German Citizenship by Naturalization: Residence, Language, and Test

German citizenship by naturalization is now available after five years of lawful residence in Germany, and since June 27, 2024, you can keep your original passport when you become German. You still need to support yourself, prove B1-level German, pass a naturalization test, keep a clean criminal record, and sign declarations committing to Germany’s constitutional order and its historical responsibility for the Nazi regime. The requirements below reflect the law as it stands today.

Five Years of Lawful Residence

You must have been lawfully and ordinarily resident in Germany for at least five continuous years before you apply. This is set out in Section 10 of the Nationality Act (Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz, or StAG).¹ “Ordinarily resident” means Germany is your primary home. Extended absences risk invalidating your residence permit, and a general residence permit expires automatically if you leave Germany for more than six months.

The five years must be backed by proper legal status the whole way through. A permanent settlement permit, an EU Blue Card, or another qualifying residence title works. Certain temporary permits do not count, including those issued for study, asylum-seeker distribution, or temporary humanitarian protection.² If you’re not sure your permit qualifies, ask your local citizenship authority (Einbürgerungsbehörde) before you start the paperwork.

The old eight-year rule is gone. A three-year fast-track for exceptional integration was introduced with the 2024 reform but has since been rescinded, so five years is the standard applying to everyone.³

Keeping Your Original Citizenship

You no longer have to give up your existing passport to become German. Under the old law, non-EU and non-Swiss applicants generally had to renounce their original citizenship as a condition of naturalization. That requirement was eliminated in 2024. Every applicant can now hold multiple citizenships regardless of country of origin.⁴

Whether your country of origin allows you to hold German citizenship alongside its own is a separate question governed by that country’s laws. Germany itself no longer stands in the way.⁵

Supporting Yourself Without Welfare

You must be able to support yourself and your dependents without drawing on welfare benefits such as Bürgergeld (the citizen’s benefit that replaced Hartz IV) or Sozialhilfe (social assistance). The authority checks that you’re contributing to the social system rather than relying on it.² Proof usually takes the form of recent pay stubs, an employment contract, or tax assessment notices if you’re self-employed.

Three groups are exempt from the self-sufficiency requirement:

Former guest workers and contract workers who entered West Germany by June 30, 1974, or East Germany by June 13, 1990, under recruitment agreements, and spouses who arrived shortly after, if their reliance on benefits results from circumstances beyond their control.²
Applicants who have worked full-time for at least 20 of the past 24 months.
Spouses or registered partners of someone in the 20-month group, provided you live together with a minor child as a family.

Criminal Record Limits

A clean record is required, but Section 12a of the Nationality Act sets thresholds below which convictions are ignored:

Any educational or correctional measures imposed under the Juvenile Courts Act are disregarded entirely.
Fines of up to 90 daily rates don’t count.
Prison sentences of up to three months that were suspended on probation and later remitted also don’t count.

Anything above those thresholds will likely block your application. One category has no threshold at all: convictions motivated by racism, antisemitism, or other hatred cause automatic disqualification regardless of the sentence.⁶ Authorities check the federal central register during processing, so old convictions that haven’t been expunged will surface.

German Language at B1

You need to prove German at the B1 level of the Common European Framework. B1 means you can handle most everyday situations independently: following conversations, writing emails, understanding official letters. A recognized certificate does the job, typically from the integration course final exam (DTZ) or a standalone test.¹

Several groups face a lower bar or none at all:

Guest workers (Gastarbeiter) and contract workers (Vertragsarbeitnehmer) who arrived under the recruitment programs only need to show they can communicate about everyday matters orally in German. No written test is required, and they skip the naturalization test.⁴
Applicants aged 60 or over with 12 years of legal residence need only A1 (basic beginner).
Applicants aged 65 and over may qualify for additional simplifications with documented age-related difficulties.
People with a documented physical, mental, or emotional condition that prevents them from meeting the requirements can be fully exempted with medical evidence.

The Naturalization Test

Alongside the language proof, you take the naturalization test (Einbürgerungstest), which covers Germany’s legal system, democratic institutions, history, and society. The test sheet has 33 multiple-choice questions: 30 general questions and 3 tied to the federal state where you’re registered. Each has four options, you have 60 minutes, and 17 correct answers is a pass.⁷

The fee is €25, and you register through a test center approved by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF); your local Einbürgerungsbehörde can point you to the nearest one.⁷ The full question pool is 310 questions (300 general and 10 per state), all publicly available for study. Preparation genuinely pays off here because the questions come from that fixed pool.

The same exemptions listed under language apply: guest workers, applicants over 60 with 12 years of residence, those over 65 with documented age-related difficulties, and people with qualifying disabilities are all excused.

Loyalty and Historical Responsibility Declarations

Every applicant aged 16 or older signs a loyalty declaration (Loyalitätserklärung) committing to Germany’s free democratic constitutional order under the Basic Law (Grundgesetz). You must also state that you have not pursued or supported activities aimed at undermining that order, and that you will not do so in the future.⁶

The 2024 reform added a second declaration. You must explicitly acknowledge Germany’s special historical responsibility for the National Socialist regime and its consequences, particularly the protection of Jewish life, along with a commitment to peaceful coexistence among peoples and the prohibition on wars of aggression.² Acts or statements driven by antisemitism, racism, or contempt for human dignity are treated as incompatible with the Basic Law’s guarantee of human dignity. If such conduct appears in your past, naturalization is only possible if you credibly distance yourself from it.⁴

Documents to Gather

Missing or expired paperwork is the most common reason applications stall. Prepare the following before your appointment:

A valid passport or national identity document, current at the time you apply.
Your birth certificate, usually with a certified German translation by a sworn translator.
Proof of income: recent pay stubs, an employment contract, or a tax assessment notice (Steuerbescheid) if you’re self-employed.
A residence certificate (Meldebescheinigung) confirming your registered address and length of stay.
Your B1 language certificate from a recognized provider such as the integration course final exam or Goethe-Institut.
The certificate showing you passed the naturalization test.
Proof of your current residence title: settlement permit, EU Blue Card, or other qualifying document.

The application form itself comes from your local Einbürgerungsbehörde. Some districts publish downloadable forms, others hand them out in person. You fill in your personal history, family details, and residence timeline using data from the certificates above.

Where to Apply, Fees, and How Long It Takes

You submit the completed application to the Einbürgerungsbehörde in your district. Most offices require an in-person appointment to verify originals, though some municipalities have started offering limited online submission. The fee is €255 per adult and €51 for minor children applying alongside a parent.²

Processing times vary enormously by location. Some cities close cases in under six months; others take well over a year. Recent data puts Hamburg among the fastest at roughly four to eight months, while Cologne has seen waits stretch to two years. Berlin, Munich, and Frankfurt fall somewhere in between. The surge in applications after the 2024 reform has added pressure across the system, so expect longer waits than historical averages.

Once your application is approved, you’ll be invited in for the final steps. Before the certificate is issued, you sign the loyalty declaration and the historical responsibility declaration in writing. The naturalization certificate (Einbürgerungsurkunde) is handed over in person, sometimes at a formal ceremony. You become a German citizen the moment you receive it.

How Citizenship Can Be Lost Later

Naturalization is not automatically permanent. A few situations trigger loss:

Voluntary service in the armed forces of another country whose citizenship you hold causes automatic loss unless you got prior consent from the Federal Ministry of Defence. Blanket consent covers EU, EFTA, and NATO member states and certain other countries, but only for service that began on or after July 6, 2011.⁸
Voluntary renunciation by formal declaration, provided you hold at least one other citizenship.
Adoption by a foreign national where you become no longer legally related to your German parent and the adoption automatically grants you the adoptive parent’s citizenship.⁸

One change worth noting: voluntarily acquiring a foreign citizenship no longer causes automatic loss of German nationality. Before June 27, 2024, a German citizen who took on another country’s citizenship without a retention permit (Beibehaltungsgenehmigung) lost their German status automatically. That risk is gone under the new law. The reform is not retroactive, though. If you lost German citizenship before June 27, 2024, by acquiring another nationality, that loss still stands.⁵

1
Federal Foreign Office. Law on Nationality
2
Nationality Act. Nationality Act – Section 10
3
Federal Government. New Rules for Naturalisation
4
Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community. New Law on Nationality Takes Effect
5
German Missions in the United States. Germany’s Nationality Law – Significant Changes
6
The Federal Government Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration. My Path to a German Passport – Key Facts on Naturalisation
7
Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. Naturalisation in Germany
8
German Missions in the United States. Loss of German Citizenship