Hi all,

Even though this topic has been repeatedly discussed, due to everchanging rules, it still remains an evernew one. I have applied for Einbürgerung in Karlsruhe somewhere in September, all necessary documents were furnished. Four months have gone by and there has been no response from the Behörde. Can anyone share their latest experiences with the whole process and the time it took for them to become citizens.

Best regards

Generally, the govt. has to respond within 3 months for any kind of service requested by residents. You can write a letter requesting for status and if anything else is needed from your side. You will hear different timelines from t7 guys at different ABH. Good luck.

Hi Cebit,

Thanks for your response. I havent yet enquired the status of the visa as i was expecting an "automatic response"... Once i had submitted my documents, i asked in detail if any documents were missing. The concerned person had responded saying that now all documents were complete. I will contact those guys in the coming days.

Thanks again...

@strangerules:

Einbürgerung and equiry regarding status of visa.....the two do not have anything in common. To comment further, please advice some case history and details e.g. since when you are living in Germany, how many months of RV you have paid, what is your current visa status, have you done your Integartion in Germany course? and under which category you filed the Naturalization application, whether it was a single application or along with family and kids or was it on basis of German spouse?

Hi Raj,
Yes i am sorry, it was more than a typo error from my side. I dont mean any visa status. I meant Einbürgerung...
Regarding my status, Am in Germany for about 10 years. Working since 8. Have NE since two years. No schufa ... Am working in a university. It was an application for me alone and i had hoped that on the basis of my "credentials", they would consider my application.
Oh and i did do my B1 certificate course which was required. and Einbürgerungstest i also passed and submitted the same to the AB.

@strangerules

I presume that you applied under para §10 (Einbürgerung nach Anspruch) and in that case i also find it strange that there is no reply or acknowledgement of receipt of your documents. I will recommend to contact your respective Einbürgerungsbehörde in written and simply ask about the status of your application.

Good luck and keep us posted.
Raj++

P.S: this is not a legal advice!

Hi Raj,

I dont know under which para i applied. I would assume the one which you mentioned.

Thanks for the messages. Incase you are a german citizen already, could you please detail your process and the duration...

Thanks

Hi you,

Would you update if you heard back from EBH? Many thanks.

Hi 

Update and more like a rant:

So finally i decided to go there personally on March 11 to the concerned person and ask directly what is the status. The woman there was kind enough to inform me that well we have been trying to repeatedly contaact the German authority in Berlin to get a green signal from there whether they have my marriage certificate report. And that she had sent another request on march 11 itself two hours before i had come to inquire about my status. And it would take a few more weeks...

To my surprise, the next day i receive a letter which says: They would like to verify my marriage certificate once again and birth certificate. For that they would need about 350 Euros. 

I went there after a few days and this time there was a guy. I pointed out that firstly, the marriage certificate has already been verified AND that is the REASON why my wife is living wiht me in Germany. The verification was done on the order of the Germany consulate in India and they had already sent papers here. His answer was as expected and i had to really bite my teeth... He said, they do not have any report. Secondly, if I think that they verified it, then i should contact the embassy directly and ask if they have the report with them...And ask them to send one to the ausländer behörde directly.
This is because of the so called Deutsche genauigkeit...

To me it is obviously self-contradictory. If he was so genau as he claimed it to be, then the  report should have been already communicated to the AB and then to the EInbuürgerungsstelle. Because they keep records of everyone. If they know whether i have schufa or not, then they definitely know that my marriage certificate has been verified. And ONLY because it was verified could my wife come and live with me. 

Logic does not seem to be their strongpoint, which i already knew... I dont know what to do now...I will try to contact the embassy and visit the Ausländerbehörde (NOT THE EINBÜRGERUNGSSTELLE) and ask them if they have the report or not.

Its been 7 months now . 

Hi,

thanks for update. That is very strange and I am sorry for that. It has been 3 months that I applied based on married to a German status. Nothing came up for me so far.

I know it is said to be patient as it takes a while, but it is begining to worry me a little.

I hope your paperwork will be back in order soon.

So I have a surprising update. Logic and reasoning did indeed work out with the  AB.
In my case it was the following, I got a letter after 6-7 months stating that they need to verify my marriage certificate and birth certificate. They then asked for 355 Euros additionally for this verification... Despite my initial protest that my wife joined me ONLY after the stipulated
marriage certificate verification, so the AB MUST have a proof  somewhere, the concerned authority told me that either i ask the  consulate which did the verification to contact the Einbürgerungstelle
directly and send them a copy of the verification or pay for the whole  thing again... He told me that yes i know it can be painful because we germans are tooo genau...

So i decided enough is enough and went  directly to the person who was responsible for issuing my wifes visa. I could not get in touch with her at first directly, but had to go to the room number which had come up at the display. There i explained to the person the entire situation and said firstly, My wife came to germany for which the minimum requirement was verification of marriage certificate. Then why must it be verified again? He was a nice person and he directly contacted the Einbürgerungstelle (which is only one floor above) and informed him about that and said incase you need proof of marriage, please check the file with my wifes details... I was told that i would hear from them the next day itself and i waited. This wait lasted two weeks and i went again today to the visa stelle and told them the same thing again. This time the sachbearbeiter was a different person and she again contacted the Einbürgerungsstelle. Finally, the person who handles my Einbürgerung asked the lady to send me directly to him.

When i went there, to my surprise, he said well see you pointed out that your wife came by nachzug and we do indeed have a proof of your marriage so it need not be done again.
But now my birth certificate may indeed need verification which he says will inquire again and will let me know how much i need to pay for that. I am only happy that hte first thing worked out and logic did indeed win. Faith is restored...

That's a good news ! At least things are coming along. There is nothing new on my end. Still waiting to be heard.

Ludicrous is all i have got to say about the whole process. I just read the news that Karlsruhe will try to woo more migrants. And that i think is for the press so that they are happy. Now from my side,
Its been one year and 3 months and still counting. Bizarre arbitrary new rules keep coming up. I still dont have a German passport and it seems like I wont be having it in the near future.
And FOR SURE NO ONE CAN DO ANYTHING AGAINST THEM. No complaints whatsoever...

So after what i thought that logic had worked turned out to be a case of Vorfreude. To just update I have a PhD degree from germany so that I qualify for the so-called Hochqualifizierte... I have a work contract and everything that is needed for the citizenship.
So after they seemed to have all the documents, they decided to inform me that they would have my Birth certificate verified. I obliged and paid the fees necessary which was more than the total cost of the EInbürgerungsüprocess. After one month they wrote again that they would need a translation of my birth certificate in German. So what i did was I had a translation from my mothertongue into English and then from English to German and gave all of them in original... Then they decided lets check his school certificate and they took one month to inform me about it. Ok I did that gave them that too...

Then how could all run smoothly right? Yes. They wrote back again after a month in complete violation and understanding of the associative property learnt at school mathematics (if A=B and B= C then A=C). Therefore they said the translation into german was from English to German and they need from mothertongue to German, therefore the old one is invalid . OK--> Assuming for a second that I was in a parallel universe where even that logic works,  I did that too. got it done and gave everything in this universe allowing my mind to go on a holiday. One would think that this is sufficient.

Unfortunately,  I needed my brain to do daily chores. Therefore i allowed logic to slip back into my life and came back to this universe atleast mentally. Now here comes a new email. Now we want you to get your birth certificate translated from my mother-tongue to English. The English one is invalid because it is done by some notary guy or some logic which i failed to understand. ANd if that was not sufficient, I have been informed that the person who was handling my case previously has not been changed. I am still speechless therefore instead of going out and shouting I am writing here. So unless they have the translation from Mothertongue to English directly, they will NOT proceed further.

To paraphrase George Orwell, All men are created equal, some are just more equal than others.

Hi,

did you ever think about hiring a lawyer? 

Your story is one of the 'good examples' for 'How to get a gastric ulcer' 

Nevertheless.. have a nice weekend!

Detlef

Just three months? It's been almost an year and half since I initiated the process and I haven't heard anything from them.

Hallo Detlef,

Thanks for your reply.
In the interest of Deutsch, schreibe ich hier auf Deutsch weiter.
Meinen Sie dass es mir überhaupt helfen wird mit einem Anwalt gegen die Einbürgerungsbehörde zu gehen? Es wird ja soviel kosten im sinne von nicht nur Geld sondern auch Energie, Zeit und Kraft.

Ah und sie haben Recht. Ich werde trotzdem versuchen ein Schönes wochenende zu haben
Aber eins bleibt sicher, wenn mir jemand nach langfristige Perspektive in Deutschland fragen wird, werde ich die zukünftige leute wirklich abraten. Dies muss ich leider mit nem sehr sehr schweren Herzen tun weil ich hab mich hier wirklich eingelebt und fühle mich wohl...Warum sollen andere hartarbeitende, gutgemeinte mitbürger sowas erleben? Bizarre ist es alles...

Viele Grüße

Dear Rahul, Please read the entire blog...
I had applied in August 2013... So i think you are "winning" by 3 months. Did you also apply in Karlsruhe?

Do you have an idea as to how much one would have to spend on a lawyer for such a case?

Yeah, I read all your posts.  I was responding to sweetpuppy though.  I can understand what you feel but at least you have hope since the Amt is responsive in your case.  Everytime I ask for the status they say that it's going to take 6 to 4 week and 6 months pass by without any response.  Now what if they make me go through the same process as you after 2 years. I am only worried about that.

I applied in Erfurt though which is notorious for such delays.

So You DIDNT hear anything from them? Absolutely nothing? That was also in my case for about 8 months from application date. Then i went to them and asked  them about the status. It is when the Pandoras box was really opened.

Nope. Just assurances like it might take another 4 to 6 weeks and then whatever is the status, I will get it in writing ( perhaps by post ).

Welcome to Bundesrepublik-Ausländernichtsogernewillkommen land
I am so sorry for you and many others who go through this.
You know i have been advised many many years ago, from "successful and clever" guys who followed
an alternate 3 year path to citizenship, to also follow the same path. Though i do not repent
having followed that path, I wonder how the people at the Einbürgerungsstelle live with that.

On of my friends form India had a similar situation to yours. But in his case he didn't have a birth certificate.  He wrote a letter to the court requesting an exemption to provide a birth certificate and provide his 10th marks sheet instead that states his place and date of birth. He got the exemption and is now a proud owner of the german passport.  If you want I can get more info from him and tell you how exactly he got this exemption.

Hi again,

let us stick to English, that more of us can understand.

Regarding the lawyer... I think they react faster and better in case they see that a lwayer is involved. This is one point, the other point, would be very important for me, you do not have to deal with bureaucratic officers personally. Your lawyer will take this part!

Of course the lawyer will take some money, but you can ask before you book his service.

I can recommend VPMK lawyers Berlin, and here Katja Ponert. They are located in Berlin but take cases for whole Germany.

You can also try another lawyer, but he should be specialized in alien law. Maybe you can get a recommendation by a colleague.

Good luck

Detlef

Thanks for your offer. I have already submitted my birth certificate in my mother-tongue, a translation of it into german directly and now in the process of getting it translated into english. I will submit it and see what happens now.

Any updates? I sent an email. My application seems to be still in 'bearbeitung'. I am supposed to wait for their mail.

Hi Rahul,

Sorry to hear about your status really...

Without intending to sound like Mr. Complainy pants, here is what happened on my side.
Ireally dont know if i should call it progress or not. But the whole absurd process has progressed a bit further. On 24/10 half an hour after my post, the person from the Einbürgerungsoffice called me and informed me that the whole translation thing into english and german was not needed and the verification of birth certificate is also not needed anymore in my case??? To put things in the right time-frame, the whole thing cost me about 6 months of time and now he said that they dont need to verify anymore documents... And that there is one last step where they need police verification and everything. And said it would take maximum a month. Anyways, I didnt know if i should be happy that the verification is not needed or be extremely angry about the time and energy lost for nothing?
In the interest of optimism, I decided to just live through the moment and hope that the whole ordeal will be over soon. Its been a month though now and nothing. Apparently, the police and one other verifications has already been done but one verification from the  Bundesverfassungs somethingsomething is what is taking time. I have been visiting the Einbürgerungsofficer personally for the past two weeks. The last time he promised me that he had called up the place where the delay is occurring and he himself cannot explain the delay. I am just waiting and waiting and waiting...
But I guess your situation is more frustrating. I am truly sorry and I am at complete loss to explain why and what have we done to undergo such an ordeal. Moreso, I am sure that there are people in the system who deliberately delay the whole process and I wonder how are they able to go home and see themselves in the mirror or get a goodnights sleep? Having a good conscience is not a prerequisite to happy life maybe?

Wish you the best too and i guess either you can go to a lawyer as detlef had indicated, since on your side nothing seems to be moving ahead? How long has it been in your case? two years?

Best of luck

I am glad that there is some progress with your application. I had a similar situation to yours. They wanted me to submit german translated indian school and bachelors certificates. They said that it's not required anymore when I went there to submit them and that her collegue had made a mistake. At the same time, I had forgotton to make a copy of one of the othe documents. Instead of apologizing for their mistake, she has the audacity to say that I am sparfreundlich. Btw, it's been 1 year and 7 months for the so called 'bearbeitung'. I won't be going to a lawyer and will just wait it out as I don't find it very important at this point in time. The delay is just making me anxious and I don't feel welcome here.

Thats a long time for sure. Then i hope that they reply to you soon.

About being welcome, atleast the people in the Einbügergungsbüro dont want us here. I know there are many many good people around but its hard to live with this kind of unwelcoming feeling. I only wonder if such behavior has reached the attention of the political circles who every now and then praise their own people for being so open and welcoming and that highly-qualified people welcome in this country?

Waiting it out is another option. They clearly cannot keep on postponing it till infinity .

Best of luck and let me know if something changes...

All the best to you too dude. Rahul isn't my name. My ident just was just a parody of the Indian political scenario ;)

Count me on the board ! Same scenario in my case. Still waiting and I guess all in good time. Wishing you guys all the best !

What is your story then? Am curious as to how many of us are being made to play the time-game?
Sorry just realized that you had already written earlier

My story, briefly applied for Citizenship based on German spouse and at the same time I finish up 7 years requirement. I am told that they are waiting for a confirmation from another office to finish up my case. They have not heard back since a month at least and gave two reminders.

So yeah as you said it appears to have different stories for all with a commonness of waiting... Sure with time all be fine..

@Rahul Modriwal : Yes i thought so, that your name is a combination of Rahul Gandhi, Modi and Kejriwal...

@Sweetpuppy, so it seems its the same excuse that i keep getting I wonder if they have a standard database of excuses and keep cycling them to the applicants time and again. Which state did you apply bzw which city?

What is the use of excuses. At one point they have to decide right? I applied from Niedersachsen and its capital.

Perhaps they are waiting for one to be a ALG seeker so that they no longer need to find an excuse to make excuses.

May be this is true, not the prettiest thing I want to hear... Oh well life it is !

My application only took 3 months and they gave me Zusicherung. I think it depends on luck that which type of Beamter is handling your case.
I have one related question:
Does ALG1 effect your application status. e.g, you have already received the Zusicherung for Einbürgerung and processing the Renounciation of your current nationality (not Indian, as in case of India you dont have to do it). If you loose job or your job contzract ends during this time then what will happen???? Can Applicant receive ALG1????

Thats a miracle tauseef. Would love to know the history of your application. ie. where you applied
and on what basis were you granted the citizenship.  Which state/city did you apply and when did you apply? I know of others who were also granted the citizenship within three months.

I think coming to your question, i think it may not matter that after you are given the zusicherung you become Arbeitslos. But I am not too sure. I would try to avoid such a situation if possible.
In my case, the Einbürgerungsamt made it a point to ask for the most recent work contract.

Best

Congratulations on getting your Zusicherung.  I believe that you have to keep the Standesamt up to date about your Job status and location during the process.  They might perhaps ask for the salary slips of the last three months. You will get ALG in any case if your have made social security contributions for more than a year.

I applied in Ludwigshafen, RLP with para 10 after 6.5 years of living out of which 4 were as student and it was a family application, 2 kids and wife (house wife by profession). Applied with B1 and Einburgerung in June and got Zusicherung in August.
Have applied for Renounciation of  citizenship (Pakistani). They take much time and I have contract till March 2015 and was the same contract at the time of application. Einbürgerungamt did not asked for longer contract. Later, I applied for NE to remain on safer side and have to have a fight with Auslanderbehördae for NE, as he was asking for longer contract even unlimitted contracted. I guided him to the law as the requirement is more than 6 months. Later he granted us NE.
I am unable to get any job so far but  applying and hope to have one.
In worse case I hope they will not reject at that satge as I would be state less that time and having no nationality.
Best of luck for you and all other applicants.
Tip: After 2 months of application, try to visit them fortnightly. Get some info from friends, which Beamter is better, more efficient.

Soon it is holidays and not sure if there will be any progress in my case until then .... I wish you all the best guys.

I wish you and the other Germans in waiting to get a Christmas present from Standesamt Clause.

Ok . Amazing that it went on so quickly. I didnt know that renunciation
of citizenship takes so long for a pakistani citizen. If they did not
ask for a longer contract then you may as well not complicate things by
giving away unneeded details.

Hopefully you find a job soon and may things simplifiy a bit. You already are half german.

I have been visiting the foreign office for the past 2 weeks and i also called up today. He said
he is also trying to find out whats the problem. Lets see what will happen.

Keeping fingers crossed for all of us.

You never know . THat could well be the reason.Otherwise just not acting on the application with no end in sight seems to be quite boring.

Same to you. I called up my ansprechpartner and asked him when he would be on a holiday. He was kind enough to let me know. It seems to be a race against time now. He had predicted that i would be germanized on paper before the end of this year and i had told him i am not too optimistic. I hate to win this race.
Wishing you all best too

That sounds exciting ! I keep my fingerscrossed for you !

Have you guys already paid the 255 Euro fees?  They had mentioned that I need to pay those fees but they never mentioned when and how.  I bet they will ask for it only if there is a positive outcome of my application.

I paid the first "installment" of 255 Euros at the time of submission itself. They said even if its rejected then the money wont be refunded. Then for the verification of documents which anyways ended in a farce they asked for 350 euros more since the applicant has  to bear the cost of it. I am surprised that they didnt ask you for the money.

Yeah, it's surprising.  I had a feeling that maybe they aren't working on my application since I haven't paid the fees yet. But they never mention about it whenever I ask them for the status.  Maybe it's another one of their excuses to not do any work since the beamters don't get a cut out of that money.

I think you can claim the 350 euros back since they haven't actually proceeded with the verification. It seems like fraud to me and 350 euros isn't a small amout.  Anyway, only a lawyer can tell you how to go about it.

I reckon each state has different rules to when the fees should be paid, at least what I understood after reading a bit on this forum. I paid mine at the time of application guess somethign 200€ about not at the top of my head right now.

I think that they assume that this money of ours is their own. I hope that they would pay back the 350 euros. But its not the money that is bothering but the time involved. Lets see if anything can happen before christmas.

So one more update. Today morning i got the long-awaited call to come and collect my  Einbürgerungszusicherung. I called them every week since the last time i wrote and ask them
about why is it getting delayed since there was only one last verification needed. But he couldnt tell anything and said he himself doesnt know and not everything is in his hands. Atleast this loooong wait is over. Now the next step is getting passport in hand.

@tauseef: Concerning your previous query, in my zusicherung it is clearly mentioned that in case after getting the zusicherung till the passport, if the economic stuation changes, then one should inform them as they say it may affect the process...

I am quite relieved to be honest. Hopefully atleast the next steps go quicker...Best of luck to sweetpuppy , katzenminze and all others who are kinda stuck in this process.

Congratulations buddy!!! Amazing news! Nothing from my side so far.

Thanks katzenminze. I was quite surprised too as I had given up hope . I wish you best of luck and a great amount of patience. Please let me know if there are any new developments in your case.

Congratulations Bro......
In my letter they have not mentioned to report economic situation but
"Sie wird unter dem Vorbehalt erteilt, dass sich die für die Einbürgerung maßgebliche Sach oder Rechtslage, insbesondere die persönlichen Verhältnisse der Einbürgerungsbewerber, bis zu Einbürgerung nicht ändern".

Although I have chances to get new contract soon, but still don’t think they will deny after cancellation of my previous nationality.
What’s your current nationality?????

Hi tauseef,

Yes the same is written in my zusicherung. But i think what additionally is written is that in case my economic situation changes, then they have asked me to inform them again so that they can evaluate again if it affects the citizenship process.

Yes after cancellation of your previous nationality they will not do it. Best of luck wand hope you get the new contract soon.

I am an Indian btw but currently "Staatslos" since I have surrendered my passport. It would take one week in my case to get the surrender ceritifcate and dont know how long to get the passport.

Best

I thought that they would take your indian Passport and give you the eibuergerungsuhrkunde so that you could apply for a passport as soon as possible. Maybe they want you to restrict your movements to within Karlsruhe during the holiday season.

I think its different here. I also thought that they would do it the way you wrote. But they asked me to
surrender it by myself and bring the surrender certificate. I dont think so that they love me so much to want me around in Karlsruhe during christmas...unless ofcourse they want an Indian Santaclaus during christmas visiting their homes?

I was on vacation in the Neatherlands and when I came home I found a letter in my postbox from the Standesamt asking me to collect the Uhrkunde on the 15th of Jan only if I can recite one paragraph that says I will abide by the German law and constitution and provide my salary slip.

That is great news... Congratulations. Its a big new years surprise for you isnt it
I also had to do the last step and have already applied for the passport and Ausweis.

Thanks buddy!

Hey strangerules,

I got the uhrkunde and have already applied for the passport and id card.  I haven't yet "renonced" my Indian Citizenship.  I have a couple of questions.   Did you send the declaration of renunciation of Indian Citizenship by post?  If you did then you must have seen that there are two signatures needed on the first page of the declaration.  One is yours and the other is of a witness.  Did you leave the second one blank or someone you knew signed it?

Thanks

Congrats. Katzenminze.
How could you apply for the passport wthout submitting the surrender certificate? May be there they have different rules. Here I had to first get the surrender certificate and then the Urkunde was given to me. Untl that time I had only the Zusicherung.

I went personally to Munich because in my case it was quite urgent to get the German passport. Yes there are two signatures needed and i juts made one. The second one i left blank.

Do you have to send it to Frankfurt?

All the best

Hi Strangerules,

They just took my Indian Passport when they handed over the Uhrkunde to me.  Maybe they follow a different prcedure at your place.  They said that my Indian Citizenship gets automatically cancelled when I get the German Citizenship.

I just need to complete the beureucratic step of renouncing my Indian Citizenship in order to apply for an OCI card.  I am planning to submit the necessary documents by mail.  In my case it's Berlin.  I was confused about the second signature since it appears that a witness should sign it.  I was not sure if the witness can be my relative or a firend or an official at the Indian Embassy.  I will just leave it blank and submit it to them. I hope they will get back to me in case of any issues.

Thanks for the info you gave me. All the best to you too.

Best Regards.