Germany Plans to Simplify Citizenship Procedures

The German government is preparing a legal reform to simplify the procedures for obtaining German citizenship, an Interior Ministry spokesman announced Friday.

The spokesman said it should be possible to obtain citizenship after five years of living in Germany, compared to eight years now. If the foreigner is well integrated, according to his performance in school or at work, then the period can be reduced to three years.

The spokesman added that it would be necessary to facilitate the naturalization of the parents of the generation of migrant workers who arrived in Germany in the 1970s, because "their integration has not been encouraged for many years."

On the other hand, the possibilities of obtaining German citizenship in addition to other citizenships will be expanded to include more countries. Currently, many foreigners do not apply for German citizenship because they are forced to renounce their original citizenship.

The Ministry of Interior will soon present its project to other ministries, the spokesperson noted. Once all the details are settled, the project will be approved by the Council of Ministers.

Since its formation at the end of November 2021, the government of the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, who runs the country with the Green and Liberal parties, has announced its intention to modernize Germany's citizenship law.

In the coalition contract, the Scholz government proposed to offer German citizenship to a child born in Germany to foreign parents, if one of them had a residence permit for at least five years. This comes as the order currently applies to those who have had a residence permit for eight years.

Germany wants to attract the skilled foreign workers necessary for its economy in the face of labor shortages, by reducing bureaucratic obstacles.

The first economy in Europe seeks to deal with a demographic dominated by an aging population, while it lacks workers in the field of health in particular, as well as those who are able to lead digital and energy transformations.

In a document submitted last September, the German government estimated the shortage of skilled workers at 240,000 by 2026.