US citizen Barbara W. has been living in Germany for 60 years—and is still waiting for dual citizenship.
  • Waldelfe@feddit.orgEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    “—and is still waiting for dual citizenship”

    Aaand you can stop reading here.

    Dual citizenship isn’t a thing (anymore) in Germany. That is to say, you can only get it if you can prove, that it’s almost impossible to give up your original citizenship. That isn’t the case for US Americans.

    “Barbara W. does not want to have to choose. She wants German citizenship—without giving up her American one.”

    Yeah, well, but then she just can’t have German citizenship. Yes it sucks, yes it would be nice if dual citizenship was easier, but this is the law currently. Dual citizenship is the exception in Germany. If she wants German citizenship, she has to give up the American one.

    Besides, her reason is a bit weird. She wants to keep her American citizenship in memory of her father. I mean, for me citizenship is mostly bureaucracy and if you live in a country for years what good is it to also keep your old citizenship? Staying a citizen of a country you haven’t lived in for decades seems unnecessary.

    • Melchior@feddit.orgEnglish
      2·
      3 months ago

      That is wrong. Since June 2024 dual citizenship is allowed without any sort of permit.

      The issue here seems to be that Berlin is really slow anyway. At the same time there is a massive growth in naturalization in Germany in the last couple years. The biggest reason for that are the refugees Germany took in about a decade ago, which have lived long enough in Germany to be able to apply for citizenship now. They have nearly tripled compared to a decade earlier.

      So when you then get unlucky and the bureaucrats fuck up the application, you can get stuck for a long time.

    • stray@pawb.socialEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      Setting aside that Barbara is choosing to keep her US citizenship, renouncing it is actually very expensive. You have to travel to specific embassies, pay to have your US taxes current, and pay a fee over 2000USD which you do not get back if they deny you. You also need valid US identifying documents, which come with their own fees and travel costs. I’m not sure that trans people’s documents would be accepted any longer due to being “inaccurate”, but I don’t know the specifics to say for sure.