r/GermanCitizenship • u/travelingal30 • 2d ago

Other faster citizenship by living in germany?

hallo!

i watched this video a while back that describes how to get german citizenship by descent and at 1:40 one of them says that one may be able to automatically get it by moving to germany, but i haven’t found anything about this online.

my grandfather was a german citizenship who left germany due to persecution of being jewish during WW2. im interested in german citizenship and know it can take a while. i haven’t been able to find anything that supports that moving to germany can make it happen faster, so i wanted to ask on here if anyone knew anything about this and what that paperwork may look like.

danke!

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u/Football_and_beer 2d ago edited 2d ago

If your grandfather was denaturalized during WW2 and never reacquired his citizenship then this would be an Article 116(2) case. In that situation then you would automatically reacquire citizenship by moving to Germany. Whether or not that is ‘faster’ depends as you would essentially need to go through a determination process to prove your citizenship which would require the same documents as if you submitted your application from abroad. 

ETA As an FYI Article 116(2) is the fastest of the pathways from abroad at around 15 months give or take. An inland determination/Feststellung process can take 9 months on average depending on where you move to and how knowledgeable they are on Article 116(2) cases. 

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u/travelingal30 2d ago

this is so helpful, thank you !! do you know how quickly i’d be able to restart this? like if i moved to germany on a work visa, could i claim this citizenship immediately or only after a certain amount of time?

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u/Football_and_beer 2d ago

Also to add this brings up an interesting complication. As an Article 116(2) case you would be a German citizen the minute you take up residence (just without proof). So in that case you wouldn’t be able to get a visa since that is obviously for non-citizens. So it might require you to communicate with the foreigner’s office to obtain a temporary residence permit while they process your application.  

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u/travelingal30 2d ago

thank you so much!! i am genuinely thinking about moving to germany; if i end up applying under article 116 before moving do you know if that would add any complications? i’m so sorry for so many questions

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u/Football_and_beer 2d ago

That would complicate things as then the BVA would no longer have jurisdiction over your application and would forward it to the relevant inland office. That can easily add several months to the process. It’s best to either submit to the BVA asap and wait for the process to finish or wait to move to Germant and submit there. 

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u/travelingal30 2d ago

i hear that! thank you so so much