Documents for German Naturalisation

In 2021, the German government announced plans to move towards allowing dual-nationality for non-EU citizens. If this plan goes ahead, the prospect of obtaining German citizenship through naturalisation might become more appealing in coming years for foreign nationals who may have previously been put off by the requirement to renounce their other citizenship. Whether you are seeking to acquire citizenship through naturalisation on the basis of long-term residence or on the basis of one of Germany’s entitlement rules, it can be a lengthy process requiring a number of supporting documents to be notarised and apostilled.

If you meet the requirements for German citizenship, but need assistance preparing your U.K. documents for your naturalisation application, Pardus Bloom is here to help.

The documents required in order to obtain German citizenship vary depending on the reason for your entitlement, but generally include:

Passport
Birth certificate
Marriage certificate
Proof of financial means
Proof of language proficiency

Some of these documents may have been issued in the U.K. – if this is the case, it’s likely you will need to have them legalised.

According to the information provided by the German Missions in the U.K., it is advisable to send any important documents in the form of certified copies rather than originals, as the return of documents submitted for citizenship applications is not guaranteed. [1]

A certified copy is a copy of a document which has been verified and signed by a public official – usually a notary public or solicitor. The notary public or solicitor must see the original document (either in person or over a video call) in order to certify the copy as a true copy, hence it is still necessary that you possess the original document, even though you won’t be using it in the application. For instance, it is not possible to produce a certified passport copy if your original passport was lost or stolen – you would have to obtain a replacement of the original first. Passports, educational certificates (including foreign language certificates), financial documents, and most other personal documents can be photocopied and certified in this way when required.

For certain public documents, including birth certificates and marriage certificates, certified copies or official duplicates can only be obtained through the General Register Office (GRO) – they cannot simply be photocopied and signed by a notary/solicitor. Fortunately, obtaining official copies of these documents is generally quite straightforward. We encourage our clients to obtain their own certificates wherever possible, but if you have difficulty with the process of ordering certificates, we may be able to assist you.

Once your copies have been certified, they can be legalised by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). The UK FCDO legalisation office will affix the documents with apostilles of the Hague, which certify them for use abroad. Due to the fact that the EU’s regulation on public documents no longer applies to the U.K., the majority of European countries now require Hague apostilles on all U.K. documents. In our experience post-Brexit, many EU countries also express a preference for notarisation over solicitor certification on U.K. documents, with some even rejecting documents which have previously been solicitor certified and apostilled. For this reason, Pardus Bloom works with experienced notary publics to ensure that all documents are ready for use in the receiving country.

When making important applications, such as applications for naturalisation, it’s vital to have all of your documents prepared ahead of time – but we know that at times things fall through, or new requirements come up unexpectedly. That’s why we offer express services to have documents legalised and delivered, allowing even the most last-minute applications to go ahead without any issues.

[1] https://uk.diplo.de/uk-en/citizenship-faq/2121020?openAccordionId=item-2121124-14-panel