Acquisition by birth

We assess for your family whether your child already acquired German citizenship by birth. No naturalisation application is required for this. Whether acquisition occurs depends primarily on the citizenship of the legal parents, the place of birth and, where relevant, the parents' residence circumstances. For families, the law applicable on the date of birth is also decisive. The later issue of a certificate or passport must be distinguished from this original acquisition.

§ 4 StAG contains two main routes. For acquisition by descent, at least one parent is German. For acquisition based on birth in Germany, the parents are foreign nationals, but at least one parent meets the special residence requirements. Both routes generally lead to the same German citizenship. They are not forms of being German with different degrees of validity.

The first route is often called the principle of descent or ius sanguinis. The second is the birthplace principle or ius soli. These terms are merely legal shorthand. The specific questions are more helpful for an assessment: Was one parent German when the child was born? If not, was the child born in Germany, and did one parent have the required established residence status?

There is also a protective rule for foundlings and children born through the confidential birth procedure. It applies where there is particular uncertainty about parentage. The mere absence of passports for known parents is not sufficient; the details of this protection are explained below.

Acquisition by birth is linked to a specific event. The relevant requirements must therefore generally be met at that time. A parent who is naturalised only later does not retrospectively pass German citizenship to their already-born child through ordinary acquisition by descent. Equally, acquisition by birth under § 4(3) StAG does not arise simply because a foreign parent later completes the necessary residence period.

Separate calculations must therefore be made even for siblings. Between their births, their parents' citizenship, residence titles or the law may have changed. The fact that the younger child is German proves neither acquisition nor non-acquisition by the older child. Each child needs their own assessment of the relevant timeline.

Under the current § 4(1) StAG, one German parent is generally sufficient. The fact that the other parent holds another citizenship or is stateless does not prevent acquisition. An additional citizenship held by the German parent is likewise not in itself an obstacle. Ordinary acquisition by descent also requires neither a particular income nor language skills on the part of the parents or the child.

However, legal parenthood is decisive. Under German substantive law, the mother is the woman who gave birth to the child. Paternity may arise, in particular, from marriage to the mother, a valid acknowledgement or a court determination. Where there is an international element, the rules on applicable law and recognition of foreign decisions must also be considered. A foreign register entry must therefore neither be disregarded as a matter of course nor treated as equivalent to a German parentage decision without any examination.

If only the father is German and an acknowledgement or determination is needed, § 4(1), sentence 2 StAG contains a special time limit: the declaration acknowledging paternity must be made before the child's 23rd birthday, or the determination proceedings must be initiated before then. Paternity must also be legally established with valid effect. Details on parenthood, evidence and international cases can be found in German parent: descent, birth abroad and the generational cut-off.

Birth abroad does not generally exclude acquisition by descent. Many children are born abroad as German citizens. Their parents do not necessarily have to be registered as resident in Germany or apply for the child's naturalisation. A foreign birth certificate may document the facts of the birth; German identity documents are then applied for separately.

For certain German parents of the younger generation, however, § 4(4) StAG also applies. The German parent must themselves have been born abroad after 31 December 1999 and be habitually resident abroad when the child is born. If the child is also born abroad, the generational cut-off may prevent acquisition. If both parents are German, the restriction generally applies only if both meet the relevant conditions.

An application made within one year to register the birth in the German register of births can avoid this exclusion. Timely receipt by the competent mission abroad is sufficient to meet the deadline. Statutory exceptions also exist, particularly where the child would otherwise be stateless and for certain descendants in connection with Article 116(2) GG or § 15 StAG. The one-year deadline is therefore not a general registration requirement for every German child abroad, but part of a special acquisition rule.

For a child born in Germany to foreign parents, current law requires two linked conditions to be met by at least one parent. That parent must have been lawfully and habitually resident in Germany for five years and must hold a permanent right of residence at the time of the birth. For Swiss citizens and their family members, the law specifies a particular residence permit under the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons.

The requirements cannot be divided between the parents. If one parent has lived in Germany long enough but does not hold an eligible right, while the other holds the eligible right but has not yet completed the required residence period, this is generally insufficient. Conversely, both parents do not have to meet the requirements. One parent who meets the necessary conditions can confer acquisition.

A settlement permit need not have been held throughout the preceding five years. Earlier periods of lawful residence with a temporary permit may also be relevant. Whether they count as habitual residence depends on their legal and factual classification. Simply counting the years since first entry into Germany is not sufficient. The detailed article Birth in Germany to foreign parents covers periods of study, evidence of residence status and the registry office's assessment.

Today's five-year rule has applied since 27 June 2024. For births before that date, eight years of residence were generally required. The requirements concerning residence status have also changed since the birthplace principle was introduced. A permanent residence title issued today therefore does not directly establish what right existed on the date of birth of a child who is now an adult.

For births before 1 January 2000, today's general acquisition under § 4(3) StAG did not yet exist. The transitional provision for certain children at the time was a separate, time-limited route to naturalisation. A person therefore does not retrospectively become German from birth simply because their parents now meet all current requirements or because they themselves have since grown up in Germany.

Historical cut-off dates are also important for acquisition by descent. Equal treatment of children born within marriage to German mothers was generally introduced only on 1 January 1975; today's inclusion of children born outside marriage to German fathers dates from the amendment of 1 July 1993. Current rights to make a declaration may be relevant for affected families. These are explained in Acquisition through adoption, declaration or as an ethnic German resettler and must not be confused with automatic retrospective application of today's rules on citizenship by birth.

If a child is found in Germany as a foundling, § 4(2) StAG treats them as the child of a German person until the contrary is proven. This protection therefore does not require a particular German father or mother to be identified first. The rule applies correspondingly to a child born through the confidential birth procedure under § 25(1) of the Pregnancy Conflict Act. The statutory presumption prevents the lack of clarity about parentage from initially blocking acquisition.

The situation is different for a child born in Germany to known stateless parents. The parents' statelessness replaces neither their required residence period nor the eligible right of residence under § 4(3). If the child has not acquired any citizenship, a Special entitlement to naturalisation for stateless persons born in Germany may need to be examined. This later route to acquisition is not an additional rule for automatic citizenship by birthplace.

When registering a birth in Germany, the registry office records the civil status details. For children of foreign parents, it also examines possible acquisition by birth under § 4(3) StAG. § 34 PStV governs the enquiry to the immigration authority for this purpose. That authority often holds the information on the parents' length of residence and their right of residence at the time.

The result is documented, and acquisition is noted in the register of births. This note does not itself create citizenship. If the statutory requirements are met, citizenship arises by birth. Conversely, an erroneous entry generally does not in itself make a child German. If doubts arise later, the information supplied at the time and the registry office's supporting files may be important evidence.

We distinguish an ordinary birth certificate from a complete register extract because they do not necessarily contain the same information. To assess acquisition by birth, we specifically seek the record of the citizenship assessment. Reissuing the same birth certificate does not replace missing information about the parents’ residence status at the time.

The evidence required depends on the possible route to acquisition. Where there is a German parent, the focus is on their citizenship at the time and legal parentage. For acquisition by birth through foreign parents, residence periods and the eligible right held on the date of birth also matter. A single list for all children would therefore be too imprecise.

Where certificates come from different countries, translations and proof of authenticity may be required. Name changes and different spellings must be explained so that the people concerned can be clearly identified. Proving a certificate's authenticity and legally assessing its content are two different stages of the examination.

A child can acquire German citizenship and one or more foreign citizenships at the same time. Whether another state confers its citizenship through descent or place of birth is determined by that state's law. From the German perspective, such an additional citizenship does not prevent ordinary acquisition by birth. The family therefore does not have to decide which citizenship the child should “choose” simply because of the birth.

The former obligation to choose a citizenship for certain people born in Germany with multiple citizenships was abolished by the 2024 reform. Under German law, there is no general current obligation to choose between citizenships on reaching adulthood. For older people, earlier losses that have already taken effect must nevertheless be examined separately. Abolishing a rule is not the same as automatically restoring every status lost in the past.

For later travel or longer stays in the other home country, that country's rules remain important. Even without giving up a citizenship, different passport requirements and responsibilities may arise. The detailed article on Multiple citizenship explains more.

Not every subsequent change affecting the parents affects the child's citizenship. An ordinary move, a separation or the later expiry of a document no longer needed for acquisition by birth does not automatically undo the original acquisition. The situation may be different where retrospective decisions concern the original grounds for acquisition, for example if legal paternity ceases to exist with retroactive effect.

§ 17(2) StAG contains specific rules on loss and protection for such cases. A child who has already reached their fifth birthday is generally protected; depending on the case, the decisive point is when the retrospective decision becomes final, when a new acknowledgement of paternity takes effect or when contrary proof is established in the case of a foundling. It is not simply the child's age when the authority begins its examination.

An exception to this age-based protection applies to the expressly covered revocations of immigration authority decisions under § 85d AufenthG in connection with an acknowledgement of paternity. Even then, however, the further statutory grounds for protection must be examined separately: a continuing family relationship with a German parent, another possible acquisition by birth under § 4(3) or the prospect of statelessness. Neither the statement “over five, so always protected” nor “paternity has ceased to exist, so automatically no longer German” is therefore sufficient.

If one requirement is missing, that does not mean the child must permanently remain without German citizenship. Possibilities include naturalisation alongside their parents, naturalisation in their own right or special acquisition by declaration. These routes have their own requirements and a different point of acquisition. They do not replace an acquisition by birth that has actually occurred, but may be relevant where there was no such acquisition.

Where there are existing but contradictory indications, the status should first be clarified. The overview Already German without naturalisation? puts other grounds for acquisition into context. For a binding decision on an existing citizenship, Determination and proof explains the relevant procedure. This makes it possible to distinguish whether a family needs to document an existing status or apply for a new acquisition.