Pakistani/German Dual Citizenship Problem for K1 Visa

[Denglish 58]

Hello All,

 

Just getting started in our VJ (planning in filing later this month) but suddenly a wrench has been thrown in the mix. I'll try to make this short:

 

My fiancé is born and raised in Berlin Germany, German citizen but both of his parents are from Pakistan and got him Pakistani citizenship when he was a child. He's only been there once when he was a baby and doesn't even have a Pakistani passport.

 

He's supposed to visit me in a couple weeks and requested ESTA visit online and got it. One of the questions asked if he ever had a passport from another country. Because he didn't have the Pakistani passport for many years, he went to the embassy to find out what the passport number for it was so he could put it on the application. I guess this flagged something because about a month later the German version of ICE came banging on his door in the early morning and took him into custody. 

 

He's in trouble because you cannot have both Pakistani and German citizenship (there are many countries that Germany does allow to have dual citizenship but Pakistan is not one of them). Apparently, when he was 23 he should have chosen which citizenship he wanted (I believe that's the current law, I know it changed relatively recently).

 

Anyway, all will be resolved but he was in custody for 4 days. Now I'm freaking out that this will cause a problem with his visa. I don't think it will cause a problem with his visit (I hope not) but I'm worried that his visa could be denied. It's not a crime of moral turpitude but seems like a big deal especially since they kept him for a few days. 

 

I guess it's kind of a blessing in disguise. Better that we found out about this dual citizenship issue now rather than when his case got forwarded to Frankfurt and it got denied then. 

 

Just wondering if anyone (especially in Germany) had a similar situation. Curious as to wether this will affect the visa process. 

 

Thanks!

 

Edited June 3, 2017 by Denglish

[Special_K 90]

What did they say when they let him go? Did he have to renounce his pakistani citizenship? If yes, he should get a document that states it and get it translated. I don't think he will necessarily get denied for the K1 over it as long as he has documentation and can explain it. Did they tell him if this will cause an entry in his police certificate? 

[Denglish 58]

Special K, sorry to post and run - it got quite busy around here.  He ended up having to pay a hefty fee and he has a certain amount of time to renounce his Pakistani citizenship.  They did say that nothing goes on his police record for this, which is great. Still quite a scare and I'll still be holding my breath until he gets his visa...