Please no "congratulations" as I don't consider it as a price that I've won or something that I've fought for.
In Germany since October 2000, NE obtained in August 2005, Freelancer and Business Owner since March 2006, family on German soil since June 2002, married since 1999.
Didn't want to do the Integration courses to reduced the time for citizenship of 1 year because I didn't wanted to be considered as "integrated" just because I hold a paper which would have been handed to me but through what I do in my everyday life and what I bring to the community I live in.
Didn't had time to apply in October 2008 because I was too busy so I've applied in March 2009, in the EA in Berlin-Lichtenberg. My wife took some time gathering her papers and jointly applied in End April. As the application should be for the whole family, they started considering the application from the time my wife gave her papers.
We both did the Einbürgerungstest, passed with a 100% score, I had to do the German test as I have no paper backing my German knownledge, passed with a 100% score, as my wife studies here, she didn't had to pass that test. Had to submit for the kids a proof of their German knowledge in form of a score paper for the one in school and a paper from the Kindergarten for the one who was there when we applied.
The officer told us it should take 6 months top as required by the Berlin State, so we waited.
End August my wife's visa was coming to an end (she never applied for a NE because she didn't had time too), my passport was expiring and our little one was starting school so my wife had to submit her new visa (she received a NE without submitting any paper), I renew my passport and got the school admittance papers and we submitted it to the EA again.
We received a letter informing us that our papers were now at the Senatsverwaltung für Inneres und Sport which has a department giving the last decision on the application. I called them and asked to know how long the decision would take and they told me that they were in charge of processing the applications for whole Berlin so I will have to be patient, which I just did as I knew nothing was standing against my application.
Received a letter last Wednesday from the EA telling me that the application was accepted and I should go there to sign all the papers and give them our passports.
As I'm the whole week on travel throughout Europ, we agree to go there on December 21st as the presence of the whole family is required. As I will still be travelling on that day, I was requested to submit a couple of papers to have a vorläufige Personalausweis which is valid for 3 months the time for them to send me the permanent one.
As I own a business, the papers to submit where far more intense than for a normal employee as I had to submit a lot of papers from Finanzamt and a bunch of Business status from my Steuerberater which did cost me quite an amount of money.
So all in whole, the process took something like 6-7 months.

Questions are welcome if any but I think I said it all.

Many people thought that people like me who were the first GC wave and been on this site since the beginning will leave after receiving NE or citizenship, but as you can see, we're still here.
So big up for all those who were from the beginning and who are still around and wishing the best for all who aren't anymore.

D.

Thank you for sharing...

Hi All,
Yesterday 15.12.2009, got Einbuergerungszusicherung after waiting over 1 year.

1)applied on 1.12.2008 with compelete papers.
2)In February got letter that my Geburtsort has different spellings.
3)I have to get letter from my conslate that Ort name can have different spellings and acceptable with different spellings. Completed documents in april 2009.
4)May 2009, got letter that my case will be handled in different room.
5)July 2009, visited beamter & told processing.
6)Aug 2009, visited beamter & told processing.
7)Sep 2009, visited beamter & beamter found that my document were laying in his folder. Passed to Chef.
8)October 2009, visited beamter & told my case will be handled by my prevoius beamter as before.
9)Nov 2009, visited beamter & told processing by Chef.
10)9 Dec 2009, was told that next week hopefully get reply. Finally on 15.12.2009 got Citizenship letter.

Next I have to denounce my old nationality, which could take 3-4 months if every things goes fine. I find denouncing nationality even more difficult. It has more documents + foto copies + Notar attestation + 8 photos then Citizen documents. Even more worse bureaucracy.

Location: Munich

Regards.

Mahmud

@Mahmud,

It would be interesting to know if you applied for Ermeeseneinbuergerung or Ansprucheinbuergerung.

Hi,
I have completed Integrationkurs. At time of application, I have completed 7 years & 10 months. So it was almost 8 years. I think it was with 7 years + Integrationkurs+ Einburgerungtest.

Reagrds.

Mahmud

As said in my post, I should have to go to the Einbürgerungsamt today to get my citizenship certificate, which I did and it all went well, except it was quite long.
The funny thing in all that is that the lady I went to just after that to get a vorläufiger Personalaisweis had quite her game face on and was quite bitterly disappointed that another foreigner got a German passport. I felt and sensed it on her face, and my wife told me she felt exactly the same.
So anyway, all is done now, just need to wait for the definitive passport in something like 6 weeks due to some name changes that have to be made.

Cheers all, Merry Xmas and I already wish you an happy new year.
D.

Happy Holidays NoBody!