The certificate of German citizenship

Certificate of citizenship
The certificate of citizenship is the only document that proves you are German. A passport is issued on the strength of it and does not replace it.

The Staatsangehörigkeitsausweis settles a question that a passport only assumes. People apply for it when a claim runs through several generations, when a name or a record does not line up, or when a German authority asks for proof rather than a travel document.

Who decides it

Applications are filed through the German mission for your state, which checks the file and forwards it. The decision is taken by the Federal Office of Administration in Cologne.

That is why the consulate cannot tell you how long it will take. The queue is in Germany and it is long for complicated descent cases.

A straightforward case with complete documents moves faster than a case with a gap in the 1930s, and no amount of following up changes that.

Which document proves what

What it is for

Some German procedures accept a passport as evidence. Others, including many pension, inheritance and property matters, want the certificate.

For families establishing a claim through descent, the certificate is what makes the next generation's applications straightforward instead of starting from scratch each time.

It does not expire. Once issued, it stands.

The evidence problem

You are proving an unbroken chain, so every link needs a document: birth, marriage and where relevant death records for each generation.

Gaps are the reason these files take years. Records lost in the war, name changes at Ellis Island and municipal boundaries that moved all show up here.

Start by ordering the German certificates, because those are the slowest to arrive and everything else waits on them.

Which document proves what

Document What it establishes
Certificate of citizenship That you are German. This is the proof
German passport Identity and the right to travel
German ID card Identity within the EU
German birth certificate The facts of the birth, not citizenship
Registration of birth abroad That a German record of the birth exists

Which case applies to you

I already have a German passport
Then citizenship was accepted at some point. You may still want the certificate if a German authority has asked for proof, or if you are building a file for your children.
My case runs through four generations
Expect it to take a long time and to need every certificate in the chain. Order the German records first, because they set the pace.
The Federal Office has not answered in a year
That is not unusual for descent cases. The consulate forwarded the file and has no influence over the queue in Cologne.
I need it to claim an inheritance in Germany
This is one of the common reasons, and it is the document the German authorities will ask for rather than a passport.
 The queue is in Cologne, not at your consulate. Complete documents at the start are the only thing that shortens it. 
What to have ready
  • Certificates for every generation in the chain, in the original
  • Proof of the ancestor’s German citizenship, and of when they left
  • Naturalization records for anyone who took another citizenship
  • Your own identity documents
  • Certified translations of anything not in German
All procedures
Fees and requirements
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