Residence Status: Naturalisation (Einbürgerung)

Status ID: RS-014

Slug: einbuergerung (does not exist in ResidenceStatus in frontend/src/lib/situation-requirements.ts — see note below)

Version: 1.0

Status: Draft — awaiting source review

Primary legal basis: §§ 8, 9, 10 StAG

Jurisdiction: Federal (+ local variation where noted — Berlin: LEA)

Risk level: High

Last reviewed: 2026-08-28

Next review due: 2026-09-11 (file carries volatile figures — backlog counts, fees — 14-day cycle)

Owner: AusHelp Knowledge Team

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Scope and disclaimer

Informational guidance only — not legal advice. All claims derive from official public

sources (Level A–C per standards/source-policy.md). Verify critical decisions with the

responsible authority or a qualified immigration advisor.

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PROCESS-TARGET ENTITY — read before using this file

German citizenship is not a residence status. einbuergerung is not, and will not be,

a value of ResidenceStatus in situation-requirements.ts — there is nothing to hold a

requirements checklist against once someone is German. This file exists because

naturalisation is the single most-asked destination among the thirteen residence

statuses the app does model (STRUGGLE_MAP.md Phase 6 — "Putting down roots"; every one

of permanent_residence.md's common problems ultimately points here). It documents the

outbound edge, not a stop: each of the 13 files' "path to permanent residence" fact

and each transition-OUT process should eventually cite this file's legal basis, the way

permanent_residence.md §10 StAG citation already does (its RS-012-P12). Treat this as a

reference/routing entity, structured with the same 10-section schema for consistency, not

as a twelfth entry in the app's residence-status enum.

1. Overview

Naturalisation (Einbürgerung) is the acquisition of German citizenship by a foreign national

already resident in Germany. Three statutory routes exist: the entitlement route (§ 10

StAG) — a binding claim once the conditions are met; the discretionary route (§ 8 StAG) —

narrow, authority-decided, no fixed residence minimum in the statute itself; and the

privileged route for spouses/registered partners of Germans (§ 9 StAG) — the § 10

conditions after only three years of residence and two years of marriage. This file documents

§ 10 in most depth, since it is the route almost every AusHelp user reaches.

The headline number for 2026 is five years, not three. A 2024 reform temporarily added a

three-year "Turbo-Einbürgerung" for applicants with C1 German and "besondere

Integrationsleistungen" (§ 10 Abs. 3 StAG) — a Sixth Amending Act repealed it, in force

30 October 2025 (BGBl. 2025 I Nr. 256); gesetze-im-internet.de's current § 10 now reads

Abs. 3 as "(weggefallen)" (4.1, OQ-1). STRUGGLE_MAP.md Phase 6 is stale on this point,

the same way permanent_residence.md OQ-6 already flagged for the Niederlassungserlaubnis

fast track. What did survive the rollback, and is easy to conflate with it: **dual

citizenship**. The 2024 reform's removal of the renunciation requirement was not touched —

§ 10 Abs. 1 contains no "Aufgabe der bisherigen Staatsangehörigkeit" clause, and the old

tolerance-exception machinery (§ 12 StAG) is itself now "(weggefallen)" as moot (3.14). Two

routes remain live and distinct: the 5-year general route and the 3-year spousal route (§ 9)

— the accelerated route is gone, dual-citizenship permission is not.

The other chronic confusion is which past residence status counts. § 10 Abs. 1 Nr. 1

requires five years of lawful habitual residence, but Nr. 2 separately requires that, *at the

time of the decision*, the applicant hold a title outside a named exclusion list — student

(§ 16b), vocational training (§ 16a), job-seeker/Chancenkarte (§§ 20, 20a) and temporary

protection (§ 24) are on it (4.2). This is not the AufenthG § 9 Abs. 4 halving rule that

governs the Niederlassungserlaubnis clock — StAG has its own logic, and the two must not be

assumed symmetric (4.2, OQ-3).

2. Legal basis

3. Key facts

One row per atomic claim. Verified flips to yes only after /source-review.

4. Processes

4.1 The repealed fast track (P1, 3.3)

The 2024 reform's "Turbo-Einbürgerung" — 3 years with C1 German and "besondere

Integrationsleistungen" — is gone as of 30 October 2025 (BGBl. 2025 I Nr. 256). VG Trier,

03.12.2025 – 8 K 5461/25.TR, has already applied this against applicants who filed before

the repeal but were still undecided when it took effect: the law in force at the hearing

controls, permissible "unechte Rückwirkung" given weeks of public debate first (reported

secondhand, SRC-304; primary text not fetched, OQ-2). Treat any "3 years" figure elsewhere,

including STRUGGLE_MAP.md Phase 6, as stale.

4.2 Which prior status counts (P5–P7, 3.4, 3.16–3.17)

Two separate tests sit inside § 10 Abs. 1: Nr. 1 asks how long you've been here; Nr. 2 asks

what you currently hold. A person can satisfy Nr. 1's five years on a student or Chancenkarte

permit and still fail Nr. 2 on decision day, because those titles are named exclusions. For

AusHelp's 13 statuses: blue_card, skilled_worker, self_employed, permanent_residence,

eu_citizen, most family_reunification and refugee_protection (§ 25 Abs. 1–2, not Abs.

3–5) satisfy Nr. 2 outright; student, vocational_training, job_seeker and

temporary_protection do not and must first convert. Whether years already spent on the

excluded title still count toward Nr. 1 once conversion happens is answered only by secondary

commentary (3.17) — unlike the Niederlassungserlaubnis's AufenthG § 9 Abs. 4, which halves

study/training time explicitly, nothing fetched here states a halving rule for StAG, but

nothing confirms full crediting at Level A either. This is the file's single most

consequential open question (OQ-3); it should block any "your years already count" claim.

4.3 Berlin procedure and backlog (P1–P3)

The LEA became Berlin's central Einbürgerungsbehörde on 1 January 2024, replacing all twelve

district offices; §§ 8, 9, 10 applications go through an online Quick-Check form only, paper

submissions processed "nachrangig." The LEA inherited roughly 40,000 open paper cases, the

oldest from 2005, and processed about 22,000 naturalisations in 2024 against 9,000 in 2023

(SRC-306, SRC-308) — both volatile, both already dated by the next review. Most documents

must be ≤ 6 months old at submission; the language certificate and Einbürgerungstest result

are exempt.

4.4 Dual citizenship (3.11)

Untouched by the 2025 rollback — only the 3-year fast track was removed, not the 2024

renunciation-requirement repeal (see Overview). What Germany permits says nothing about what

the applicant's other country permits (3.27).

4.5 Loss and revocation (P8)

Naturalisation is not indefinitely safe from reversal: § 35 allows revocation for deception,

threats, bribery, or material false statements, but only within 10 years of the decision

being communicated. § 17 lists the narrower set of ways citizenship (naturalised or not) can

be lost afterward — renunciation, joining foreign armed forces or terrorist combat, or that

same § 35 revocation.

5. Authorities and organisations

6. Common problems

7. Documents

8. Sources

9. Open questions and uncertainty

1. Repeal mechanics (3.3, 4.1): § 10 Abs. 3 reading "(weggefallen)" is confirmed Level A directly from gesetze-im-internet.de. The 30 October 2025 date and BGBl. 2025 I Nr. 256 citation come from Bundestag (Level B) and asyl.net (Level D) reporting, not from BGBl.de itself — that direct citation is still owed.
2. VG Trier judgment (4.1, PR1): cited only via LTO's report, not the primary judgment text. Case number and holding need direct confirmation before any user-facing "the new law applies even to pending applications" claim.
3. **Residence-period counting for excluded-list statuses (3.16–3.17, 4.2) — the file's central unresolved question.** Whether prior time on § 16a/§ 16b/§ 20/§ 20a/§ 24 credits in full, at a fraction, or not at all toward § 10 Abs. 1 Nr. 1's five years once the person later qualifies under Nr. 2 is sourced only to a private legal-commentary site citing two BVerwG decisions (26.04.2016 – 1 C 9/15; 29.03.2007 – 5 C 8/06), not independently fetched. Do not assume it mirrors AufenthG § 9 Abs. 4's halving rule — nothing fetched here confirms either a halving or a full-crediting rule at Level A. Same gap covers the "Duldung / rejected Aufenthaltsgestattung does not count" claim for asylum_seeker (RS-009). Needs a VAH-StAG (BMI Anwendungshinweise zum StAG) fetch, or the two cases themselves, before either becomes a user-facing claim.
4. Third-country visa-free travel (3.25): deliberately left unquantified; any specific country count or passport-index ranking would be a volatile, unsourced claim.
5. **§ 10 Abs. 1 Nr. 2's "unbefristetes Aufenthaltsrecht" and EU citizens (eu_citizen, RS-001):** plausibly covers the permanent right of residence arising automatically under § 4a FreizügG/EU after 5 years, letting EU nationals qualify under Nr. 2 without ever holding an AufenthG title — § 4a FreizügG/EU itself was not fetched.
6. § 8 residence minimum (3.14): the statute text sets no explicit years requirement for the discretionary route beyond "rechtmäßig seinen gewöhnlichen Aufenthalt"; administrative practice may apply an unwritten floor — unconfirmed. § 10 Abs. 4a's hardship exception to the language test was likewise not independently re-fetched and is not asserted as fact.
7. Untätigkeitsklage in StAG practice (P9, PR2): § 75 VwGO's general 3-month rule is Level A; whether Einbürgerungsbehörden treat StAG applications any differently in practice given the backlog is unconfirmed.
8. STRUGGLE_MAP.md Phase 6 staleness: its "5 years standard / 3 accelerated" framing predates the 30 October 2025 repeal (flagged only; that file was not edited here).
9. Register write-back: SRC-295 through SRC-310 (minus reused SRC-277, SRC-279) are proposed rows only — appending them to sources/source-register.csv is scripts/build-registers.py's job at the next source-review pass, per this directory's own rules.

10. Change log