Millions of people in Germany, among them many emigrants from the Balkans, have to choose – either to keep the citizenship they already have or to take German citizenship.
The German Ministry of the Interior confirmed to the portal The Local Germany that parliamentarians will soon discuss the bill to allow dual citizenship, reports Fenix Magazine.
People in Germany who want to naturalize as Germans and keep their first citizenship now have a date before Christmas for the Bundestag to consider their situation.
This news marks the end of a long wait for many German residents, who have been delaying obtaining German citizenship due to the general requirement to renounce their previous citizenship.
The only exceptions were those whose second citizenship was from the European Union, those from countries that do not allow renunciation and those who applied for special permission to retain their original citizenship due to difficulties – often a long and bureaucratic process.
If, as predicted, the new law is passed in the summer of 2023, the old rules may continue to apply for a short time, to ensure that civil servants are ready for the new rules. The exact waiting period will likely become clearer when the Bundestag begins debating the bill.
