German citizenship is the cherished goal of many of our compatriots. How to get it? Is it possible to remain a subject of Russia at the same time in order to be able to return to your homeland at any time?
The following categories of applicants can receive official German citizenship and a corresponding passport:
- Ethnic Germans who moved to another country at one or another historical moment.
- Jews, as compensation for the genocide during the Second World War.
- People who lost German citizenship from 1933 to 1945.
- Emigrants who legally resided in the country for more than 7 years and have a residence permit.
With the first three categories, everything is clear. But you can obtain German citizenship in the last way, if initially everything was correctly registered and the applicant is legally in the country. That is, he has a marriage with a citizen of the country, or a company is registered, a business with a large tax burden is being conducted , or he is studying at a university with a subsequent one-year employment contract.
So there are options. The only condition that is mandatory for all categories of applicants is a renunciation of previous citizenship. Officially, dual citizenship in Germany cannot be obtained. First you need to abandon the one that is, and only then you can get the coveted passport. If a German citizen insistently wants to obtain citizenship of another country, then he will also first have to give up his current status.
Already at the stage of applying, you need to "get out" of all citizenships and provide an official certificate confirming this. Declarative evidence is not valid. The competent authorities want to see only paper with stamps and signatures, documenting that you are not a subject of another state.
But there are exceptions to this strict law. Germany allows dual citizenship to persons who cannot renounce their former status without risking their lives due to political or other type of persecution (this applies, for example, to political refugees).
The second option that the law allows is the acquisition of a second citizenship without the active participation and expression of the will of a German citizen, i.e. he received it on any automatic basis (for example, through marriage). Then you can legally have passports of two countries. Against this, the state has no objections.
But the convenience of movement, tax savings or other reasons are not considered sufficient grounds that allow you to maintain Russian citizenship.
If all the preceding conditions are met, then the applicant is called to pass the test. German citizenship can be obtained if you have a good knowledge of the German language, own sufficient income and do not have a criminal record. The test itself consists of 33 questions on the history and socio-political structure of the country, 17 of them (minimum) must be answered correctly.
It should be noted that most of the positive decisions on German citizenship came from Turkey, followed by representatives of Montenegro, Serbia and Poland. The top five countries also include Russia and Ukraine.