Am I eligible for a German passport?

Question

My mother was born in Germany to German parents. She moved to the states when she was 5. Later her mother became a US naturalized citizen. My mother never applied and she still has her green card, but is also a US citizen. Am I able to get a German passport through this ancestry?

Answer 1

Yes  Contact www.iamgermansogivememygermanpassportnow...

Please show patience as there is a backlog of requests. If you have not gotten a reply within 80 years please go to www.germanpassportsrus. com to check on the status of your 1st request.  Hope this information has been helpful.

Answer 2

Rann is wrong on several important items:  you CAN have dual citizenship if you are a US citizen, and you do NOT have to renounce your citizenship to gain the citizenship of another country.

Your mother can't have both a green card and US citizenship.

Acquisition of German citizenship is complicated.  You might have acquired it at birth, but it depends on exactly when you were born.  Here is a very detailed and official statement from the government of Germany on the subject:

http://www.tel-aviv.diplo.de/Vertretung/...

Answer 3

You mother can't have duel citizenship in he United States.    I do recall reading somewhere that if you could prove German ancestry, you could apply for German citizenship.  That doesn't mean it was true or true now.   I think that was when there was a West and East Germany.

I'm not sure why you would want a German passport?   To do so you would have to renounce your American citizenship because as I said, you generally can't claim duel citizenship in the United States.  

So, I seriously doubt that you could get a German passport without becoming a German citizen and residing in Germany.

Answer 4

Well it depends.

According to the german law you could get the german passport only if your mother still being german. I do not know how it looks in your case. Although the american law allows the dual nationality, the german law does not. That means, in the normal case in the moment that your mother got the american passport, she lost her german citizenship. However, there are a couple of exceptions as for example: According to Section 25 (2) of StAG, public and private interests are to be taken into consideration for the decision on an authorization for nationality retention. For German persons living abroad the key factor is whether they have continuing ties to Germany, for instance close relatives or property in Germany. Please note that permission to retain German nationality has to be received prior to acquiring a foreign nationality.You should verify this with the german consulate.

Very important, as you are american, you should consider that according to the german law, the principle of the avoidance of multiple nationality still marks the law on nationality. Those applying for naturalization must in principle give up their foreign nationality.  There are a couple of exceptions which allow the previous nationality to be retained as for example If release from the foreign nationality is legally impossible or unacceptable for such persons, for example due to high release fees or degrading methods of release.

Here you have a link to the official web of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where you can find more information about this topic, including a link to the Naturalization Act (in English):

http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/diplo/en/...

Answer 5

I believe so, but some countries require that the father--not the mother--was born there.