A survey of 25 German cities has found that the number of people becoming German citizens has increased by 50 percent in the last two years.

Germany records significant uptick in citizenship applications

In the past two years, the number of people newly applying for German citizenship has doubled, according to the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. The newspaper surveyed the 25 largest German cities and found that 81.007 people were naturalised in 2022, compared to 200.100 in 2023 - the highest annual number in 23 years.

Since Germany’s new law allowing dual citizenship and citizenship after just five years of residence was enforced in June 2024, the number of people applying for a passport is only expected to increase in the coming months and years.  In 2024, however, the number of completed and successful applications is down slightly, with 122.882 people having been naturalised so far this year. This could be due to the higher volume of applications and consequent slower processing.

Citizenship applicants must realistically wait 18 months

With Germany facing a record-high worker shortage and a dearth of administrative employees to process an increasing number of citizenship applications, waiting times for application turnarounds are extremely long.

In its survey, Welt am Sonntag found that there are currently 217.000 citizenship applications piled up and waiting for processing in 20 German cities.

Waiting times differ from place to place, but the newspaper reported that an average of 18 months is currently realistic for recently submitted applications. In some cities, however, such as Berlin, where 40.000 are waiting to be processed, 18 months is considered optimistic. 

Berlin’s application processing centre LEA warns of a “long waiting time”, with no specific estimate given.

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