The German government has presented its new citizenship law this Wednesday (23.08.2023). The legislation proposed by Interior Minister Nancy Faeser will make dual citizenship easier as well as naturalization for non-EU citizens.<
The new citizenship plans boil down to these changes:
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Immigrants legally living in Germany will be allowed to apply for citizenship after five years, rather than the current eight; and if they have special achievements this can go down to only three years
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Children born in Germany of at least one parent who has been living legally in the country for five or more years will automatically get German citizenship;
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Immigrants above the age of 67 will be able to do an oral instead of a written German language test
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Multiple citizenships will be allowed
People living entirely on state support will not be eligible for German citizenship. German citizenship will be denied to people who have committed antisemitic, racist, xenophobic or other defamatory offenses that are seen to be “unreconcilable with commitment to the free democratic basic order.”
The new legislation will be debated in parliament and could come into effect in the fall.<
Yay, once that’s through, my wife can go and apply to the … South African government, because they require you to apply there before applying anywhere else, and expect a waiting time of one year before they almost always grant it anyway … But if you get dual citizenship without permission, you instantly lose your SA citizenship. And if you ask for permission after having applied and they find out, they will deny it.
And then she can apply in Germany ;)
whats the benefit of keeping the SA one?
She doesn’t want to give up her citizenship. Her whole family is in SA, if we ever divorced, she’d return.
thats wild, I would have assumed she would have a better live in germany than SA, even if you divorce. Seems like family is the big motivator here.
Eh, SA isn’t that bad, and it’s culturally different enough. She’s only lived here for 5 years, and she wasn’t desperate to come here.
I guess every reason is good enough, I was just wondering and curious. thanks for answering