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The Provisions of the New Citizenship Law (August 1999)

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Multiple Citizenship

As a rule, the foreign citizenship must be renounced. Exceptions apply, as in the past, if this is impossible or associated with considerable hardship. New or more extensive exceptions apply, among others:

– For elderly persons, if efforts to be released from the foreign citizenship meet with unreasonable hardship,
– For recognized refugees,
– If conditions for the release from the foreign citizenship are unreasonable (e.g., excessive fees or demeaning procedures) and
– If it is connected with considerable disadvantages, particularly if they are economic or proprietary in nature.

The same exceptions apply for regular claims to naturalization made by the spouses of Germans.



Source of original German text: “Staatsangehörigkeitsrecht” [“Citizenship Law”], brochure by the Federal Commissioner for Foreigner Affairs, Federal Ministry of the Interior, Press and Information Office of the Federal Government, August 1999.

The English translation was provided by Inter Nationes; it was edited by Allison Brown and the GHI staff.

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