In 2025, 309,852 people obtained German passports, exceeding 291,955 naturalizations in 2024. The increase followed changes made in mid-2024 that allowed dual passports and reduced the required residence time to five years from eight. Statistics were compiled from 14 of Germany’s 16 federal states, with missing data from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Saxony-Anhalt, and incomplete reporting from Lower Saxony, Saarland, and Schleswig-Holstein. Some figures were based on preliminary data. Several municipalities reported declining naturalization numbers, while others expected a rise in 2027 as many Ukrainians reach the five-year residency requirement. Collective protection for Ukrainians is set to expire in March 2027, and many may use the reduced requirement to secure legal status.
"At least 309,852 people obtained a German passport in 2025, beating the 291,955 naturalizations the previous year, the weekly Welt am Sonntag has reported. Germany has seen a rise in the number of people seeking German citizenship since it made it possible in mid-2024 for people to have two different passports and reduced the required time of residence to five from eight years."
"The statistics come from 14 of Germany's 16 federal states, with data still lacking from the eastern states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Saxony-Anhalt, according to Welt am Sonntag. The western states of Lower Saxony, Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein had also not provided complete data, it said, although almost all cities and districts in these states had done so. In some cases, the numbers are based on preliminary data, the paper said."
"Several municipalities reported that naturalization numbers were currently going down, but some said they were preparing for a new rise next year when the many Ukrainians who fled to Germany amid the war in their country reach the required residency duration. A spokesman for the northern Aurich region told the paper that as the first big wave of Ukrainian refugees came in early 2022, many will have been in the country for five years by spring 2027."
"As the collective protection status for Ukrainian refugees expires in March 2027, he said, "many will probably use the reduced five-year requirement to gain citizenship" so that their legal status is secured. He said that Ukrainian refugees, in contrast with the many asylum seekers, mostly refugees from the Syrian civil war, who came to Germany in 2015/2016, had profited "from considerable structural advantages.""
#german-citizenship #naturalization-statistics #dual-citizenship-policy #ukrainian-refugees #federal-states-data
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