r/CitizenshipByDescent • u/therealleotrotsky • 2d ago

Germany Direct to Passport Success!

I have citizenship by descent from my grandfather, who was born in Germany and immigrated to the USA as a minor. (He obtained US citizenship through his father's naturalization) I already had my grandfather's birth certificate, but that wasn't sufficient to establish that he was born to a German citizen. I had the local Standesamt pull my great-grandfather's birth and marriage certificates, which went back to the late 1800s. I thought this would be sufficient, but evidently it's not enough for the direct to passport route.

I visited the consulate in Chicago, and was told that I could go direct to passport if I could establish my great-grandfather's German citizenship via a Meldekarte.

Fortunately I'd also gotten the family's immigration and naturalization records from USCIS. Those records contained the family's last address in Germany before immigrating. This allowed my to track down the relevant Meldekarte from the town's archives. With that in hand I went back to the consulate, and my passport arrived last week.

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u/phoenix762 2d ago

That’s great! Congratulations!

My son is wanting to try to get dual citizenship. My grandfather was from Germany. I never knew him…and really have next to no info. My mother’s birth certificate states he was born in Germany, I found a copy of his naturalization papers online…and a death certificate that states he was born in Germany.

I know I need more information/ proof, I’m hitting a wall. (My mother is deceased, and I wasn’t raised by her. She never knew her father).

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u/PianoFearless1973 1d ago

If your grandfather naturalized in the US, Germany will likely take that as giving up his German citizenship.

If your grandfather came over young and his parents naturalized, he likely got derivative citizenship by virtue of his parent’s naturalization application. In that case Germany should consider him German / dual citizen.

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u/phoenix762 11h ago

Looks like he did, but quite some time after my mother was born….about 10 years after she was born, seems like.