German Citizenship

[vdbfamily]

My DH is half German and had a German passport which expired in 1989.
My DD wants a German passport but it is hard to work out if she qualifies. It says she does if her father was German at time of her birth. He was half German with expired passport.
Does anyone know how it works and I am right in thinking that it may now be possible to have dual citizenship which Germany used not to allow?

It's not necessarily straightforward: a good place to start is the information provided by the German embassy: uk.diplo.de/uk-en/02/citizenship/non-acquisition-german-nationality-children-born-abroad/2591634

DH and the DC have dual German/British citizenship.
DH was originally German but mil gave his citizenship up at 10 when she moved to England. He would not have been allowed to get it back but as he was under 18 at the time there was a loophole that said it was given up on his behalf so he could. He had to provide quite a bit of paperwork relating to his deceased father that luckily mil had kept.
Once he had citizenship we could apply for our DC, we actually hadn’t considered this to be a possibility but when we went to the consulate to get his a very helpful lady there suggested it.
Again, it wasn’t difficult or expensive
One thing to bear in mind though, Germany only allows dual nationality with another EU nation so it’s not possible to get dual British/German post Brexit

How do you' give up' citizenship? Is it by getting a UK passport

To be honest I’m not sure as his Mum did it around 40 years ago so it’s probably very different now

Was your DH born in Germany? The answer will impact your DD.

No DH born in London. He lived in Germany for a few years later on as a child.

Not sure it makes a difference but his mum was also a German citizen when he was born.

We were almost in the exact same position. Our situation was:

DH was born in Germany to a German father and British mother. He had a German Kinderpass (children's passport) when he lived in Germany. He then moved to the UK as a young child and only ever held British passports from then onwards.

We married (I am non-German) and had DD. We all only held British passports until Brexit came along.

We were able to apply for German passports for both DH and DD. In DH's case despite the fact that he hadn't held a German passport for at least 25 years, he was still considered a German citizen by the German government as he had never formally renounced his citizenship. He holds his British citizenship from birth rather than naturalisation due to his mother's nationality, so his British citizenship didn't affect his German citizenship.

Because he was legally still considered a German citizen (albeit not a passport holder) at the time of DD's birth AND crucially because DH was born in Germany, we were also able to apply for a German passport for DD (DD was born in the UK). If DH wasn't born in Germany this would not have been possible (DH would still have been able to apply for his own German passport, but DD would not have been eligible). If DD has children she will not be able to automatically pass her German citizenship onto her children unless she either gives birth in Germany or if she registers the child's birth with the German embassy before they are 1 year old.

To note that Germany recognises dual (and triple etc) nationality if it is granted by birth (in our case both DH and DD have both British and Germany citizenship and it isn't a problem) but Germany only allows dual citizenship by naturalisation if the other country is an EU state or if certain conditions are met prior to the acquisition of the second nationality.

I would contact the Germany embassy for advice, but I think that this may mean that although he can himself apply for a German passport, your DD won't be able to (unless she was born in Germany herself).

I agree you need to speak to the German embassy. As he wasn't born in Germany I'm not sure if your daughter can get citizenship.

If it turns out that she can, then just so you know for future reference - when your daughter has children in the future, if they are not born in Germany then she needs to register their birth with the German embassy before they turn 1, otherwise they won't have German citizenship. This legislation was brought in place impacting those with germany citizenship born outside of Germany from the year 2000 onwards.

Don't know about the first part. Addressing the second part: yes, the law is changing and citizens of non-EU countries likely will be able to have dual German-other country nationality soon. This will quite likely be made legal in the next 12 months. There are also certain other technical points relating to living in Germany as a child (For example, i think if you lived there for 5 years as a minor you are entitled to citizenship regardless of parental nationalities). Another question is whether any of you speak halfway decent German....good luck applying for a German passport without that.

DH fluent and DD predicted A* in A level and planning to study at degree level.
DH only lived in Germany for 2 years of schooling.
Older DD speaks good German and has lived in Berlin as an au pair. She would also be interested in passport as would like to live there in future.
Maybe we will visit the embassy.

In my experience, he will be able to but I do not believe that you daughter will be as he was not born there.

There are some constitutional exceptions, such as descendants of those who lost citizenship under the Nazis.

@TheWhalrus that is not correct for those who hold German citizenship by birth rather than naturalisation. My DD was 3.5 when she got her first German passport, she has never lived in Germany and at the time she got her passport she didn't speak a single word of German! Even now, my German is better than hers but I'm not eligible for a passport! Yes, if you're applying for German citizenship by naturalisation you need to have lived there for a minimum time period and have achieved a certain competence in German, but those conditions do not apply to those people who hold German citizenship by birth.

@BlackLambAndGreyFalcon I wasn't saying you can't have a German passport without speaking German, there are numerous examples of that, including the one you describe...i'm saying filling out the forms would be horrible. I speak intermediate German and have lived here for 6 years and I still struggle with most of these.

At the UK embassy thankfully the passport forms are in both languages!

FYI if your DD is eligible for a passport (assuming that she is under 18) you'll need to plan for a family trip to the embassy as both parents (unless you organise for an affidavit in advance) and the child need to attend the passport application appointment in person.

One DD is an adult and one child. Will all go as my German is Duolingo basic level😂

The passport application form is in German and English and at least at the Edinburgh consulate they happily speak English with the applicants and their non-German speaking parent (dp in my children's case).

I purposely speak English in the consulate as a) The staff speak far better English than I do German and b) (quite understandly according to their nationality laws) I'm not eligible for a German passport myself and indeed, as an non-German national, the only reason I'm allowed into the consulate is because they require my signature in person for DDs passport application.

The lady who sorted out everything for us at the consulate was English but had lived in Germany previously for many years so language was no issue - although DH speaks good German and mil helped with the forms too

I think she'll be eligible. I am half German, born in the UK but only hold a German passport.
So DC British through father and German through me and can hold British and German passports.