German passport?

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Fenris Troll Ripper JPA RT ATL Â®

I am pretty sure you have to have German Citizenship to have a German passport no matter how long you live there. You are either born a citizen or you will have to apply for it and give up your current one. You cannot have two passports unless you have dual nationality which is uncommon.

So you have to give up your current when you apply and receive the other IF they accept your application. First you have to prove why they should allow you to become a German citizen!!

You may have to live as most do in the USA with visas and permits!

t_maia2000

As a foreigner living in Germany you can apply for German citizenship after 8 years of legal residency, holding an Aufenthaltserlaubnis or a Niederlassungserlaubnis. Times of stay on a student residency permit are not counted towards these 8 years.

You can get German citizenship faster if you are married to a German citizen and you are both living in Germany as a couple. I think the time was 5 years for this, but I am not sure.

EDIT: If you don't know whether you are a German citizen, ask at the German embassy or consulate closest to you. They will be able to help you. This is also the place where you should apply for a German passport if you are a German citizen. German citizens living abroad are by German law required to hold a valid German passport.

http://www.ottawa.diplo.de/Vertretung/ottawa/en/04/passports__citizenship/ub__pass__citizen.html

Another thing: Check whether you hold Croatian citizenship or any of the other citizenships of the Former Yugoslavian Republics. Quite a few people found that they were "gifted" with Bosnian citizenship after Yugoslavia split up.

Binie

How do I obtain German citizenship ?

- by birth to a German parent
Laws regarding citizenship have been changed several times over the last decades. Whether or not a person has acquired German citizenship may therefore depend on the person's date of birth:

If you were born before January 1, 1975:

- If your parents were married at the time of your birth you acquired German citizenship if your father was German; you did not acquire German citizenship if only your mother was German (unless you would otherwise have been stateless).
- If your parents were not married at the time of your birth you acquired German citizenship if your mother was German; you did not acquire German citizenship if only your father was German.

If you were born on or after January 1, 1975:

If your parents were married at the time of your birth you acquired German citizenship if at least one parent was German.
If your parents were not married at the time of your birth you acquired German citizenship if your mother was German; you did not acquire German citizenship if only your father was German. However: a person born out of wedlock on or after July 1, 1993 can acquire German citizenship if only the father is German and if the father acknowledges paternity.

-by birth in Germany
If you were born after December 31, 1999 to foreign parents in Germany.
One of the parents must have been a legal resident in Germany for at least eight years at the time of your birth.
In addition, at least one parent must have an unlimited residence permit ("unbefristete Aufenthaltserlaubnis") or a residence entitlement ("Aufenthaltsberechtigung") at the time of your birth
If you obtain another citizenship by birth, you have to give up one citizenship between ages 18 and 23.

Please note:
Most US military personnel are in Germany for a period considerably shorter than 8 years; they neither have residence permits nor entitlements because of bilateral agreements.
In most cases therefore children born to US military personnel do not have the right to German citizenship (unless they had a German parent at the time of their birth)

- by adoption
If you were adopted by at least one German citizen on or after January 1, 1977, you are a German citizen. If the adoption happened outside Germany, it has to meet certain requirements (please call the competent German Mission in the US for further information).

- by naturalization
Naturalizations of people with permanent residence outside Germany are rare. Applicants have to meet a host of requirements; you typically have to give up your present citizenship(s) in order to become a German citizen, fluency in the German language is another precondition - for more information, contact the competent German Mission in the US.

Mimarspre

Binie has given you a very good answer.

It seems that you do not have the German Nationality, I'll try to explain the reason:

as Binie has already said, before 1975 you could get the nationality per birth just from your father but not from your mother.

The law that regulates this is the so called "Reichs- und StaatsangehÃ¶rigkeitsgesetz" (Law on nationality of the German Reich of July 1913) .

As you already said , the german citizen was your grandmother and I assume that your mother was born before 1975, if this is the case I am afraid that your mother didn't get the german citizenship.

However if your grandmother was not married when your mother was born it could be another story, but that's something you have to check directly the the german Embassy.

The same applies to you. Let's say that your grandmother was not married when your mother was born and therefore perhaps she has the german citizenship. I said perhaps, because in those cases according to the law, the German citizenship can be adquired per "declaration", that means, your grandmother had to register your mother in the embassy as german and prove that she was not married, BUT according to this law, she had had to do it before Dec 31st 1974 or before your mother was 18, however there are exceptions, that's the reason why it would be worth asking the embassy.

Let's go back to you, let's say your mother is German. If you were born before 1975 you do not get the right to be German per birth, because you could get the citizenship only from your father. Only if your mother was single when you were born, you could get the citizenship (perhaps, see the reasons above).

Let's go to the second part: You were born in Germany: I am afraid this fact do not grant you the german citizenship. As I said before it is almost sure that your mother is not german, That means both of your parents are foreigners. In this case only when one of your parents were living for at least 8 years in Germany and had a permanent resident permit you are entitled to get the german citizenship. However if you got another citizenship per birth together with the german one, you must choose when you are 18 and as much when you are 23 if you want to be German or something else, if you are older than 23 and didn't do this, and you kept the other citizenship I am afraid you lost the german one as german Law recognizes a dou-citizenship just in very very very few cases. This part is ruled by section 29 of the German Nationality Law (Â§29 StaatsangehÃ¶rigkeitsgesetz)

Just to be sure that you have a good background about his information here you have a few links of official german web sites with law texts and information:

Official Web of the German Federal Ministry of Interior regarding Important questions and answers about the German nationality law

http://www.bmi.bund.de/cln_012/nn_148264/Internet/Content/Themen/Staatsangehoerigkeit/Einzelseiten/Wichtige__Fragen__und__Antworten__zum__deutschen__Staatsangehoerigkeitsrecht__en.html

Official Web of the German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the Nationality Law. On the right side you will find a link to the text of the Nationality Act in english:

http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/diplo/en/WillkommeninD/EinreiseUndAufenthalt/Staatsangehoerigkeitsrecht.html

The good old Wikipedia has also some information about this topic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_nationality_law

If you speak german, you will find the text of all laws (including the "Reichs- und StaatsangehÃ¶rigkeitsgesetz" and the reasons why you most probably are not german in the following link:

http://www.info4alien.de//

khiila tequila

well i was born in germany but moved to the U.S. when i was 5 but i still have a german passport.

Meenzer

Binie has identified the right choices on how to become a German citizen, it is not as easy as it is here in the US. However, children born to at least one German parent in the US are automatically German citizens at birth. That is great!

braingamer

German citizens do not need to live in Germany to get a passport, but you must be a citizen.

Also, you don't get a "German" passport anymore - they no longer exist per se . Europeans now get a red E.U. passport which requires fingerprinting. For further information check out the appropriate link.

If you live in Canada, check out: http://www.toronto.diplo.de/Vertretung/toronto/en/04/Passangelegenheiten/unterbereich__passangelegenheiten.html

If in the U.S., look here:
http://www.germany.info/relaunch/info/missions/consulates/atlanta/passport.htm

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