Can you gain German citizenship in a shorter amount of time if you have German family members?

Question

I was brought up in America but I have visited Germany for a period of time and enjoyed it a lot and I am considering living there permanently. Is it possible that I could gain German citizenship easier or in a lesser amount of time since I have German grandparents? Does anyone know how this works? I was born and raised in the U.S. and have U.S. citizenship, and my parents immigrated to the U.S. before I was born, however my grandparents are German citizens. Both my father's and mother's parents are German citizens. I was just wondering if my German descent will make any difference in gaining German citizenship or not.

Answer 1

Theocultur is right (I don't know why the thumbs down). Germany is different then the US, if your parents are German you have automatically German citizenship no matter where you were born. My son is born here in the US, but he has a German citizenship without us doing anything about it, well besides being Germans ourselves.

Answer 2

Check the website of the German Embassy in Washington DC. They have detailed info:

http://www.germany.info/relaunch/index.h...

Answer 3

If one of your parents still have their German citizenship, then you are automatically also a German citizen, if not, then you cannot get the citizenship anymore. I just went through the paperwork for my newborn and he became automatically a citizen because I am a dual-citizen (US and German)

It doesn't make any difference if your grandparents are still German citizens, your parents are the important.

Answer 4

http://www.galawcenter.com/index-4.html

Answer 5

If your parents had German citizenship when they immigrated

to the U.S. I'd first check if you don't already have a "sleeping"

citizenship. Back then dual citizenship was the rule and if your

parents never actively dropped it they are still citizens. German

citizenship depends on first grade descent only. And if your

parents are still (sleeping) citizens you shouldn't have any

problems to get a passport. So Theocultur is perfectly right.

You can safely ignore the thumbs down. German citizenship

laws are quite the opposite of U.S. laws.

Answer 6

Just in case you do not hold dual citizenship, because your parents became US citizens before you were born:

As long as your grandparents are alive and thus able to sign a "Verpflichtungserklärung" for you, you should have absolutely no problem with moving over to Germany.

The best way to live in Germany permanently is usually to graduate from a German university. (Email me if you want to know more about that.)

There is usually no expedited process for people who have German relatives. The exception is when you have a German spouse and have been lving together with him/her in Germany for a certain amount of time.