Records, and the law that reads them
Two kinds of work sit in every citizenship file: finding the documents, and knowing what German law makes of them. Here is who does which.
The company
Hannover German Citizenship, LLC is a United States company that does document work: archive research, genealogical reconstruction, translation and legalization, assembly of applications in the form the German federal authority requires, filing, payment of German fees, and follow-up until the file is decided.
It is a document company and not a law firm. For questions of United States law, including tax and immigration, you need a lawyer admitted where you live.
The lawyer
Questions of German nationality law arising in a file are examined by Fabio Werlang, a European lawyer admitted in Portugal and Brazil. Portugal is a member state of the European Union, so his admission there is an admission within Europe:
- Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil, Paraná Bar, no. 32.133
- Ordem dos Advogados de Portugal, Lisbon Regional Council, no. 64569L
He works from Brazil and Europe. Any submission to the German authority that argues a point of law, including an objection (Widerspruch) against a refusal, is his work and is signed by him.
He is himself a German and Brazilian citizen. His own German citizenship was recognized by the Bundesverwaltungsamt after he located his family's records in Germany, which is how this work started.
He is also a member of the following professional associations, which are memberships and not licences:
- Deutsch-Brasilianische Juristenvereinigung (DBJV), Frankfurt am Main
- Ausländischer Anwaltverein Deutschland e. V.
- International Law Commission, Brazilian Bar Association, Paraná Chapter
How the file reaches Germany
German citizenship files are decided in Cologne, by the Bundesverwaltungsamt. We keep an address in that city for service of documents, so that correspondence and formal notices reach us quickly and in the country where the decision is made. That address is for service; it is not an office open to the public.
The research and the assembly of files is done by genealogists and case administrators of the group, working on both sides of the Atlantic. The group also serves families in Brazil and Portugal, and its Austrian citizenship work is done under a separate name.
The people you will deal with
A citizenship file is slow and personal, and it helps to know who is on the other side of it.
Fabio Werlang
Founder. European lawyer admitted in Portugal and Brazil
Examines the questions of German nationality law that arise in a file, from Brazil and Europe. He is himself a German and Brazilian citizen, and is not admitted in the United States.
Marcia Werle
Client liaison, United States
Your contact in the United States: first conversations, documents, scheduling, and keeping you informed about where your file stands. Not a lawyer, and does not assess cases.
Hermann Möller
Genealogist
Reconstructs family lines from German civil registers, parish books and emigration records, and finds the documents that prove each link.
Jaqueline Braun
Genealogist
Works on archive research in Germany and in the Americas, including the consular registers that often decide whether a line survived.
How this started
In 2001 Fabio Werlang travelled to Germany to look for the records of his own German ancestors, in several regions of the country. With those documents, and after studying the nationality legislation from 1870 onwards, he obtained confirmation of his own German citizenship from the Bundesverwaltungsamt.
Hannover was founded in April 2015, when the demand for that kind of work turned out to be much larger than one family. The American company followed, for families in the United States.