Beibehaltungsgenehmigung - US/German Dual Citizenship

[bswt2 19]

I just sent out my application today to the German Consulate and wanted to see if anyone has any recent experience with that.

 

Thanks.

[Wurstbrot_Royal 29]

I do. It took about 1.5 years for them to approve my application. It was just pure waiting, nothing you could do after submitting the application. 

[Stressed Out 81]

My husband decided to forgo out altogether. A friend nearby got hers approved in half a year, when they had record low cases, but now it's a record high we've heard with a waiting period up to 2 years.

[AlenaNick 100]

hey yall.

I am about to attempt to attain my beibehaltungsgenehmigung. How are your cases going?

any tips or examples I can follow?

 

thank you

[bswt2 19]

16 hours ago, AlenaNick said:

hey yall.

I am about to attempt to attain my beibehaltungsgenehmigung. How are your cases going?

any tips or examples I can follow?

 

thank you

Mine went well, it was approved in July and I have the certificate in-hand and my N400 interview in 3 weeks.

 

The most difficult part is to document the reason for becoming a U.S. citizen, what reason are you giving? In my case I was in the U.S. for almost 25 years already and if you can document that it has been 20+ years they exempt you from that question.

[AlenaNick 100]

32 minutes ago, bswt2 said:

Mine went well, it was approved in July and I have the certificate in-hand and my N400 interview in 3 weeks.

 

The most difficult part is to document the reason for becoming a U.S. citizen, what reason are you giving? In my case I was in the U.S. for almost 25 years already and if you can document that it has been 20+ years they exempt you from that question.

I dont really know yet. We own a house, have a child which has some negative consequences as a non citizen like voting and in case f

of my husband dying or divorce but nothing super strong.

i have been eyeing a career change at border control which you need citizenship for but unsure if that counts as it would involve a career change

[bswt2 19]

Death or divorce do not affect your green card as you can still process your i751 in those cases. Voting or a potential change in career is not a valid reason either.

 

Proofing your ties to germany is easy, having family members living there and potential inheritance (if parents own a property for example) is usually enough to meet those requirements.

Giving a reason why you need to apply for U.S. citizenship comes down to you explaining why a Green Card is not enough which is why most people do not qualify. You have to have a compelling reason or be in of the two exempt categories (retirement age and 10 years in the country or 20 years in the country regardless of age).

 

That being said, even though I had the exemption I used an attorney for this as you have to explain your reasons in writing and I wanted to make sure I don’t have any issues just because I expressed myself poorly. So you could look for an attorney that specializes in this (I found several of them using google) and they can maybe phrase your reasons in a much more compelling way.

 

Also, it took me about 13 months to get the certificate, do not apply for citizenship until you have it in-hand as I got my interview notice within 2-3 weeks of filing.

 

 

[Chancy 6,241]

*** Moved from US Citizenship General Discussion to the regional sub-forum, where similar topics about BBG are discussed ***

 

[Letspaintcookies 2,310]

21 hours ago, bswt2 said:

Death or divorce do not affect your green card as you can still process your i751 in those cases. Voting or a potential change in career is not a valid reason either.

 

Proofing your ties to germany is easy, having family members living there and potential inheritance (if parents own a property for example) is usually enough to meet those requirements.

Giving a reason why you need to apply for U.S. citizenship comes down to you explaining why a Green Card is not enough which is why most people do not qualify. You have to have a compelling reason or be in of the two exempt categories (retirement age and 10 years in the country or 20 years in the country regardless of age).

 

That being said, even though I had the exemption I used an attorney for this as you have to explain your reasons in writing and I wanted to make sure I don’t have any issues just because I expressed myself poorly. So you could look for an attorney that specializes in this (I found several of them using google) and they can maybe phrase your reasons in a much more compelling way.

 

Also, it took me about 13 months to get the certificate, do not apply for citizenship until you have it in-hand as I got my interview notice within 2-3 weeks of filing.

 

 

Voting and career changes are very valid reasons and used often.

[cocoVA 60]

Hello 

 

this thread is a little bit older but I thought I'll ask anyways...

 

There is one thing I don't quite understand. The "Beibehaltungsgenehmigung" is valid for 2 years. In those two years I should receive best case US Citizenship. But I don't quite understand why it's 2 years? I thought once I get the "Beibehaltungsurkunde" I'm good to go and just keep my german citizenship anyways? I hope this makes sense what I'm asking

[bswt2 19]

8 hours ago, cocoVA said:

Hello 

 

this thread is a little bit older but I thought I'll ask anyways...

 

There is one thing I don't quite understand. The "Beibehaltungsgenehmigung" is valid for 2 years. In those two years I should receive best case US Citizenship. But I don't quite understand why it's 2 years? I thought once I get the "Beibehaltungsurkunde" I'm good to go and just keep my german citizenship anyways? I hope this makes sense what I'm asking

I think the “Beibehaltungsgenehmigung” is approved for.the specific circumstances you are applying for, they are basically assuming you are going to apply immediately after receiving the document, which is why they give you 2 years, The document is actually specific to the nationality you are applying for and not any other. I applied for naturalization the day I picked up the document and was naturalized about 90 days later.

 

The part I found most annoying is that they keep no record of it, so every time I have to renew my German passport I have to show them the “Beibehaltungsgenehmigung”, at least that’s what they told me at the consulate.

[cocoVA 60]

On 6/30/2023 at 8:38 PM, bswt2 said:

I think the “Beibehaltungsgenehmigung” is approved for.the specific circumstances you are applying for, they are basically assuming you are going to apply immediately after receiving the document, which is why they give you 2 years, The document is actually specific to the nationality you are applying for and not any other. I applied for naturalization the day I picked up the document and was naturalized about 90 days later.

 

The part I found most annoying is that they keep no record of it, so every time I have to renew my German passport I have to show them the “Beibehaltungsgenehmigung”, at least that’s what they told me at the consulate.

 

 

ohhhh now I understand, thank you. I was thinking I need to do it every 2 years. lol

[Letspaintcookies 2,310]

11 hours ago, cocoVA said:

 

 

ohhhh now I understand, thank you. I was thinking I need to do it every 2 years. lol

Germany is working on changing the law so that you won't need that stupid thing anymore. It's expected to pass in fall so don't waste your money on applying now.

[bswt2 19]

16 hours ago, Letspaintcookies said:

Germany is working on changing the law so that you won't need that stupid thing anymore. It's expected to pass in fall so don't waste your money on applying now.

I only had to pay when I picked up the certificate. While I think the likelihood of the change in law passing is pretty high you don't have much to loose if you apply now.

[Inita 44]

I have read the info under the bmi link but are you sure dual citizenship for germans living abroad will benefit from it? Rather sounds like it's only getting easy for foreigners living in Germany 🤔?

 

https://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/pressemitteilungen/DE/2023/05/staatsangehoerigkeitsrecht.html