Nearly 6,000 naturalisation applications have been submitted in Hamburg, Germany, since the country’s new naturalisation law became effective on June 27, a spokesman for the Office for Migration has said.
According to a report from Welt, this is double the number of naturalisation applications submitted during the same period last year, Schengen.News reports.
Apart from the implementation of the new naturalisation law, the number of naturalisation applications and naturalisations themselves has been increasing yearly.
In Hamburg, there were 6,268 applications registered in 2020, while by mid-September this year, there were about 13,658 applications.
According to the Office for Migration, the number of naturalisations increased from 4,500 to a total of 7,537 for a period between 2020 and 2023, and by mid-September this year, it reached 6,281.
Nationals of the following countries accounted for the main countries of origin:
- Syria
- Afghanistan
- Iran
- Türkiye
In a bid to deal with the increasing number of applications for naturalisation, the Office for Migration deployed additional staff, according to the spokesperson. In addition, applicants in Hamburg can now submit their naturalisation application online along with all other documents online.
Due to the extensive digitalisation of the naturalisation process, ideally only one trip to the office is required – namely to personally hand over the naturalisation certificate.
New Law Facilitates Acquisition of German Citizenship
In a bid to ease the acquisition of German citizenship, authorities in Germany implemented a new citizenship law earlier this year.
The Act to Modernise Nationality Law became effective on June 27, 2024, which, among others, also allows Germans to apply for foreign nationality without being required to renounce their German nationality and reduces the residency period requirement to five years.
Anyone who shares our values and makes an effort can now get a German passport more quickly and no longer has to give up part of their identity by giving up their old nationality. But we have also made it just as clear: anyone who does not share our values cannot get a German passport.
Record High Number of Naturalisations Since 2000
The statistics from Germany’s government revealed that last year, a total of 200,100 people were naturalised. These figures marked a new record in terms of the number of naturalisations within a single year since 2023.
Such numbers were provided in May, ahead of the new Citizenship Law introduced.
The majority of those naturalised last year in Germany were nationals of Syria, Iraq, Romania, and Afghanistan.