Birth, Marriage & Other Records

In Germany, records such as birth and marriage certificates are generally stored at a local level and have not been digitised nor duplicated at the national level. In some cases, private collectors own the town records. This means that the effort needed to locate and obtain birth certificates, marriage certificates and copies of other records is far greater than in English speaking countries like the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada or Australia.

In addition, the birth of an ancestor in Germany is not of itself proof he had German citizenship, so other evidence is often required. Furthermore, Germany has strict data protection laws and access to personal records has to be authorised by surviving descendants.

There are a number of other ways a person would be able to obtain German citizenship:

• Through marriage by a foreign woman to a German man, if the marriage occurred between 1914 and March 1953
• Since 1977, through the adoption of a child by a German citizen
• Through the legitimisation of a child, until 30. June 1998
• Through the naturalisation on German soil
• Through the restoration of citizenship, be it of discretionary nature or by claim
• Working for the German government from 1871 to 31 August 1953

PASSPORTIA NO LONGER PROVIDES SERVICES FOR GERMAN CITIZENSHIP

The German government processing times for citizenship applications outside of Germany have increased to over two years, therefore we feel unable to provide new clients with the service that we would want to. So, for the time being, we are not providing services to German Citizenship aside from our existing clients.

We are monitoring the situation and may resume services should things change. We hope that the information above was useful. If so, please let us know on one of our social media platforms, such as our Facebook page.