of things, then came the invasion of refugees, stopping my application. I had intended to restart the process, then it was Covid's turn. I then decided to apply for Austrian citizenship, though it would have taken 10 months for a first Interview, which I got a date for.
A short time later, I moved to another part of the country, reapplied there, got an appointment within two weeks, afterwards completed the language requirements, as well as country history, politics, and cultural aspects, which finally resulted in being granted citizenship, after being in a three month stateless situation waiting on the US for completion of relinquishing my citizenship there. Nonetheless, I'm happy I've made the change. It would have been great to have dual German citizenship, as my great grandfather was from Germany and had known him personally for 15 years. Good luck to those trying. LG aus Kärnten.
I, too, want to find out if I am eligible and start the application process. I think I already have the documents.
I look forward to your next video!
Collecting multiple citizenships is the new trend.
what makes you say that
@@Unefilleabroad isn't IT?
@@Daguerreotypiste I don’t think collecting citizenships is a trend. Maybe for wealthy people it is, but the average person is just trying to reinstate rightful citizenship
I’m doing the same process. My grandma is from Germany. The hardest documents to get have been the ones from New York. I swear it’s the most incompetent state. I ordered my parent’s marriage certificate at the end of November and I won’t have it until July….. insane. Already sent in my citizenship application and will send the marriage certificate in reference to my original application once I have it. It’s a long process and dealing with New York makes it even harder! Can’t wait to be done lol. The subreddit GermanCitizenship is a great place for people to get started!
It's so annoying! Why is NY so freaking slow 🤣
For me getting all the birth and marriage certificates was easy, but I live in Pennsylvania. Interesting NY is such an issue for that.
Took me 8 months and a lawyer to get documents from NY
FYI if you need birth or marriage certificates from NY you will have to get a court order if the documents are not yours ie parents,grandparents etc.
@@balticninja1606 yes, thankfully my parents helped me get their birth and marriage certificates. My grandma’s documents I got abroad with no problem. NY is crazy.
Congrats on your German citizenship. I applied for my German citizenship back in July 2022 but unfortunately I have not been awarded it yet. I complained to my sister in Germany about 5 weeks ago and her husband is familiar with a little known law that anyone can sue any part of the German government for lack of action. That means if you have any application submitted to any branch of the German government, they have 12 months to take action. My brother in law wrote up a letter for me stating by a certain date if no action is taken, I will sue. I emailed the letter on a Tuesday afternoon and they received the email on Wednesday morning. On Friday morning, I received an email from the German Embassy requesting a cleaner copy of my birth certificate and a document translated to English. On 8 Aug I hand delivered my documents to the German Embassy. So my question for you, hiw long did it take when you submitted your application and a word back you were awarded Herman citizenship?
how long did it take to find out you got accepted? i submitted my application and documents and im curious how long it took to get an answer.
I'm still waiting! Probably another year until it's all finished and I have a passport in hand
Please post the video about the process!!
It'll be up within the next week! 😊
Things that opportunity was intended for: People who have a specific interest in becoming a German citizen because they have a connection to Germany
Things it wasn't intended for: "Wow, like, I can, like, travel so much now, like, I have, uh, like, so many optionnnnnnnnnnnzuh"
There are so many people who leech off of this offer as some sort of low-bureaucracy vacation pass. Shame on you.
@@DeReAntiqua You clearly didn’t watch the entire video
@@Unefilleabroad maybe you should be more excited about getting German CITIZENSHIP vs. just a passport? I'm going through the same process for me and my 2 daughters. My German mother is smiling down from heaven. She was a German in her heart until the day she died. She married an American GI in the 60's and never got over leaving her homeland. I hired a German law firm to help us. We are almost ready to submit!
Yeah, I tried to see if I can get German citizenship. I was told I couldn't. My dad and his family all came from Germany. He was a teenager during WW II. He had a lot of trauma. After the war he moved to Canada. He had to give up his German citizenship. I was born in the 1960s. My dad has since died. But when I heard this I thought I would try to get citizenship. But, I was told I could apply because my dad was not a citizen at the time of my birth. But, I thought that was not right, because he was required to relinquish his citizenship when he moved. Did they since change something? By the way, my mother was Russian, who was taken from her home during the war and relocated to Germany. She also because a refuge and could not return back to Russia because Stalin was putting all Russians who "left" Russia during the war in prison. I spent a lot of my childhood hearing about the war. My parents had severe trauma from their experience. I am glad you were able to get your citizenship, and I appreciate that you are trying to help others.
N,o the process is different for german men than german women, and the qualifications are pretty specific. If he naturalized I don't think he would be qualified. There may be other routes to explore though!
What does "my mother was taken from her home" mean? Did she belong to the "Ostarbeiter"? (Civilian workers deported to Germany to work in factories, effectively forced laborers)
Or was she of German descent? Then German citizenship might have even benn forced on her.
@@thiloreichelt4199 well, this is interesting. I never heard about this term "Ostarbeiter". So I just check this out and it sounds like my mother. She was Russian, for sure. She said that they were advertising for Russians to go to work in the Ukraine (she said her town was occupied and people were starving, there was no money, etc). So she went. Went she got to Germany she said there were lines to go to different places. She said that she worked as a domestic servant. She never really went beyond that, so I don't know anything beyond that. But, thank you for this. I can at least do more research into her past.
@@tamaragrottker7677 "Ostarbeiter" was the official term used during the Nazi regime. At first, they were promised work in Germany. As the war progressed, they were simply taken by force and shipped to Germany, where they lived like prisoners. Conditions for domestic servants depended strongly the houshold they worked in.
Unfortunately for you, her status makes it clear that she was never considered German.
@@thiloreichelt4199 thank you so much for this information. As both my parents have died many years ago, this information is great to fill in missing pieces of their history!
Welcome in the homeland Germany
Sadly my BOyfriends German part of the family mooved over before that horrible time period
so he doesnt has an easy way sadly at least i think so
I say this couse he also has french and i think irish blood im not so shure when they came over
It’s not sexist. It just immigration law. The Germans didn’t decide to spite women by having a st or laws.
Yeah most countries had laws like that at some point including US. I remember reading about this a while ago and i think US was amongst the last western nations to get rid of such law
No matter what you say it is sexist.
@@vladislavovich100 LOL
Excellent logic
On the official website, it uses the word sexiest. It's not my opinion, it's what they state
@@Unefilleabroad lol, interesting typo
Good Luck for your way, maybe you can try later then find Contact to your geman part of your family
I would love that, I know there must be so many family members there!
Very beautiful Girl
Welcome to the family. 🫠
I've applied for German blood citizenship for myself and my children based on my grandfather having gone to the US in 1925 and not becoming a US citizen and denouncing his German citizenship until 1935, 6 years after my father was born. Biggest hurdles have been dealing with the USCIS genealogical department to get his records and the German court system. Getting records took almost 2 years because of COVID short staffing and their bizarre system that I had applied to find my grandfather's records then apply again to actually get the records. But what they sent me was fascinating, with not just his application for US citizenship, but also his German Birth certificate, a letter of support from someone already in the US for him to immigrate here and other papers that were interesting to read almost 100 years later. Getting all the documents was worth the frustration.
As to the German courts, the reports of German bureaucracy are actual worse in real life. I'm working through a German law firm to do this and even they can not get even a response that the case is being worked on and where in the queue things are. It's like a black hole. Based on their experience the attorney said it could take to the end of this year that I will hear that the court actually has all my documents and the case is being worked on. But then it should just be a short time until I receive the decision after that. Like you I really want an EU passport for traveling, but my daughter lives in Germany and this would make her life easier. She could have applied for naturalization this year but prior to this year that would have meant giving up her US citizenship and I was already planning to apply for citizenship myself. It has certainly been an experience. Now to see if we actually get this approved.