Questions we are asked most often

Not by itself. German nationality law sets no generational limit. What it requires is that citizenship actually passed at each birth in the line. Very old emigration does raise a specific problem, though: until 1914 a German who spent ten uninterrupted years abroad lost citizenship unless the period was interrupted, for instance by registration in the consular register. So the emigration date matters more than the number of generations.

No. For citizenship by descent, for restoration under Article 116 (2) of the Basic Law and for the reparation routes in §§ 5 and 15 StAG, there is no language examination and no residence requirement.

No. Where German citizenship is acquired by descent, you were German from birth, so nothing is given up. The reparation routes do not require renunciation either. Whether your other country restricts dual nationality is a question of that country's law, not of German law.

The German ancestor's birth or baptismal record; any German passport, marriage record or consular registration; evidence on whether citizenship was lost, including naturalization files or evidence that no naturalization took place; and the birth and marriage records of every generation down to you, without a gap. Foreign documents normally have to be translated into German by a sworn translator, and often apostilled.

Not necessarily, and this is exactly the point that has to be examined rather than assumed. For long periods, voluntarily acquiring another nationality caused automatic loss of German citizenship. Whether it did in a particular case depends on the date and on the law in force then, and on whether the loss happened before or after the next birth in the line.

There is no fixed limit. There is one modern cut-off that is often described incorrectly, so it is worth stating carefully: under § 4 (4) StAG, a child born abroad does not acquire German citizenship at birth where the German parent was also born abroad after 31 December 1999 and is habitually resident abroad, unless the birth is reported to a German mission within one year. The date belongs to the parent's birth, not to the child's.

For most routes, no. Descent and Article 116 (2) of the Basic Law do not expire. The declaration under § 5 StAG does: it has to be made by 19 August 2031. Documents and family memory, on the other hand, do not last forever, which is a practical deadline of its own.

Longer than anyone would like, and it is not a period we control. The decision is taken by the Bundesverwaltungsamt in Cologne, and its workload determines the pace. Files of this kind are currently measured in years rather than months. We do not give an estimated decision date, because no one outside the authority can honestly give one.

There are three separate things: German official fees, the cost of obtaining records, translations and apostilles, and professional fees. These depend on how many generations have to be documented and on which archives are involved, so we quote in writing after the document review, not before. Professional fees are not published on this website.

Use the intake form with what you already know about your German ancestor. We will look at which records your line would require, whether they are likely to still exist and where, and tell you what the next step would be. There is no charge for that review.